London Indian Film Festival Programme 2019

Marking its 10th anniversary, the riveting Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival (LIFF) will take place from June 20 to June 29, 2019, in five cities and towns across the UK.

Besides, London, Birmingham and Manchester, the festival will be coming to other towns for the first time.

The Birmingham Indian Film Festival (BIFF) returns for its fifth anniversary, consolidating its presence in UK’s second biggest city.

The UK and Europe’s most prestigious South Asian film festival will once again present a variety of enjoyable, compelling and stimulating independent films.

Speaking about the festival, Executive and Programming Director, Cary Rajinder Sawhney says:

“From the perspective of our 10th Birthday the festival has dynamically opened the UK mainstream media and audiences to Indian and South Asian independent cinema in all its linguistic diversity and that’s something we are extremely proud of.

“Punching above our weight as always, this year is probably our strongest programme ever with exciting world premieres, rarely seen archival masterpieces, and some seriously cutting-edge dramas and documentaries, in 23 venues across 5 UK cities and towns.

“We invite you to immerse yourself into the cinema of a billion lives.”

DESIblitz highlights the London Indian Film Festival and the different strands:

World Premiere Opening Night

The hard-hitting direction of Anubhav Sinha, Article (2019) will have its world premiere at the London Indian Film Festival. Sinha was also the director of the award-winning film Mulk (2018), receiving a trophy for ‘Best Original Story’ at Filmfare 2018.

The investigative drama is about Article 15 and Prohibition of Discrimination in the Indian Constitution with relation to faith, gender, caste or place of birth.

Indian actor Ayushmann Khurrana features in the lead role playing a cop from a diverse background.

His first stationing takes him to rural north India in search of three missing young girls. However, as an honest police officer, he does not see eye to eye with a deeply rooted corrupt system, along with an ancient practice that divides people based on caste.

A distribution of Zee Studio, the film will have its UK and worldwide release on June 28, 2109.

As always, celebrities will be walking the red carpet for the world premiere at Picturehouse Central Post-screening there will be a Q&A.

English Premiere Closing Night

Award-winning filmmaker, Ritesh Batra of The LunchBox (2013) fame returns with Photograph (2019), which will have its English premiere at the wonderful BFI Southbank.

The film features legendary actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, portraying a respectful photographer, Rafi. He takes pictures of Miloni, a young beautiful wealthy woman. But she goes missing without paying for the photographs.

Tricking his grandmother, Rafi not only finds Miloni but also convinces her to be his fiancée.

Sanya Malhotra the star of the Bollywood hit Badhai Ho (2018) plays the role of Miloni. Similar to Opening Night, the closing ceremony of the London Indian Film Festival will have a Q&A post-screening.

Themes

Bengal Tigers

Film lovers have a chance to witness the best talent from the Bengal region. The festival will host the international premiere of the sci-fi film, Ghost of the Golden Groves (2018) and Unsaid (2018), a relationship drama which will have its UK premiere.

The screening of the realist film, The Flight (2018), will also include a Q&A with prominent filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta from Kolkata.

Restoration of the classic Khandhar (1984) will be shown in tribute of director Mrinal Sen. The film stars Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi.

There will be also a unique opportunity to watch The River (1951) at Cine Lumiere, a new venue partner. A direction of Jean Renoir, the colour film is an adaptation to a coming-of-age novel by Rummer Godden.

Young Rebel

This theme, exploring the lives of young people, will consist of comical, action and intriguing films.

Rima Das, an award-winning director, is back at the London Indian Film Festival with her must-watch English premiere of Bulbul Can Sing (2018).

The Lift Boy (2019), a coming-of-age comedy will have audiences bursting in laughter. The premieres of Roobha (2018) and Kattumaram (2018) will focus on how young people struggle to find space for themselves.

A Ladhadki girl fights for her education in the London premiere of Chuskit (2018).

Extra-Ordinary Lives

Films screening under this theme will reflect the stories of real people through fantastic South Asian documentaries and dramas.

Winning the hearts of the audience at Cannes, the organisers will screen the romantic Mumbai drama, Sir (2018).

Exploring the Tamil pop culture of Mumbai, The Man Who Feels No Pain (2018) is an action comedy film, which will have a positive effect on viewers.

At the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, the film won the ‘Midnight Madness Audience Award.’

