MUMBAI: The University of Hawai at Hilo has organised a festival of modern Indian films that showcase issues of gender, class and national identity.

The festival kicks off on 13 April with the screening of Lage Raho Munna Bhai that starred Sanjay Dutt and Vidya Balan. This film takes a comedic look at life in urban Mumbai, pitting the forces of development and capitalism against the morals and principles of Gandhi.

On 20 April, the Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai-starrer Devdas will be screened. A modernised urban remake of Bimal Roy‘s 1955 film, it follows a man‘s descent into alcoholism and the two women who defined his life. The film is based on the novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay.

On 27 April, the festival will screen Mira Nair‘s English Monsoon Wedding that explores arranged marriage, women‘s sexuality and class/caste from the perspective of the overseas Indian diaspora.

4 May will see the screening of Water, a controversial look at the practice of child marriage and the exploitation of widows as sex workers in the era preceding independence. The last film in a trilogy by Deepa Metha, Water was shot in Sri Lanka due to protests from the Hindu community in Varanasi, where it was originally set.