From Assamese film “Village Rockstars” to Bengali drama “Mayurakshi” and controversial Malayalam film “S Durga” will be among the cinematic gems from across the country to be screened at the 13th Habitat Film Festival, which will also have two tribute segments for the late Shashi Kapoor and Sridevi.
To be held from May 17 to 27, the fest will open with Kaushik Ganguly’s Bengali drama “Drishtikone” at the Stein Auditorium here.
The line-up also has Marathi film “Ajji”, Malayalam thriller “Take Off”, Hindi features “The Hungry” and “October” and investigative Tamil thriller “Vikram Vedha” among others.
Aparna Sen, Devashish Makhija, Miransha Naik, Jiju Antony and Sanal Kumar Sasidharan are among the filmmakers expected to participate at the event, where there will be a retrospective segment on visionary Malayalam director K.G. George, read a statement.
Two tribute segments, one on the pioneering contributions of late actor-producer Shashi Kapoor and one on Sridevi will include the screening of some of their films.
There will be master classes by directors, actors and screenwriters such as Vishal Bhardwaj, Tisca Chopra and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, apart from panel discussions and post-screening question and answer sessions.
A highlight will be a session with veteran writer Gulzar on May 20. He will be in conversation with Mehra.
The festival — whose focus is to turn the spotlight on cinema from India that’s beyond Bollywood — will be inaugurated by film scholar Aruna Vasudev, Founder/President of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema.
