MUMBAI: The 37th Toronto International Film Festival that began today has dedicated an entire section to films from Mumbai. This would include the gala premiere of Sridevi‘s comeback film English Vinglish.
With the spotlight on Indian cinema this year, the North-American cinema event, which has gained importance over the years for its ability to create Oscar-buzz, is offering a rich bouquet of 15 films from India in which two of its biggest attractions are Deepa Mehta‘s Midnight‘s Children and Mira Nair‘s Reluctant Fundamentalist.
English Vinglish which marks Sridevi‘s return to films after a gap of 15 years, has been directed by debutante Gauri Shinde, wife of R Balki who had earlier directed Cheeni Kum and Paa. A funny and touching story about an Indian woman‘s struggle to learn English in America, the film will be screened on 14 September.
Midnight‘s Children, an adaptation of Salman Rushdie‘s Booker award-winning novel of the same name, boasts of a huge Indian star cast. The fantasy film tells the strange story of midnight children. Born on the cusp of India‘s independence from Britain, these children are endowed with strange, magical abilities.
Reluctant Fundamentalist, on the other hand, tells the story of a young Pakistani‘s disillusionment with the great American dream in the post 9/11 era. The film, partly shot in India, stars Shabana Azmi and Om Puri apart from its international star cast.
National-award-winning filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli‘s The Tortoise, An Incarnation will be screened in the ‘Contemporary World Cinema’ section of the festival.