Browsing: Indian cinema

The much-awaited New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) which is presented by the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC)  – a must-see during the summer – is once again coming to town. This time, with the changing times, it is a hybrid model with films being shown by zoom and also in person.

Film journalist Aseem Chhabra is a great believer in the power of cinema to heal and rejuvenate. Instead of an apple a day, his mantra is a film a day and he often watches 365 films in a year. The veteran of several film festivals, he has traveled to many across the globe, and has captained the ship of New York Indian Film Festival

How can it be summer without the New York Indian Film Festival?  Through ups and downs, its cinematic wisdom has seen us through good times and bad, and showed us the better sides of our nature. The good news is that NYIFF – one of the pure delights of NY- is back

“Even 65 years after our independence, we find that India’s progress towards establishing an equitable society has been slow and disappointing. Discrimination against women thrives and cuts across religion, caste, rich, poor, urban-rural divides. Secure in their solid economic and social foundation, men are men, and we are the other. Today, women realize that unless certain fundamental issues that affect gender equality and justice are addressed, women’s empowerment will remain at the level of rhetoric.” – Sharmila Tagore

How would you like to watch Hindi blockbusters and eat Indian food all day? That seems to be the delightful lifestyle Indian-American filmmaker and writer Sri Rao is blessed with! This Philadelphia native has taken two things which everyone loves – Indian food and Bollywood movies – and made a fun living out of them.

A world-class music concert, a major dance festival, a film festival are the delights of summer, must-see events on our social calendar. In years past each was a much anticipated real life event, with dressed-up crowds meeting their friends and rubbing shoulders with celebrities. Here we share the past memories and how each event has been reborn, reinvented this year.

Update: Ritesh Batra’s award-winning drama THE LUNCHBOX has now become the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2014 in North America.

The Irrfan Khan hit has grossed $1.45 million to date surpassing the $1.3 million grossed by both Salman Khan’s latest action picture Jai Ho and the sleeper hit Queen to set a new record for this year.

We all love stories and cinema is the ultimate story-teller which spins magical tales of love and loss, set in unimagined realms. Sometimes cinema is a mirror of society, sometimes a celebration of the imagination and the invincibility of the human spirit.  It is always the magician which draws us into people’s lives

What can $1.99 buy you?
In today’s day and age – not much. Not even a slice of pizza, not even a burger, not even a Metrocard!
But $1.99 can buy you romance, drama, comedy and magic, happiness and laughter, a trip to foreign lands for a full 30 days.
The secret is BigFlix.

Predictably, the 16th Annual NYIFF (May 7 -14) is going to play havoc with your sleep cycle and your work life (and maybe even your love life) because you’ll want to sit zombie-like and see all the unexpected 40-plus offerings. You may as well give up your real life for a week!