Cannes Film Festival 2022: Check out these brilliant Indian movies to watch out for, details inside

The Cannes Film Festival 2022 will feature India as the country of honour during its Marché du Film (Film Market) from May 17 to May 28. It is noteworthy that this year marks the 75th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, as well as 75 years since India got its independence. The Cannes Film Market has an official country of honour for the first time. The festival will continue this new tradition in future editions, honouring different nations each year. At the festival, Deepika Padukone will serve as a member of the international jury.

The festival has also selected Satyajit Ray's 1970 film Pratidwandi (The Adversary) for exclusive screening. The National Film Development Corporation's (NFDC) National Film Archive of India has restored the film as part of the Indian Government's National Film Heritage Mission.

OTTplay has compiled a list (not in any specific order) of upcoming Indian films you should watch at the festival:

Boomba Ride: Biswajeet Bora's Assamese film Boomba Ride, was also screened at the 26th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). The film is set around a government school in rural Assam with a single student. Bora attempts to throw light on the pathetic state of government schools in the rural pockets of India. Though Boomba Ride is a humorous take on a serious subject, it succeeds in highlighting the issue without reducing itself to a mere awareness-generating film.

Dhuin: A 50-minute feature film set in the small town of Darbhanga in Bihar, Dhuin is directed by Achal Mishra. The film is about a struggling theatre actor, who wants to move to Mumbai to make a name for himself on the movie circuit. Dhuin premiered at the Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival 2022 in the India Gold Section. According to the New Indian Express, Achal Mishra’s film is cinema that is transportive while showing a few days in the life of a man trapped in his moment.

Alpha Beta Gamma: Set amidst the deadly COVID 19 virus that spreads across the globe, the film revolves around the lives of a woman, her almost ex-husband, and her to-be husband are locked down under one roof for 14 days and they realise that it is quite difficult to move on and even tougher to let go. According to Shankar Srikumar, the director, “Millennials live life on their terms; treat relationships their way. The idea was to make a film that reflects life as is, bringing out the aspects of love, hate, jealousy, greed, selfishness, and selflessness.

Tree Full of Parrots: The Malayalam film, directed by Jayaraj, is a poignant take on compassion. Narayanan Cherupazha has played the role of a blind man in this film. He received the National Award for Best Teacher from the President of India and is running a blind school in Kerala. Tree Full of Parrots was inspired by 127 Hours and Buried. The film is a moving journey through the various human expressions of love, hope, despair, consideration and care.

Follower: Directed by Harshad Nalawade, the film, partially a crowd-funded one, tells the story of a radicalised journalist, who believes in exposing the atrocities faced by his community. But as the line between his professional and personal life blurs, an inconvenient truth makes him reflect on a simpler time when he had not yet succumbed to radicalization.

Rocketry: The Nambi Effect: The film, directed by actor R Madhavan, is based on the life of Nambi Narayanan, a former scientist and aerospace engineer of the Indian Space Research Organisation who was accused of espionage. The actor, who stars in the film in the titular role, is also credited as the writer. The film also features Simran Bagga, Rajit Kapur, Ravi Raghavendra, Misha Ghoshal, Gulshan Grover, Karthik Kumar and Dinesh Prabhakar, and features superstar Shah Rukh Khan and Suriya in guest appearances. Rocketry: The Nambi Effect will be released in English, Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

Godavari: Directed by Nikhil Mahajan, this Marathi feature film is a tribute to his close friend-mentor Nishikant Kamat, who passed away. A philosophical exploration of life and death, Godavari, takes its name from the river that flows from Nashik to the southern states of India. The film is about this guy, who lives right next to the river but hates it for everything that it stands for. The theme of Godavari primarily talks about the idea of tradition and how it is something that's passed on through generations.

Shivamma: Directed by Jai Shankar, the film is produced by Rishab Shetty. Shivamma tells the story of a 40-something poverty-stricken woman, who invests her hard-earned money in a network marketing business, to make some quick money, which puts her daughter’s imminent marriage at stake.

Le Musk: The 36-minute film, by Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman, is billed as a cinematic sensory experience with virtual reality integrated into the narrative. It follows heiress and musician Juliet Merdinian, who, 20 years since she was orphaned, seeks out the men who changed her destiny with one powerful memory—that of their scent. According to Cinema Express, Rahman developed the story from an original idea by his wife Saira. They share a love for perfume and wished to employ scent as a narrative device in immersive cinema. Rahman directed from a screenplay by Gurachi Phoenix, besides composing the score. The cast includes Nora Arnezeder and Guy Burnet in lead roles, alongside Munirih Grace and Mariam Zohrabyan.

Shot in Rome, Le Musk features inter-disciplinary expertise coming together from around the world. It was shot on 14 different cameras capturing super-resolution quality video.

All That Breathes: This Delhi-based Shaunak Sen documentary has won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance International Film Festival 2022. Notably, this was the only Indian film that was selected and screened at Sundance this year. Set against the milieu of Delhi’s air quality and rising social unrest, the brothers devote their lives to protecting birds known as the Black Kite.

Baghjan: Fisherman Manab lives with his wife Bharabi in a small village, Baghjan, which is a fertile oil & gas field. One day during oil extraction a massive blast takes place and the entire village catches fire which has devastating consequences. This Assamese-language film is directed by Jaicheng Zxai Dohutia.

Bailadila: In the slumbering mining town of Bailadila, is home to 10-year-old Rinku’s elder brother Jiten, a passionate artist caught in a miserable teaching job. Rinku finds himself at the threshold of boyhood after losing his mother, moving in with his brother and experiencing many things for the first time. The film is directed by Shailendra Sahu and produced by Raju Biswas.

Nauha: The 26-minute film, made by Pratham Khurana for his final semester at the Whistling Woods International undergraduate filmmaking programme, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, tells the relationship between an ailing elderly man and his caregiver. Urbanisation and migration are the themes explored in this one.

The Tale of a Santa and His Moth: Shot in and around Kolkata, this Hindi feature-length film is directed by Aneek Chaudhuri, and features Pawan Chopra and Usha Banerjee. In an earlier conversation with Silverscreen India, Chaudhuri explained the title and said, “The father’s role is that of a Santa to his daughter, who asks him for the cake. The ‘moth’ reference is because moths are a species that die very soon,” and added that the film was initially conceived as a short film.

A Place of One’s Own: Laila and Roshni, two trans women, are looking for a house after they are evicted from the place they rented. It soon becomes evident that their search for a home is also their ongoing search for a place in this society that wants to keep them away in a section that can not be the centre. The film is directed and produced by the Ektara Collective. 

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