The Kannada complex mystery thriller Arishadvarga (2019) is set for a world premiere at the festival.

Do not miss the satisfying and emotional documentary, My Home India (2019), which will have an international premiere at LIFF 2019.

Film, Power and Politics

Critically, the rapid political changes across South Asia form the basis of this theme.

The London premiere of Reason by Anand Patwardhan is a powerful documentary about modern India.

The captivating Bangladesh drama Saturday Afternoon (2018) revolving around a real-life terrorist event will have its UK premiere at the festival.

The world premiere screening of Gadhvi (2018) features renowned Indian actor Sanjay Mishra. Widow of Silence (2018) set in Kashmir is another film to contemplate watching.

Special Talks and Guests

Making the headlines with Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and Sacred Games (2018), Director Anurag Kashyap is back at the festival for a screen talk.

Discussing her new comedy-drama, Blinded by the Light (2019) and the ITV historical drama, Beecham House (2019), British director Gurinder Chadha OBE will be in conversation at the London Indian Film Festival.

Featuring in the 2016 LIFF opening night film Parched (2015), Radhika Apte will also participate in a screen talk.

Apte is famous for her successful roles across different mediums. These include the Bollywood comedy film Padman (2018), the Netflix series Ghoul (2018) and black comedy thriller Andhadhun (2018).

Punjabi actor and singer, Gippy Grewal will be in attendance.

His Candian film Ardaas 2 gears up for a world premiere. The social drama will be releasing across cinemas on July 19, 2019.

Playing the protagonist in Kattumaram (2018), Tamil actor Mysskin will attend the festival also.

Here is a full list of the entire programme across the different cities:

London

ARTICLE 15 (Hindi, English with English subtitles) | OPENING NIGHT | WORLD PREMIERE | (15)
Showing: June 20, 18:15, Picture House Central| June 27, 19:00, Cineworld Wembley
Dir. Anubhav Sinha with Ayushmann Khurrana, Sayani Gupta, Isha Talwar, Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra

#GADHVI (Hindi with English subtitles) | WORLD PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: June 21, 18:15, Barbican | June 26, 20:00, Cineworld Wembley
Dir. Gaurav Bakshi with Sanjay Mishra, Rasika Dugal, Akshay Oberoi

VINCI DA (Bengali with English subtitles) | UK PREMIERE | (15)
Showing: June 21, 18:20, Picturehouse Central | June 25, 19:00, Cineworld Wembley
Dir. Srijit Mukherji with Rudranil Ghosh, Ritwick Chakraborty, Sohini Sarkar, Ridhi Sen

SIR (Hindi, English, Marathi with English subtitles) | UK PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: June 21, 20:00, Phoenix East Finchley | June 22, 18:30, Cine Lumiere | June 23, 17:15, BFI Southbank
Dir. Rohena Gera with Tillotama Shome, Vivek Gomber, Geetanjali Kulkarni

THE LIFT BOY (English, Hindi with English subtitles) | (PG)
Showing: June 21, 20:00, Cineworld Wembley | June 22, 18:00, Cineworld Leicester Square | June 28, 20:30, Genesis Cinema
Dir. Jonathan Augustin with Moin Khan, Nyla Masood, Saagar Kale

MARD KO DARD NAHIN HOTA (THE MAN WHO FEELS NO PAIN) (Hindi, English, Marathi, Malayalam with English subtitles) | ENGLISH PREMIERE | (18)
Showing: June 21, 20:30, Cineworld Leicester Square | June 22, 18:00, Cineworld Wembley
Dir. Dipesh Jain with Manoj Bajpayee, Neeraj Kabi, Shahana Goswami, Ranvir Shorey, Om Singh

KATTUMARAM [CATAMARAN (Tamil with English subtitles) | EUROPEAN PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: Jun 21, 20:30, BFI Southbank | June 29, 16:00, Cineworld Leicester Square
Dir. Swarnavel Eswaran with Mysskin, Anusha Prabhu, Preeti Karan

ROOBHA (Hindi with English subtitles) | LONDON PREMIERE | (18)
Showing: June 21, 21:00, Picturehouse Central | June 24, 18:45, SOAS University of London
Dir. Lenin M. Sivam with Jesuthasan Antonythasan, Amrit Sandhu, Thenuka Kantharajah

