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"The Darjeeling Limited", Wes Anderson's new award winning
comedy set in India, will screen as the opening night film of the
45th annual New York Film Festival next Friday.
Starring Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman, "The
Darjeeling Limited" is an emotional comedy about three brothers
re-forging family bonds. The eldest, played by Wilson, hopes to
reconnect with his two younger siblings by taking them on a train
trip across the vibrant and sensual landscape of India.
The Fox Searchlight film, which recently won the Golden Lion Cub
Award and nomination for the Golden Lion Award at the 64th annual
Venice Film Festival, will release exclusively in two New York
theatres Sep 29 and then expand across North America through
October. It will open in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, San
Francisco, Washington DC, and Toronto on Oct 5.
Meanwhile, the fourth annual 2007 South Asian International Film
Festival (SAIFF) Oct 3-9 in New York City will present the North
American Premiere of Rajshree Ojha's critically acclaimed first
feature film "Chaurahen" (Crossroads).
The film, almost like snippets of collected photographs, brings
together similar disconnected people in search for something to
overcome the mundane of reality.
"I was inspired by Nirmal Verma's short story about three
different couples based in Mumbai, Kolkata and Kochi. It is a
complex narrative about the six characters and their angst
expressed in their regional languages - Malayalam, Bengali, Hindi -
and English," essays the debutant director.
"I wanted to show (overseas audiences) that there is more to India
than poverty and mysticism. I want to show that we may wear saris
and bindis but we think modern thoughts and have regular ethos and
pathos like them," she adds.
"Ojha has created a beautiful and different narrative feature for
Indian cinema," said SAIFF Festival Director Manjri Srivastava.
"Along with our other independent features and documentaries this
year, we are honoured to present 'Chaurahen' to the SAIFF
audience this year."
Rajshree Ojha was born and raised in India and graduated from New
York University in 1998. She received her masters at the American
Film Institute (AFI) in 2002, and her film "Badger" won the AFI
Spirit of Excellence Award for Outstanding Direction.
She has participated in several film productions in New York, India
and Los Angeles. Rajshree was featured as the Next Wave of
Filmmakers to emerge from AFI in daily "Variety" in June 2003. She
was also honoured by The Directors Guild of America (DGA) as a new
Asian Voice.
Indo-Asian News Service
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