New York Indian Film Festival Highlights Include Shyam Benegal and James Ivory Tributes: What to See

The 25th day version of nan New York Indian Film Festival — 1 of nan nation’s starring showcases of independent Indian cinema — unspools astatine New York’s Angelika done Sunday, June 22.

Officially opening Friday, June 20 pinch Raam Reddy’s 2024 Berlinale action “The Fable,” nan show includes Anurag Kashyap’s aggravated Hindi-language thriller “Kennedy” arsenic nan Centerpiece connected June 21. Kashyap will besides big a maestro people connected nan challenges facing Bollywood and nan early of independent cinema successful India.

There’s besides a tribute to late, awesome Indian filmmaker Shyam Benegal, pinch a 4K restoration of his 1976 landmark “Manthan,” astir India’s White Revolution and revived by nan Film Heritage Foundation.

As portion of a programme of films honoring maestro storytellers, nan New York Indian Film Festival will besides surface Dev Benegal’s 2024 short for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “An Arrested Moment.” The movie explores Oscar-winning head James Ivory’s fascination pinch Indian creation and culture. Ivory established Merchant-Ivory pinch his imaginative and individual partner Ismail Merchant, nan Indian movie shaper who died successful 2005. Early indie films made retired of India from nan director/producer brace see “The Householder,” “Shakespeare Wallah,” and “Bombay Talkie” earlier they transitioned famously to adapting classic, canonical English-language novels.

“An Arrested Moment” plays June 22 pinch Taira Malaney’s documentary “Turtle Walker,” which explores nan organization of enigmatic oversea turtles surviving on nan coasts of nan Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

This year’s New York Indian Film Festival really kicked disconnected connected Thursday, June 19 pinch nan North American premiere of “Tanvi nan Great,” which marks Anupam Kher’s first directing effort successful 2 decades; nan governmental and individual epic, astir a young female confronting her father’s subject legacy, premiered astatine nan Cannes Market earlier this year. Kher has worked arsenic a lauded character connected Indian productions since nan early 1980s, champion known for his onscreen performances and acting schoolhouse (he antecedently directed 2002’s “Om Jai Jagadish”). Robert De Niro amazed Kher pinch an quality astatine nan Angelika screening.

Kaushal Oza’s directorial debut, nan coming-of-age movie “Little Thomas,” closes nan festival, and it follows an only kid successful 1990s Goa trying to thief his parents springiness him a babe brother.

Other highlights see Aditya Kriplani’s fiction-and-reality-blurring fame critique “I’m Not an Actor” pinch “Sacred Games” prima Nawazuddin Siddiqui; an LGBTQ double characteristic for Pride Month” pinch nan cheery romance “Riptide” followed by nan short “IYKYK”; Nikhil Mahajan’s ambiance alteration communicative “The Tiger,” astir nan struggle betwixt quality and tigers successful a distant village; and overmuch more.

See nan afloat schedule and bargain tickets via New York Indian Film Festival’s charismatic website here.