VIVEK [REASON] (Hindi, Marathi with English subtitles) | LONDON PREMIERE | (15)
Showing: June 22, 13:30, Barbican | June 23, 12:00, Bertha DocHouse
Dir. Anand Patwardhan with Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare

THIS SHAKING KEEPS ME STEADY (Urdu with English subtitles) | UK PREMIERE | (12 A)
Showing: June 22, 16:00, Bertha DocHouse | June 24, 20:00, Stratford Picturehouse
Dir. Shehrezad Maher

MY HOME INDIA (English, Polish with English subtitles) | INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE | (PG) 
Showing: June 22, 18:00, Watermans | June 25, 18:30, London School of Economics| June 28, 18:30, Genesis Cinema
Dir. Anjali Bhushan with Kira Banasinska, Wanda Novicka-Kashikar, Wanda Kuras, Jocelyn de Waller, Zbigniew Buras, Longina Frackiewicz, Krystyna Koziell, Colonel Gaikwad, Madhu Kotak

CHAI WITH CHADHA 
Showing: June 22, 19:00, Picturehouse Central

SHONAJHURIR BHOOT [GHOST OF THE GOLDEN GROVES] (Bengali with English subtitles) | INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE | (15)
Showing: June 22, 20:00, Stratford Picturehouse | June 28, 20:00, Cineworld Leicester Square
Dir. Aniket Dutta, Roshni Sen with Joyraj Bhattacharjee, Soumyajit Majumder, Debleena Sen, Bidyut Das

GURU LOUNGE: MEET THE FILMMAKERS 
Showing: June 23, 12:00, BFI Southbank

CHUSKIT (Ladhaki with English subtitles) | LONDON PREMIERE | (PG)
Showing: June 23, 16:30, Watermans | June 29, 17:00, Cineworld Wembley
Dir. Priya Ramasubban with Jigmet Dewa Lhamo, Morup Namgyal, Yangchen Dolma

UROJAHAJ [THE FLIGHT] (Bengali with English subtitles) | (12A)
Showing: June 23, 15:00, BFI Southbank | June 24, 20:40, Cine Lumiere
Dir. Buddhadeb Dasgupta with Chandan Roy Sanyal, Parno Mittra, Sudipto Chatterjee

WIDOW OF SILENCE (Urdu with English subtitles) | UK PREMIERE | (15)
Showing: June 23, 16:00, Barbican | June 24, 18:30, Cine Lumiere
Dir. Praveen Morchhale with Shilpa Marwaha, Ajay Chourey, Bilal Ahmad

JALSAGHAR [THE MUSIC ROOM (Bengali with English subtitles) | (15)
Showing: June 23, 16:00, Cine Lumiere
Dir. Satyajit Ray with Chhabi Biswas, Sardar Akhtar, Gangapadu Basu

THE RIVER (English, Bengali with English subtitles) | UK PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: June 23, 16:10, Cine Lumiere
Dir. Jean Renoir with Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Radha Burnier, Patricia Walters

GURU LOUNGE: CHAI AND CHAT 
Showing: June 23, 17:00, BFI Southbank

ITI TOMARI DHAKA [SINCERELY YOURS, DHAKA] (Bengali with English subtitles) | EUROPEAN PREMIERE | (15)
Showing: June 23, 18:00, Stratford Picturehouse | June 27, 18:00, Genesis Cinema
Dir. Various

AN EVENING WITH RADHIKA APTE 
Showing: June 23, 18:00, Cineworld Leicester Square

ARISHADVARGA (Kannada with English subtitles) | WORLD PREMIERE | (15)
Showing: June 23, 18:30, Cineworld Wembley | June 26, 20:00, Watermans
Dir. Arvind Kamath with Mahesh Bung, Sudha Belawadi, Avinash

ABYAKTO [UNSAID] (Bengali with English subtitles) | UK PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: June 24, 20:00, Watermans | June 26, 20:00, Cineworld Leicester Square
Dir. Arjun Dutta with Arpita Chatterjee, Adil Hussain, Anubhav Kanjilal

KHANDHAR [RUINS] (Hindi with English subtitles) (12A)
Showing: June 25, 18:00, Cineworld Leicester Square
Dir. Mrinal Sen with Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Annu Kapoor, Pankaj Kapur

