Regional Film Festival 2021

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While Bollywood dominates the discourse on Indian Cinema, there is also a genre of “good, middle road cinema” emerging in Indian language films – films that are efficiently made and are frequently favourites in festival circuits. Regional cinema continues to flourish, catering to its own audiences, occasionally being screened outside. Due to the commercial interests of distribution, these innovative, cinematic and rooted films hardly get to be seen outside their language regions. The films in this selection are those that are heard about, but not easy to access. They introduce filmmakers working in regional languages who also have a need to meet audiences from newer constituencies, to build the profile of an “Indian Cinema”.
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Sthalpuran - Chronicle of Space
(Directed by Akshay Indikar, India, 86 mins., 2020, Marathi)

© Jagdish Ravi First the raging sea, then the pouring rain, and finally the burbling river: water is one of few constants in eight-year-old Dighu’s life. He is finding it hard to adjust to life in his grandparents’ village in Konkan, a rural region on the Indian coast. Along with his mother and older sister, he recently moved here from the city. Above all he misses his father, who has disappeared seemingly without a trace. Dighu‘s sister does not know what happened to him either, and has given up asking the grown-ups about it. It is only in his diary and through his imagination that Dighu finds solace from loneliness and grief. Slow-paced and full of wistful beauty, Akshay Indikar’s film tells a tender tale of coping with change and loss.

Ghawre Bairey Aaj
(Directed by Aparna Sen, India, 146 mins., 2019, Bengali)

© SVF Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Ghawre Bairey Aaj (The Home and The World Today) is inspired by Rabindranath Tagore's novel Ghawre Bairey (Home and the World), and is a contemporary retelling of the triangular love story involving Tagore's characters Nikhilesh, Sandip and Bimala. It is a tale of triangular love fraught with turbulent passion as much as it is an exploration of the way contemporary politics in the outside world affects human relationships inside the home. It is as much a story of passionate romance as it is of clashing ideologies in the present times, and the way these clashes affect love and friendship.




Run Kalyani
(Directed by Geetha J, India, 100 mins., 2019, Malayalam)

© Akam Puram The mesmerizing Malayalam film Run Kalyani is a poetic and realist drama about duties, dreams and desire. Geetha J's debut film draws you into the world of Kalyani. Kalyani is a young cook who lives with her ailing aunt in a rundown agraharam in Trivandrum. Each day is the same as she carries on with her life of duty as a cook and carer. But each day is not the same too. As the romance of poetry ignites a passion, as the stories of other worlds stirs a desire, as sharks close in and death draws near, Run Kalyani builds into an intense crescendo of grief and grit, sorrow and strength.


Kosa
(Directed by Mohit Priyadarshi, India, 85 mins., 2020, Hindi)

© Whispering Walls Kosa is a young boy who lives with his family in the forest heartlands of India. One day, he is picked up by the police. The charge? Kosa’s name is similar to that of a Maoist commander. Will the farcical trial that follows prove his innocence or confirm he’s a criminal?








Pinki Elli/ Where is Pinki?
(Directed by Prithvi Konan, India, 107 mins., 2020, Kannada)

© Picture Tree International Bindu and Girish are seemingly typical middle class working couple in an urban setup in India with an eight-month old baby girl, Pinki. One day when Bindu returns home very early from office, she discovers to her horror that Pinki is not home and neither is the maid Sannamma who is supposed to be taking care of Pinki. Thus begins a frantic day of search that takes her to strange places, people, social realities, forcing her to confront her past, present and the future.






Nasir
(Directed by Arun Karthick, India, 78 mins., 2020, Tamil)

© Arun Karthick Nasir, the eponymous protagonist, is a quietly humorous romantic. He straggles through life to make ends meet with his job as a salesman so he can take care of an ailing mother and adopted son. Nasir’s day is as ordinary as any other – he takes a bath, speaks to his son, pens a love letter to his wife and goes about various chores that his job as a salesman demands. As the clock ticks, Nasir interacts with different spaces, people and thoughts, before his day takes a turn for the worse as communal bigotry rears its ugly head.






Lord of the Orphans
(Directed by Ranjan Palit, India, 150 mins., 2020, Bengali, English)

© Ranjan Palit Lord of the Orphans is the story of the Palit family reeling under a hundred year old curse. It is a unique biopic where filmmaker Ranjan Palit turns the lens on himself and his family.








About the curator: 
© Bina Paul Bina Paul graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) with a specialisation in editing. She has edited over 40 feature films and has worked with illustrious directors like G Aravindan, John Abraham and P N Menon. She is a recipient of two National Awards and numerous State Awards for editing. She has been the Artistic Director of the International Film Festival of Kerala for seventeen years and has been instrumental in shaping it into an important international event. She has served on the juries of various international film festivals including those held in Locarno, Durban, Morocco and Berlin. Bina is a regular faculty at the FTII and CDIT (Science & Development Documentary Course). She is currently the Vice Chairperson of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy and Vice President NETPAC.