Boman Irani, Myna Mukherjee, Zoya and Farhan Akhtar

Can cinema change the way you think? Can it shape the way society collectively views difficult choices – or can society change the way films reflect certain stereotypes? Rarely do you get an opportunity to mull social issues while enjoying endless cinema and this was the special attraction of I View Film, an annual film festival with the ambitious title of New Ways of Seeing Human Rights Cinema.

Initiated by Engendered, the arts and human rights festival, this brought together features along with shorts and documentaries, all exploring the issues of gender and sexuality. The big draw was the many big names which turned up to support it: John Abraham, Fahran Akhtar, Bohman Irani, along with directors including Mira Nair, Tarun Mansukhani, Zoya Akhtar, Mehreen Jabbar, and Parvez Sharma.

Filmmaker Mehreen Jabbar

The films ranged from Bollywood biggies like ‘Dostana’ and ‘Luck by Chance’ to small, hard-hitting documentaries like ‘My Daughter the Terrorist’, ‘A Jihad for Love’ and ‘Searching for Sandeep.’ Each addressed issues such as gender bias or sexuality and definitely made audiences think.

Some commercial films like ‘Dostana’ perhaps didn’t go far enough on the issue of homosexuality but as John Abraham pointed out, “ I think there’s always a start. I’m sure people wouldn’t be talking about ‘Dostana’ and homosexuality if it hadn’t been for the commercial platform it got. What we’ve done is opened the door to more open discussions, more meaningful films on the topic.”

Indeed, Indians are addicted to cinema so what better way to initiate change than sitting them in a darkened auditorium? Gender equality, women’s rights, minority rights and homosexuality have been explosive issues in India but now we find the new breed of Hindi cinema is beginning to address them, just as they are being tackled in real life too.

Throughout the three day festival there were live conversations between film-makers and audiences to carry the dialogue further, to question and argue. As Myna Mukherjee, director of Engendered, said: “There is something in the air, isn’t there? You know what it is – it’s change!”

(from L to R) Nirali Shastri, Denise, Danielle Mund, Zoya Akhtar, Shweta Malhotra, Ishita Srivastava, Sunita Iqbal, Myna Mukherjee, Pooran Moolchandani, Jitin Hingorani, Khatera Hamini