The Emraan Hashmi-led Harami, Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s new film A’hr and Ananth Narayan Mahadevan’s Bittersweet are among the seven Indian titles that have been selected for the Busan International Film Festival in October. A pared-down version of the annual event, necessitated by the novel coronavirus pandemic, will be held in the South Korean city between October 21 and 30.
Bittersweet is about Saguna, a sugarcane cutter who stumbles upon a hysterectomy racket. “Bittersweet is an incisive look at human rights and the fight for survival in an extraordinary environment that is a dead end for women sugarcane cutters,” Mahadevan said in a press release. The film stars Akshaya Gurav in the lead role.
Harami, starring Emraan Hashmi, has been directed by Shyam Madiraju. The synopsis: “An orphan teenage pickpocket working the trains of Mumbai along with his gang, embarks on a life-altering journey when faced by the daughter of one of his victims who’s committed suicide after being robbed.”
In Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s A’hr, Manju Warrier plays Maya, a woman in her forties who goes on a trek to the Himalayan mountains along with the younger Akash. “The two possible lovers meet for the first time, though they seem to have known each other virtually,” Sasidharan said in a press statement. “Their fragile happiness and playfulness get into trouble when a man claims to know the true identity of Maya.” The cast includes Gaurav Ravi and Vedh.
Tanmay Dhanania leads the cast of Bengali director Suman Mukhopadhyay’s Captive. The other Indian films that will be screened in Busan include Chaitanya Tamhane’s Venice award-winner The Disciple, Ivan Ayr’s Meel Patthar, and Prithvi Konanur’s Kannada-language Pinki Elli?
Also read:
In Kannada film ‘Pinki Elli?’, secrets and surprises in the hunt for a missing infant
An emotional, universal film’: Chaitanya Tamhane on Venice-bound ‘The Disciple’
In film ‘Meel Patthar’, a truck driver’s journey from irrelevance to meaning
