Cinema
Umesh Bagade
India. 2024. 104 min

Anand a voluntarily retired teacher, has started a movement to show films to school children in remote villages. Taking seriously the power of film as a medium and its impact on children, Anand continues to work to promote film literacy despite public opposition. Anand and his Children’s Film Club have been running an innovative initiative to teach children through cinema for the last 10 years. Noticing his work, a young filmmaker named Omkar meets Anand to make a documentary of his work. Through the process of making the documentary, Anand’s struggle to bring the right cinema to these children is highlighted. One day, while showing a movie in a school in a remote village, suddenly the lights go out and the children get to see only half of the movie. There Anand meets 9 year old boy named Ankur who is very talkative, mischievous and intelligent. While talking, Ankur tells the story of a half-watched movie.from here things take an interesting turn and the story goes straight to “Hollywood” in America. The journey, which started out of love for the medium of cinema takes different turns and takes travelers along to create a bridge to connect two different ends together.

Pyre
Vinod Kapri
India. 2024. 110 min

A melancholic ballad of an undying love in a dying land.

In the Himalayan Mountain range, a rural village loses its inhabitants to the city’s allure while an elderly couple, Padam Singh and Tulsi, live in desolate isolation. Their days are filled with routine and occasional humour as they mask their loneliness. Their son’s absence gnaws at them, and when a letter arrives promising his return, it reignites their hearts with joy and anticipation. However, the reunion does not unfold as expected, shattering their hopes. As the film climaxes, the spectator is confronted with a more rueful plight, deeply engaging the audience’s empathy.

This film powerfully explores the pain of abandonment, the endurance of hope, and the heartache of unfulfilled promises. The film’s haunting and deeply emotional nature, in line with the director’s auteurist style, will captivate you and keep you emotionally invested until the end.