MUMBAI: It‘s a rare honour for Indian cinema this year at the first annual London Indian Film Festival.
While Dibakar Banerjee‘s Love, Sex aur Dhoka premiered on the opening night of the festival, Umesh Kulkarni‘s The Well (Vihir) will close the festival on 20 July.
Producer and lead star of the film Girish Kulkarni, who will grace the Red Carpet for the festival‘s closing film, will be joined by an array of luminaries spanning industry stalwarts, VIPs and film celebrities.
The Well has been feted globally following its World Premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. Stunningly filmed amongst the grandeur of the rolling Indian plains, the film is a moving ‘coming of age‘ tale that boldly captures the very essence of adolescence and the moments that define it.
It tells the story of young Sameer as he leaves the city with his parents to visit their family in the countryside, who are preparing for a wedding. Sameer, however, has only one aim, to meet his cousin and best friend Nachiket.
The two adolescent boys are inseparable and Sameer looks up to his older, free thinking cousin, who teaches him many truths as they stand at the cross-roads of their lives, with the innocence of childhood slipping away. This change is echoed by the fate of Sameer‘s female cousin, who is being forced into a marriage for the family‘s petty gains. Nachiket becomes increasingly distraught by this marriage, until he can take it no longer, leading to an action that will change Sameer‘s young life forever.
India is the largest film producing country in the world, creating up to 1,000 films a year out stripping that of Hollywood. But apart from mainstream Bollywood, very few of such films are seen in the UK.
Says Festival Director Cary Rajinder Sawhney, "We have been delighted with the response we have received thus far at the festival. UK is the largest consumer of Bollywood outside of India and we were fully aware of its relevance and significance here. Following the feedback we have received on the festival which has showcased a carefully selected repertoire of parallel Indian cinema, it‘s great to see the increasing appetite for independent Indian films and we do hope in time great movies such as The Well will be screened and talked about more broadly in the UK."