BULBUL CAN SING (Assamese, Hindi with English subtitles) | ENGLISH PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: June 25, 18:30, Stratford Picturehouse | June 26, 18:15, BFI Southbank
Dir. Rima Das with Arnali Das, Manoranjan Das, Banita Thakuriya, Pakija Begam.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON (Bengali, English with English subtitles) | UK PREMIERE | (15)
Showing: June 25, 20:30, Barbican | June 27, 20:30, Genesis Cinema
Dir. Mostofa Sarwar Farooki with Parambrata Chatterjee, Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Eyad Hourani

TOO DESI TOO QUEER 
Showing: June 28, 17:39, Westminster University

ARDAAS 2 (Punjabi with English subtitles) | WORLD PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: June 28, 19:00, Cineworld Feltham
Dir. Gippy Grewal with Gippy Grewal, Sargun Mehta, Gurpreet Ghuggi

SCREEN TALK WITH ANURAG KASHYAP 
Showing: June 28, 20:45, BFI Southbank

SATYAJIT RAY SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Showing: June 21, 20:30, Genesis Cinema 

Shortlisted Films:

• NOOREH ~ Dir. Ashish Pandey, 22 mins, Urdu with English subtitles
• ALIEN CULTURE ~ Dir. Iesh Thapar, 16 mins, English
• THESE SILENCE ARE ALL WORDS ~ Dir. Madhia Aijaz, 15 mins, Urdu with English subtitles
• U USHACHA  ~ Dir. Rohan Kanwade, 21 mins, Marathi with English subtitles
• KARK ~ Dir. Pawan K. Nayak, 26 mins, Hindi with English subtitles
• RAMMAT GAMMAT ~ Dir. Ajitpal Singh, 17 mins, Gujarati with English subtitles

PHOTOGRAPH (Hindi, Gujarati, English with English subtitles) | CLOSING NIGHT | ENGLISH PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: June 29, 17:15, BFI Southbank
Dir. Ritesh Batra with Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, Gitanjali Kulkarni, Farrukh Jaffar

Birmingham

ARTICLE 15 (Hindi, English with English subtitles) | OPENING NIGHT | (15)
Showing: June 21, 19:00, Cineworld Broad Street
Dir. Anubhav Sinha with Ayushmann Khurrana, Sayani Gupta, Isha Talwar, Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra

WIDOW OF SILENCE (Urdu with English subtitles) | UK PREMIERE | (15)
Showing: June 22, 18:00, Cineworld Broadstreet
Dir. Praveen Morchhale with Shilpa Marwaha, Ajay Chourey, Bilal Ahmad

UROJAHAJ [THE FLIGHT] (Bengali with English subtitles) | (12A)
Showing: June 23, 16:30, MAC
Dir. Buddhadeb Dasgupta with Chandan Roy Sanyal, Parno Mittra, Sudipto Chatterjee

VIVEK [REASON] (Hindi, Marathi with English subtitles) | (15)
Showing: June 23, 19:00, MAC
Dir. Anand Patwardhan with Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare

ARISHADVARGA (Kannada with English subtitles) | (15)
Showing: June 23, 19:00, Cineworld Broad Street
Dir. Arvind Kamath with Mahesh Bung, Sudha Belawadi, Avinash

SIR (Hindi, English, Marathi with English subtitles) | (12A)
Showing: June 24, 18:30, MAC
Dir. Rohena Gera with Tillotama Shome, Vivek Gomber, Geetanjali Kulkarni

MY HOME INDIA (English, Polish with English subtitles) | (PG) 
Showing: June 25, 18:30
Dir. Anjali Bhushan with Kira Banasinska, Wanda Novicka-Kashikar, Wanda Kuras, Jocelyn de Waller, Zbigniew Buras, Longina Frackiewicz, Krystyna Koziell, Colonel Gaikwad, Madhu Kotak

#GADHVI (Hindi with English subtitles) | (12A)
Showing: June 25, 20:30, MAC
Dir. Gaurav Bakshi with Sanjay Mishra, Rasika Dugal, Akshay Oberoi

SCREEN TALK WITH ANURAG KASHYAP 
Showing: June 26, 19:00

BULBUL CAN SING (Assamese, Hindi with English subtitles) |  (12A)
Showing: June 27, 18:00, MAC
Dir. Rima Das with Arnali Das, Manoranjan Das, Banita Thakuriya, Pakija Begam

SATURDAY AFTERNOON (Bengali, English with English subtitles) | (15)
Showing: June 28, 18:15, MAC
Dir. Mostofa Sarwar Farooki with Parambrata Chatterjee, Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Eyad Hourani

