Every year, the week-long MAMI Film Festival showcases a variety of films from across the globe. As it commences its 18th season, here are some amazing Indian films that you most definitely shouldn’t miss this year.
#1. Autohead
The mockumentary follows an autorickshaw driver who kills people to “clean society”. His paranoia, sexual frustration, and notoriety come to the fore as the documentary is filmed.
A documentary crew follows a notorious auto rickshaw driver. As they dig deeper in his life they discover angst, sexual frustration and paranoia. It also depicts the voyeurism of the crew. All of this leads to a terrible end.
#2. Lipstick Under My Burkha
The movie is about four women from a small town who seek freedom from their cramped living situations.
Enter a world of secret fantasies and hidden desire: Watch the international trailer of LIPSTICK UNDER MY BURKHA, starring Konkona Sensharma, Ratna Pathak Shah, Aahana Kumra and Plabita Borthakur.
#3. You Are My Sunday
Five friends enjoy a Sunday ritual of playing football at Juhu beach. Their ritual is thwarted when an old man joins them and accidentally kicks the ball in the face of a socialite-politician who is in the middle of a press conference.
YOU ARE MY SUNDAY by Milind Dhaimade (India 2016; Romantic Comedy)
The film takes the audience to explore the city of Mumbai and its diversity, through the eyes of five friends.
#4. Pinky Beauty Parlour
The movie tackles the nation’s deep-seated obsession with fair skin by depicting a murder mystery involving two sisters who run a beauty parlour in Varanasi.
The Film depicts the predominant social stigma which has taken deep roots in the form of an obsession with fair skin, especially with regards to women in India. Pinky Beauty Parlour is an engaging, entertaining, and a poignant tale of the repercussions this obsession for fairer skin has on a human mind, families and society in general. It is a touching journey of two sisters lives, Pinky and Bulbul, who run a beauty parlor in the by-lanes of Banaras, the holiest of cities in India. The story starts one morning as a dead body is found hanging in the beauty parlor. Police Inspector Jata Shankar and the somewhat slow Constable Sami Akhtar, starts the investigation in their own quirky ways..
As the film progresses we peak into Pinky and Bulbul’s life and come across a retinue of interesting, unique characters, anyone of whom could have been responsible for this shocking death. From the simple-minded, dimwit, handyman, Dulaal to the horny and lecherous helper, Khanna to a mysterious and enigmatic, paralyzed from the waist down, landlord Saahab Singh, to Sumit, a narrow-minded, insecure boyfriend of Rupa, the spunky girl working at the beauty parlor.. The list also includes a rich, unsatisfied, uncouth, angry client of the parlor, Mrs. Lata Srivastav, who has filed a court case against the parlor for false promises of transforming her into a beautiful woman. And under the circumstances even one’s own sister is not off the list.
As the cops’ investigation progresses, we enter a unique colorful world of the beauty parlor, and are drawn into a complex, engaging and entertaining story of inter-mingled loyalties, insecurities and complexes that, eventually leads to a finale, which is poignant, tragic and heartbreaking. At the same time ‘Pinky Beauty Parlour’ has a timely message for the audience to take home and chew on.
#5. Maroon
The movie is about a professor in a Dehradun university who is abandoned by his wife. His efforts to cope with the loss render him delusional.
#6. Rajwade and Sons
The Marathi film revolves around a joint family who’ve lived under the same roof for half a century. But the youngest generation wants to live independently and not conform to the “traditional Maharashtrian” norms.
#7. Cecilia
A tribal woman who works in New Delhi finds out about the death of her 14-year-old daughter who was trafficked. As she navigates the nexus of cops, traffickers, judges, lawyers, villagers and family members, she battles corruption to get justice.
Cecilia hails from India’s neglected tribal belt and works as a housekeeper in New Delhi. When her 14 year old daughter is trafficked and found dead in a house in Delhi, she decides to fight for justice with the help of her employers Pankaj and Sunaina. However in a country where thousands of tribal children get trafficked every year to cities and many are never found, the road to justice seems long and slow. As Cecilia and her employers battle corruption at all levels, they soon find themselves navigating a complex network of cops, traffickers, judges, lawyers, villagers and family members.
#8. Loev
The film is about two friends reconnecting over a weekend getaway and realising their love for each other. It explores themes of sexuality, love and conflict.
A story about love, no matter how you spell it. Watch the international trailer of LOEV, starring Shiv Pandit, Dhruv Ganesh and Siddharth Menon.
