London Indian Film Festival 2013: Monsoon Shootout, Bombay Talkies, B.A. Pass to be screened

Cineswami gives us all the dope on the London Indian Film Festival 2013

Like a newborn baby who grows up faster than you can say puberty, the London Indian Film Festival (LIFF, July 18-25) is already turning four. In keeping with its practice of opening with edgy yet high profile films, with openers of the past three years being LSD: Love, Sex Aur Dhokha, Delhi Belly and Gangs of Wasseypur, this year the festival opens with Amit Kumar’s Cannes selection Monsoon Shootout -  starring India’s latest indie star Nawazuddin Siddiqui – set in the badlands of rain-drenched Mumbai. The festival will close with Karan Johar, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee and Anurag Kashyap’s portmanteau celebration of 100 years of Indian cinema, Bombay Talkies.

Unlike New Delhi’s centenary celebrations that did not look beyond Satyajit Ray and Bollywood, LIFF is celebrating Indian cinema in all her diversity and myriad languages. After shocking the world and earning an India ban for Gandu, Q returns with Rabindranath Tagore adaptation Tasher Desh, a psychedelic Bengali film shot in Sri Lanka. There is Lifeu Ishtene director Pawan Kumar’s world premiere of Kannada film Lucia that blurs the distinction between dreams and reality. Tense detective thriller Pune 52 by Nikhil Mahajan is in Marathi and metaphysical road movie The Good Road by Gyan Correa is in Gujarati.

After putting his leading-man days behind him our own Jaggu Dada Jackie Shroff is enjoying an acting renaissance as evidenced in last year’s LIFF audience award-winning Tamil film Aaranya Kaandam. He returns to the festival this year with the charming Life Is Good, by Ananth Mahadevan. Hansal Mehta’s brilliant courtroom drama will also play as will Ajay Bahl’s erotically charged B.A. Pass, featuring former Chak De! India girl Shilpa Shukla as the sexy aunty every hormonal teen oozes at the thought of.

Nandita Das returns to her native Oriya tongue with Devashish Makhija’s environment cautionary fable Oonga and Mohit Takalkar takes the audience on a journey of self-discovery across India with the Hindi and Marathi The Bright Day. Classics have not been omitted and Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Malayalam masterpiece Elippathayam will be shown in a special revival. Gopalakrishnan will be present in London to deliver a masterclass.

India’s biggest international star (eat your heart out Bollywood) Irrfan Khan will be centrestage at the British Film Institute to trace his incredible global cinematic journey with his The Warrior director Asif Kapadia.

Cary Rajinder Sawhney, Festival Director said, “We are delighted that the festival is growing from strength to strength. If you want to find out more about South Asian cinema come and soak yourself in a week of magnificent films in London.”

Apna Bombay Talkies song: Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Madhuri Dixit among a medley of stars celebrating Indian cinema!

A whole galaxy of stars from Madhuri Dixit to Ranveer Singh come together to light up the up the screen in the song that celebrates 100 years of Indian cinema

Medleys have always attracted filmmakers. From Farah Khan’s Om shanti om number to Sajid Khan’s Heyy Babyy track, many a director has tried to include as many celebrity faces as possible in one frame. So it’s only logical that the title track of Bombay Talkies features as many superstars as can be crammed into it, considering the fact that it celebrates 100 years of Indian cinema – a landmark moment in the history of movies!

Choreographed by Vaibhavi Merchant, the track Apna bombay talkies features the three Khans sharing screen space…well, kind of…for the first time. The track opens with Aamir Khan surprising a young man by breaking into a little gig for him, while Papa kehte hai (from Qayamat se Qayamat Tak) plays in the background. He is followed by Madhuri Dixit, Saif Ali Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Vidya Balan, Rani Mukerji, Farhan Akhtar, Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Anil Kapoor, Sridevi, Akshay Kumar, Karisma Kapoor and Juhi Chawla. The young Turks in the song include Ranveer Singh, Ranbir Kapoor, Imran Khan, Sonam Kapoor and Deepika Padukone. Each of these celebs does a dance step to a background tune of their most recognisable song!

In the video, the celebs are all clad like a dream – the women in gold and the men in black formals. Check out this amazing medley that could be the most star-studded clip you’ve ever seen! One thing – we missed the seniors, though. It would have been lovely to see the Sholay pair of Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra as a part of the song, for instance. What say, BollywoodLifers?