Kick off the new year with a selection of vibrant and creative films from South Asia and the South Asian diaspora that are guaranteed to make you laugh, cry, and dance! See four brand-new films alongside two classics before preceding a colorful and exciting live performance by talented local dancers.

Schedule of Events:

All India Rank:

Witty dialogue, a poppy soundtrack, and 90s nostalgia have made this dramedy a hit at film festivals around the globe and now it gets its Hawai‘i premiere. Following the dreams of his parents, 17-year-old Vivek is shipped off to a prestigious prep school with hopes of getting into the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). Varun Grover’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale is a bittersweet portrait of teenage desires under the pressure of his parents’ middle-class anxiety.  Starring Bodhisattva Sharma as a fresh-faced Vivek with Geeta Agrawal and Shashi Bhushan as his worried parents. 

Directed by Varun Grover. 2023. India. Hindi with English subtitles.

Dates and Times:

Thursday 4th January, 2024: 7:30pm

Friday 5th January, 2024: 7:00pm

Sunday 14th January, 2024: 2:00pm

It Lives Inside:

In this social-horror film, Indian American Sam is a teenager struggling with cultural identity. She is desperate to fit in at school, rejecting her full name (Samidha), avoiding speaking Hindi, and dropping fellow Indian American Tamira as her best friend. When a mythological demonic spirit latches onto Tamira, she must come to terms with her heritage in order to defeat it. The New York Times calls the film a promising debut from Bishal Dutta.

Dates and Times:

Friday 5th January, 2024: 2:00pm

Saturday 6th January, 2024: 7:00pm

Saturday 20th January, 2024: 2:00pm

Urf:

This intriguing documentary looks at the strange world of actors who make a living as lookalikes of Bollywood superstars. “Urf” is Hindi for “also known as” or “alias.” 

In the alleys of the Hindi film and television industry, they are usually known as duplicates, juniors, body-doubles—the monikers are many. Urf navigates beyond these labels and explores who they truly are—actors, mimics, fans or more. The film focuses on Kishore Bhanushali, Firoz Khan and Prashant Walde, lookalikes of superstars Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, respectively. Their collective narrative unravels the world of a lookalike, who tends to gain a relatively easy entry into Bollywood but only at the cost of one’s own identity. 

The identity conundrum aside, they bring in perspectives on stardom and cinema, mimicry and acting, along with their own dreams and struggles.

Dates and Times:

Saturday 6th January, 2024: 2:00pm

Thursday 11th January, 2024: 2:00pm

Against the Tide:

In this breathtaking documentary about Indigenous fishermen in Mumbai, Rakesh and Ganesh are inheritors of the great Koli knowledge system—a way to harvest the sea by following the moon and the tides. Rakesh has kept faith in the traditional fishing methods while Ganesh has embraced technology, going into debt with deep-sea boats and LED lights to attract fish. Director Sarvnik Kaur captures a visually stunning and intimate tale of friendship and rising resentment between the two men, as close as brothers, against the backdrop of the changing Arabian Sea, which is suffering from the effects of climate change and pollution.

Dates and Times:

Sunday 7th January, 2024: 2:00pm

Friday 12th January, 2024: 2:00pm

Friday 26th January, 2024: 7:00pm

Charulata 60th Anniversary:

Satyajit Ray’s exquisite story of a woman’s artistic and romantic yearning takes place in late 19th-century, pre-independence India, in the gracious home of a liberal-minded, workaholic newspaper editor and his lonely wife Charulata (Madhabi Mukherjee). When her husband’s poet cousin (Soumitra Chatterjee) comes to stay with them, Charulata finds herself creatively inspired and dangerously drawn to him. Based on a novella by the great Rabindranath Tagore, Charulata is a work of subtle textures, a delicate tale of a marriage in jeopardy and a woman taking the first steps toward establishing her own voice. Fun film fact: This is the director’s own personal favorite of his works.

Dates and Times:

Friday 12th January, 2024: 7:00pm

Thursday 18th January, 2024: 2:00pm

Friday 26th January, 2024: 2:00pm

Goldfish:

Goldfish deals with memory, music, mental health and identity. Anamika, who is half-English and half-Indian, returns home to her estranged mother Sadhana who is suffering from the onset of dementia. Ana finds a neighborhood she barely remembers, and a woman who sometimes doesn’t remember her. 

Directed by Pushan Kripalani, this Indian-British-American production brings together powerhouse talents Kalki Koechlin, Deepti Naval and Rajit Kapur with some extraordinary actors from the UK—Bharti Patel, Gordon Warnecke, Ravin Ganatra and Shanaya Rafaat—to tell a delicate, timeless story of a mother and a daughter, and of community.

Dates and Times:

Saturday 13th January, 2024: 2:00pm

Friday 19th January, 2024: 2:00pm

Huli of Consciousness:

Admission to this film is free with registration, courtesy of support from ‘Elepaio Press and Wansalawata Productions. 

Come early and grab a drink at the cash bar in Luce Pavilion at 5pm before heading into the Doris Duke Theatre for the films at 6:30pm.

See and experience a wave of innovative directors from Hawai‘i and across the US continent in this roundup of shorts. The lineup features narrative, documentary, and experimental work that centers voices that have historically been marginalized and misrepresented in cinema. The filmmakers aim to co-create futures of healing, narrative sovereignty, and beloved community. 

The directors are: Ha'aheo Auwae-Dekker, Angelique Kalani Axelrode, Justyn Ah Chong, Daniel Croix, Ja’Tovia Gray, Richard Hamasaki, Jon Krippahne, Justin Joo, Ciara Lacy, Erin Lau, Matthew Law, Mitchel Merrick, Tiare Ribeaux, and Jody Stillwater. An opening ceremony will be led by Elijah Kal? McShane, and a post-show discussion will welcome distinguished guests Dr. Thema Bryant and Dr. Manulani Aluli Meyer.

Dates and Times:

Saturday 13th January, 2024: 6:30pm

Bhagwan Bharose:

Bhagwan Bharose is the story of Bhola and Shambhu, two little village boys whose ideas about faith are constantly questioned and changed as their little world expands and is impacted by their country’s fast-changing sociopolitical landscape. Against the backdrop of a rising Hindu nationalist movement in late 1980s India, the two impressionable kids struggle with their understanding of God and religion while experiencing the everyday challenges of childhood, conservative upbringing and communal surroundings until their idyllic world is blown apart by events that they themselves can no longer fathom.

Dates and Times:

Friday 19th January, 2024: 7:00pm

Thursday 25th January, 2024: 2:00pm

Date:

Thursday, January 04, 2024 - Friday, January 26, 2024

Location:

Doris Duke Theatre,

900 South Beretania Street,

Honolulu, HI 96814.

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