VICE met up with the directors of Sacred Games, Netflix's first foray into originals in India. Veterans Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane explain their process to us.
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Based on the poetry of R. Raj Rao, Bomgay is a collection of six vignettes that depict the underground and complex nature of the gay identity in urban India. Part Genet, part Bollywood, this film combines acidic verse and insightful imagery to reveal the emerging gay community in the post-liberalized India of the 1990s.
Filmmaker Anand Patwardhan looks to history and psychology as he delves into the possible reasons behind the demolition of the Babri Mosque.
Film made during the repressive days of the Emergency in India documents the 1974-75 uprising of the people of Bihar in Eastern India.
"Discover Dr Anil Prakash Joshi's Himalayan journey in 'A Son Of Himalaya". From rural roots to ecological visionary, witness his symphony of sustainability, GEP innovation, and the transformative power of nature's whispers.
In light of jailed activist Umar Khalid withdrawing his petition from the Supreme Court amid repeated adjournments, journalist Ravish Kumar captures the contours of Delhi in a video letter addressed to him. What comes out is a critical piece reflecting on the cowardice and the deafening silence of Delhi on the whole matter.
The inspiring story of a young Indian Muslim woman who trades her burka for dreams of playing on the Mumbai Senior Women's Cricket Team and how the harsh realities for women in her country creates an unexpected outcome for her own family, ultimately shattering and fueling aspirations.
Winner of 2 National Awards, Pancham Unmixed: Mujhe Chalte Jaana Hai, takes an incisive look into the legendary composer, RD Burman's reflective artistry and buoyant-but-also-lonely inner being. Featuring a host of close friends, colleagues and admirers, the film evokes awe, admiration and nostalgia the way most of his music does, till date.
An attempt to engage with the historical, mythical and the contemporary worlds of the city of Pushkar
Somi is pregnant with her second child. A girl, she hopes. Together with her husband she prepares for this new phase of their parenthood. It means that their son has to go to school, but as an ex-Naxalite that is tough to achieve in contemporary India, where people like them are third-rate citizens. They lack the certificates and an opaque bureaucratic process doesn't help. Directors Isabella Rinaldi, Cristina Hanes and Arya Rothe of the NoCut Film Collective concentrate on Somi's close family ties, painting a portrait of ex-Naxalites in India. Once, Somi and her husband were communist rebels fighting for the rights of Indian tribes. However, to safeguard their family's welfare, they surrendered to the government in exchange for marginal compensation and simple accommodation.
Hailstorm is based in the Narmada valley in central India, an area with extremely low levels of groundwater. Farmers here battle for survival, pitched against the vagaries of climate change. Following the events of a freak hailstorm over four seasons, the film unfolds the vulnerability and precarity of those that are at the sharpest end of global capitalism’s rapacious greed and the furthest from its benefits.
An exploration of the 'respectable' and 'immoral' stereotypes of women in Indian society told from the point of view of two striptease dancers in a Bombay cabaret.
"India" developed out of my three journeys to Pune in 2001, 2002 and 2004. I arrived in a forgein country, and felt surprisingly familiar in the foreign. There in the streets, walking among the people, surrounded by their movements, their gestures, by the colors, the light, the beauty. Small things awakened my attention, sometimes only a short glimpse, a hand movement, the color of a sari, a temple hidden in a courtyard. It was like a long hot bath that I took there in Pune's streets - something unique and very beautiful.
A very spellbinding story about the reel and real life of great old thespian Kanhaiyalal and his bygone era when Indian Cinema was at a nascent stage. The story tells about his inspiring journey from a confused, gullible youth to a mesmerizingly spontaneous actor. It also unfurls the turbulent phases of Kanhaiyalal's life where there is excessive alcoholism and the mysterious death of his son.
Life and disciples of legendary Indian classical musician and teacher, 'Guru' of Pandit Ravishankar, 'Baba' Ustad Alauddin Khan.
A sensitive heart-warming story of an Indian transman's acceptance, by himself and his family. Merlin, born as a girl, felt right from his childhood that he was trapped in the wrong gender.
Clips and interviews show that the renowned Satyajit Ray was more than just a filmmaker: He was a sketch illustrator, a music composer, a children's book creator, an all around intellectual.
Jeet Lengey Jahaan is about today's youngsters who are starving to achieve their goals in life. It shows how they get trapped into our corrupt system and face adverse circumstances and finally find themselves helpless and how they fight against it by their own ways.
In India, a child goes missing every 8 minutes. Where do these children go? What happens to them? This is not just a story of one missing child. This is the reality of our nation. And yet, we sit in silence.
Follows the final days of Chika Kapadia, given four months to live, who has chosen to end his life through physician-assisted suicide at Dignitas in Switzerland. The filmmakers, tasked with documenting Kapadia’s countdown to death, capture both his journey and their own emotional response.