indica News Service-
The Indian Film Festival Los Angeles(IFFLA) will begin with a special evening with Imtiaz Ali, one of Hindi cinema’s most respected and charismatic writer-directors. The program will feature an on-stage conversation between Ali and director Anurag Kashyap, an acclaimed IFFLA alum and a veteran of Indian independent cinema, credited for Ali’s 2014 blockbuster ‘Highway’. The red carpet event will take place at ArcLight Hollywood, followed by a dinner reception and after party hosted by Spice Affair. The opening night gala presentation will take place April 1 at ArcLight Hollywood.
Born and brought up in Jamshedpur, Ali obtained his bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Hindu College at the University of Delhi where he also founded the Dramatics Society and established his roots in theater. Ever since his disarming debut in 2005’s ‘Socha Na Tha’, Imtiaz Ali has been felicitated for his distinctive viewpoint on love and romance, vulnerable male characters, and layered female characters. If in his 2007 commercial hit Jab We Met, Ali delighted audiences with the chemistry between a plucky Kareena Kapoor and a reticent Shahid Kapoor, in his 2011 Rockstar, he sculpted a monument of Ranbir Kapoor’s formidable acting talent while setting to story one of the memorable soundtracks of the decade. His latest movie, also called Love Aaj Kal, released on Valentine’s Day 2020.
What makes Ali so popular with both cine-philes and everyday moviegoers is his enviable ability to marry utterly relatable characters with their unusually developed conflicts. Highway is a stellar example of all of Imtiaz’s virtues as a storyteller.
Variety reported that “The MisEducation of Bindu,” directed by Prarthana Mohan and produced by Mark and Jay Duplass, will close the festival on April 5. In between, a bevy of international film festival hits from Tribeca and SXSW to Venice and Toronto will screen including Bhaskar Hazarika’s “Aamis,” Arati Kadav’s “Cargo,” Alankrita Shrivastava’s “Dolly Kitty and Those Twinkling Stars,” Gitanjali Rao’s animated “Bombay Rose” and Geetu Mohandas’ Malayalam-language “Moothoon.”
There will also be an array of documentaries and shorts playing during the festival, which runs April 1-5 at Regal L.A. Live.
“This year’s lineup exemplifies the boundless creativity on display in the Indian independent film community and its diaspora” said Mike Dougherty, IFFLA’s director of programming. “Visitors to IFFLA this year have their choice of animation, sci-fi/fantasy, romance, documentary, comedy, thriller and more, in films that in typical IFFLA fashion deal with hard-hitting political themes, and that challenge as well as entertain. I couldn’t be more proud of the films we’re presenting.”
