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A festival of South Asian films to set “tongues on fire”

— PHOTO: AP

FOR A CAUSE: Mamatha Bhukya, a tribal girl from Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh, who acted in Vanaja, a film that explores issues of caste, class and power.

LONDON: “Tongues on Fire”, a festival of South Asian films on difficult women’s issues — domestic violence, lesbianism, the effect of religious intolerance on women — began here on Saturday marking the tenth anniversary of the modest parallel cinema movement among Britain’s expatriate Indian community.

The two-week long festival , comprising more than a dozen films and a series of other cinema-related events spread over a number of venues across London, is aimed at raising awareness about issues that the Indian community often tends to brush under the carpet.

Hence the title: tongues on fire.

“The idea is get them to talk about difficult issues — issues which set tongues on fire,” the Festival Director Pushpinder Chowdhry told The Hindu.

Dr. Chowdhry, who is a psychotherapist by profession, has been running the festival since 1999 with the help of a group of like-minded friends. The festival was conceived with the view to making women “visible” in the British media and the arts.

Some of the most celebrated South Asian women film-makers and actors such as Mira Nair and Shabana Azmi have been associated with it. The current festival too boasts of some big names including Ms. Nair, Tanuja Chandra and Meera Syal.

“It has been an excellent experience celebrating Asians in films for the last ten years,” Dr. Chowdhry said adding: “Tongues on Fire has helped to mediate a variety of positive images and representations of Asians, creating a sense of self-esteem and confidence in cultural amalgamation.”

The highlights of this year’s festival include Tanuja Chandra’s “Hope and Little Sugar”, about the effect of intolerance on the relationship between a Muslim photographer and a young Sikh widow. The film, featuring Mahima Chaudhry and Anupam Kher, is set in New York in the weeks before and after 9/11.

Another bold film is Rituparna Ghosh’s “Dosar” which explores issues around love and betrayal through the eyes of a young middle class Kolkatta housewife. Then there is Bhavna Talwar’s “Dharm”, about religious intolerance and featuring Pankaj Kapur in the lead; Shoaib Mansoor’s widely acclaimed “Khuda ke Liye: In the name of God”, a searing critique of Muslim fundamentalism; and Rajnesh Domalpalli’s “Vanaja”, an exploration of caste, class and power in a south Indian village.

The funds raised through the festival will go to support charitable causes.

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