'Angry Indian Goddesses' to open IFFLA

Pan Nalin's "Angry Indian Goddesses" will open the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) here on April 6, and Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki Koechlin-starrer "Waiting" will draw curtains on the 14th edition of the film festival.

A line-up of 27 films, including 16 features and 11 shorts films, has been planned for the five-day film gala, which is widely recognised for taking Indian cinema on the foreign shores. It will be held at ArcLight, Hollywood, here.

"Angry Indian Goddesses", which follows stories of seven girls focusing on the issues faced by female in the Indian society, is supported by stellar cast Sarah-Jane Dias, Sandhya Mridul, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Anushka Manchanda, Amrit Maghera, Rajshri Deshpande and Pavleen Gujral.

While Anu Menon's "Waiting" narrates story of a woman who finds guidance and answers in a gentle and hopeful man after her husband slips into a coma.

The festival program features award-winning titles from the festival circuit and more women filmmakers than ever before. And three films will have their world premiere - "CRD" by Kranti Kanade, "Babu's Dilemma" by Collin D'Cunha, and Anurag Kashyap produced "Mochi" ("The Cobbler") by Saqib Pandor, read a statement.

Talking about the line-up, Christina Marouda, founder of IFFLA said: "India's independent filmmakers are taking bold risks, defying convention, and responding to injustice in each of these visionary films, and the results are breathtaking."

Mike Dougherty, the director of programming, echoed the same views, by saying that he is "extremely excited for our Los Angeles audience to experience these films, which have garnered raves from around the world, or are making their world premieres with us."

Other films to invade the festival includes - Deepa Mehta's gangster drama "Beeba Boys"; Leena Yadav's "Parched", which examines India's patriarchal culture through the stories of four women; Ruchika Oberoi's "Island City" ; and Sonejuhi Sinha's "Love Comes Later" among others.

The festival will be splashed with love from south Indian cinema as well. Rinku Kalsy's documentary "For the Love of a Man", about the fierce devotion shared by south-Indian superstar Rajinikanth's fans; and Tamil films like "Visaranai" ("Interrogation") and "Kirumi" ("Virus") featuring in the program.

The festival also features Hansal Mehta's politically-charged "Aligarh" and the "Daaravtha" ("The Threshold") by Nishant Roy Bombarde.