This year marks a milestone for India at the Cannes Film Festival, with nine films from the country across its various strands.
The majority of the Indian films on the Croisette are by or about women. This includes Payal Kapadia‘s “All We Imagine as Light,” the first Indian film in competition in three decades since Shaji N. Karun’s “Swaham” in 1994. Kapadia won Cannes’ Golden Eye award in 2021 for her documentary “A Night of Knowing Nothing.” Narrative fiction film “All We Imagine as Light” follows two nurses who are roommates in bustling Mumbai. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest.
Kapadia says that Indian films about women and women filmmakers have always been around, citing the examples of Rima Das and Sai Paranjpye, but “now because there is a conscious decision in Cannes to highlight that, it’s dawning upon us,” Kapadia added. “Because of the funding opportunities and cameras being now accessible, there is a bit more freedom as to who can make films, but perhaps that is why it’s happening.”
Directors’ Fortnight selection “Sister Midnight” follows a small-town misfit in a newly arranged marriage in Mumbaiwho attempts to navigate an awkward spouse, nosyneighborsand her own feral impulses.Mother-daughter coming-of-age drama “Girls Will Be Girls,” starring “All We Imagine as Light” lead Kani Kusruti, which won two prizes at Sundance earlier this year, is screening at the Cannes Écrans Juniors sidebar.
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There are two India-set films at the festival’s Un Certain Regard strand, both two-handers revolving around women. In Sandhya Suri’s “Santosh,” newly widowed Santosh inherits her husband’s police constable job in the rural badlands of northern India. When an underage girl is murdered, Santosh is pulled into the investigation by charismatic feminist inspector Sharma.
“I would focus on the fact that they are female voices in terms of the vision and the narrative, and also, that these are auteur films where the directors are also the writers — it’s entirely their creation in that sense, which is quite amazing,” said Shahana Goswami, who plays the titular Santosh. “I do want to get to a point where we don’t have to bother seeing if a director is a woman or a man. But we’re not there yet, which is why we still talk about it. But my hope is really that in the next few years, we get to a point where we don’t need to make that distinction or underline that fact.”
Also bowing in Un Certain Regard is Bulgarian-American filmmaker Konstantin Bojanov’s “The Shameless,” where protagonist Renuka escapes from a Delhi brothel after killing a policeman, seeks refuge in a community of sex workers in a small town in northern India and develops a forbidden romance with Devika, a young girl condemned to a life of prostitution. “Thank you to the women who came before me for paving the way so that I could walk on it. What an amazing time for us,” said Omara, who plays Devika.
What is common to all the Indian or India-themed films at Cannes is that they are from the independent sector, as opposed to the mainstream Bollywood film industry. “It’s fantastic to see so many women getting their due and particularly this year, it’s super exciting with the films that are going,” says Anasuya Sengupta, who plays Renuka. “For me personally, with each of the films, we’re close friends. Payal is a friend. I have friends who are in the crew for ‘Santosh,’ so it feels like a non-Bollywood team, because we we struggle in the indie sphere to even just get a pat on the back. So this is great. And even better that it’s women-led.”
The cherry on the cake is Los Angeles-based org Women in Film announcing at Cannes the formation of new chapter, WIF: India, which will be led by Oscar-winning producer Guneet Monga Kapoor.
