Latest news with #SaumyanandaSahi
Time of India
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Bengali cinema shines at Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2025 with bold line-up of nine films
The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) 2025 will highlight Bengali cinema with nine films showcasing the region's rich storytelling and cultural heritage. The lineup includes Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi's Baksho Bandi, Suman Ghosh's Puratawn, and Promita Bhowmik's Ahana. The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) 2025 is poised to turn the spotlight on Bengali cinema, unveiling a compelling slate of nine films that showcase the region's storytelling depth, cultural richness, and cinematic evolution. From restored classics to contemporary powerhouses, this year's Bengali line-up cuts across genres and generations. Leading the selection is Baksho Bandi , a stirring feature by Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi, starring Tillotama Shome and Chandan Bisht. The film follows Maya, a resilient woman working multiple jobs, who faces a personal upheaval when her husband mysteriously vanishes. The emotional narrative offers a layered portrait of urban survival and inner turmoil. IFFM also marks the return of director Suman Ghosh with Puratawn (The Ancient) . Featuring iconic performances from Sharmila Tagore, Rituparna Sengupta, and Indraneil Sengupta, the film delves into intergenerational bonds and memory, as Ritika confronts the emotional erosion of her mother's mind. Adding a contemporary voice is Ahana (The Light Within) by Promita Bhowmik. The film features Sudipta Chakraborty and Joy Sengupta in a powerful tale of a young woman navigating creative expression and patriarchal pressures, capturing a nuanced journey of resilience and identity. In a tribute to cinematic legacy, the festival will also screen two restored masterpieces by Ritwik Ghatak — Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (A River Called Titas) and Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud-Capped Star) — offering audiences a rare chance to experience these classics on the big screen. Both films poignantly explore themes of displacement, sacrifice, and social fracture in the wake of partition. The Bengali showcase is further enriched by transnational and diaspora narratives. From Bangladesh, Maksud Hossain's Saba and Nuhash Humayun's genre-blending Dui Shaw bring fresh storytelling angles, while cross-cultural shorts like A Doll Made Up of Clay from Yoruba by Kokob Gebrehaweria and Elijah by Razid Season reflect a growing appetite for diverse South Asian perspectives across global platforms. As Bengali cinema takes center stage at IFFM 2025, the festival promises not just a regional spotlight but a broader conversation on language, legacy, and innovation. With its blend of evocative drama, social commentary, and international collaboration, the showcase underscores why Bengali cinema remains one of India's most powerful artistic voices.
Time of India
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Women in Their 40s: Breaking the Shadows and Embracing Change
A change in perspective is medicinal and life altering. A person, a book, an institution, a conversation, a walk, a disease, a film; can do that for you. In my case, professionally speaking, Shadowbox became the gift that kept giving. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Because Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi (the directors) were generous and open at a time when my life was very tumultuous. Being at the Berlinale was not just extraordinary creative stimulation, but also a celebration of the six-year long journey with this film. As a society, women are thrust into the shadows as they enter their forties. Our worth is directly proportional to our ability to reproduce. As women fight back against these archaic ways of thinking, it will take more than platitudes of equality to calm us down. We are asking for information, access, and education to be shared. That is power. Women in films is an aggregator that is talking to this urgent need. WIF chapters around the world have seen clear success in increasing the number of women at work and better advocacy. So it's not a shot in the dark and hope and a prayer, IT is real change. Give women access to rooms where knowledge is shared and decisions are made. We are not asking for favours. The maiden outing of the WIF India chapter, was to send three of us to attend the producers network at Cannes. Seven days of rapid information shared about the various aspects of producing, case studies of models that worked and those that failed. The collective is not a warm, fuzzy, emotional relationship (nothing wrong with any of this) that can easily devolve into yet another clique, but a professional network that gains momentum with its strength of number and its desire to share information and access. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The core focus is to skill women up and close the gap between men and women in our industry. Men who become allies will only benefit from this inclusion and those who resist it, will be resisting the very idea of change, which is inevitable. To go from the Baksho Bondi collective to the WIF collective, from Berlin to Cannes, I see a pattern emerge. I am my best, when I am learning without the fear of ridicule and when I amsharing without the fear of competition. From Feb to May of 2025 I have learnt from many lives, and I hope to continue actively nurturing this collective, while I enjoy the solitude of my own creative process. One feeds the other.