KATTUMARAM [CATAMARAN (Tamil with English subtitles) | (12A)
Showing: Jun 29, 13:30, MAC
Dir. Swarnavel Eswaran with Mysskin, Anusha Prabhu, Preeti Karan

CHUSKIT (Ladhaki with English subtitles) | (PG)
Showing: June 29, 16:00, The Mockingbird 
Dir. Priya Ramasubban with Jigmet Dewa Lhamo, Morup Namgyal, Yangchen Dolma

ARDAAS 2 (Punjabi with English subtitles) | (12A)
Showing: June 29, 19:00, Cineworld Broad Street
Dir. Gippy Grewal with Gippy Grewal, Sargun Mehta, Gurpreet Ghuggi

SATYAJIT RAY SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Showing: June 22, 14:00, The Mockingbird 

Shortlisted Films:

• NOOREH ~ Dir. Ashish Pandey, 22 mins, Urdu with English subtitles
• ALIEN CULTURE ~ Dir. Iesh Thapar, 16 mins, English
• THESE SILENCE ARE ALL WORDS ~ Dir. Madhia Aijaz, 15 mins, Urdu with English subtitles
• U USHACHA  ~ Dir. Rohan Kanwade, 21 mins, Marathi with English subtitles
• KARK ~ Dir. Pawan K. Nayak, 26 mins, Hindi with English subtitles
• RAMMAT GAMMAT ~ Dir. Ajitpal Singh, 17 mins, Gujarati with English subtitles

PHOTOGRAPH (Hindi, Gujarati, English with English subtitles) | CLOSING NIGHT | ENGLISH PREMIERE | (12A)
Showing: July 1, 1900, MAC
Dir. Ritesh Batra with Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, Gitanjali Kulkarni, Farrukh Jaffar

Manchester and Other Towns

WIDOW OF SILENCE (Urdu with English subtitles) | (15)
Showing: June 26, 18:10, Home Cinema
Dir. Praveen Morchhale with Shilpa Marwaha, Ajay Chourey, Bilal Ahmad

SATYAJIT RAY SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Showing: June 28, 18:00, Home Cinema

Shortlisted Films:

• NOOREH ~ Dir. Ashish Pandey, 22 mins, Urdu with English subtitles
• ALIEN CULTURE ~ Dir. Iesh Thapar, 16 mins, English
• THESE SILENCE ARE ALL WORDS ~ Dir. Madhia Aijaz, 15 mins, Urdu with English subtitles
• U USHACHA  ~ Dir. Rohan Kanwade, 21 mins, Marathi with English subtitles
• KARK ~ Dir. Pawan K. Nayak, 26 mins, Hindi with English subtitles
• RAMMAT GAMMAT ~ Dir. Ajitpal Singh, 17 mins, Gujarati with English subtitles

THE LIFT BOY (English, Hindi with English subtitles) | (PG)
Showing: June 29, 15:40, Home Cinema 
Dir. Jonathan Augustin with Moin Khan, Nyla Masood, Saagar Kale

SATURDAY AFTERNOON (Bengali, English with English subtitles) | (15)
Showing: June 29, 18:00, Home Cinema
Dir. Mostofa Sarwar Farooki with Parambrata Chatterjee, Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Eyad Hourani

In 2019, there will be many valuable partners for the festival, with Bagri Foundation being the title sponsor for the fifth consecutive year.

Bagri Foundation trustee, Alka Bagri expresses:

“We are delighted to join LIFF in celebrating its tenth anniversary of showcasing the best in South Asian independent cinema!

“2019 significantly marks five years of our support enabling filmmakers to show the diversity and vibrancy of the subcontinent.”

“We look forward to sharing with you a fantastic programme championing women filmmakers, emerging cinematic voices and Bengal’s unique contribution to cinema.”

London will be showcasing films over ten days (June 20-29, 2019), with Birmingham hosting the festival between June-22-July 1, 2019.

The festival will also be taking place up north in Manchester, Halifax and Stockport during June 2019.

With such an amazing line up of films, Cary and his team have once again proven that the London Indian Film Festival is the largest and most successful South Asian film festival in the UK and Europe.

For further information about the 2019 London Indian Film Festival, including Birmingham and north screenings, please check the LIFF website here.