Celebrating Female Empowerment as this years unifying theme, this years festival features span from Bollywood box-office hits to documentaries and art house festival favorites, as well as hosting the third edition of the annual Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards. Special guests will include Bollywood legend Rishi Kapoor, critically acclaimed director Leena Yadav, and Bollywood’s star Radhika Apte.
The theme is explored in a number of critically lauded features and documentaries across six program streams, including the opening and closing night films Parched and Angry Indian Goddesses, as well as a roundtable discussion with critic Rajeev Masand exploring Wild Women in Cinema, and two conversational events: Richa Chadda on Bollywood and Body Positivity and Rajeev Masand in Conversation with Rishi Kapoor.
Academy Award-winning Pakistani director Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s films are honoured with a special Festival focus in the Masterstroke section. The Festival will present a full retrospective of her documentaries, including the Victorian premiere of A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers, which follows 160 predominantly Muslim Bangladeshi policewomen on a difficult mission overseas, and her Oscar-winning short films about issues facing Pakistani women: A Girl In The River: The Price Of Forgiveness, exploring contemporary honour killings, and Saving Face, about the horrendous practice of acid attacks.
Further program highlights include the world premiere of Ashutosh Gowariker’s epic adventure-romance Mohenjo Daro starring Hrithik Roshan and Pooja Hedge in the lead roles, set in the ancient city of Mohenjo-daro in the era of the Indus Valley civilisation; and the Australian premiere of Anu Menon’s comedy drama Waiting, about the relationship between two people from very different walks of life who befriend one another in hospital.
