It’s that time of the year again – Diwali, the ‘Festival of Lights’ is almost here! And that means, it’s time to bring out those colourful kurtas, get those boxes of the delicious soan papdi ready (I will die on the hill that soan papdi as a sweet delicacy deserves more love), and get ready to be in a festive mood.
What is so unique about Diwali is the fact that there is no one way of celebrating it. From Kali Puja to Bandi Chhor Divas, people from South Asian backgrounds partake in Diwali celebrations based on their cultural background and practices, and what these practices are can differ significantly. In that way, Diwali is a truly inclusive extravaganza – since there’s no right way of celebrating it, you can very much make it your own. All you really need, is to embrace the festive spirit.
This year, the wonderful team at SBS on Demand have truly gone the extra mile and curated a selection of films to bring in the ‘Festival of Lights’ based on some of the main symbolic Let’s explore some of these films and themes below.
No matter how you celebrate Diwali, one of the central tenets of this beautiful festival is the opportunity to embrace love – towards oneself and others – and eliminate any feelings of ill will that we might have residing in our hearts. The films in the section of SBS on Demand’s Diwali hub explore this idea in myriad ways.
Salaam E Ishq
Six stories. Six different vignettes that give us a glimpse into the multi-faceted nature of love. was the second directorial venture after his massively successful debut Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003). It was one of the few films in the mainstream Bollywood space that experimented with vignette-style storytelling in the pre-streaming era, when it was released back in 2007. It’s claimed to be inspired by Richard Curtis’ perennial Christmas rom-com Love Actually (2003), but the treatment and approach here is so different, that the experience of watching either film has its own unique flavour. With a massive ensemble cast that includes the who’s who of Bollywood, from Anil Kapoor and Salman Khan to Priyanka Chopra-Jonas, the film boasts of an unforgettable soundtrack, songs from which still feature in my playlist today.
Photograph
Six years after his debut feature film The Lunchbox (2013) proved to be a massive crowd-pleaser and a global hit, director Ritesh Batra decided to team up once more with actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui for a quiet, intimate and poetic love story that unfolds in the moments of silence on screen. follows a street photographer Rafi (Siddiqui) who convinces a woman (Sanya Malhotra) to act as his fake fiancé so that his family can stop pressuring him for marriage. The fact that such a broad premise – exploring the pressures of an arranged marriage – can yield such a personal and intimate film is a testament to Batra’s directorial skill. Personally, this is right up there with one of my favourite films of the past five years, with stellar lead performances by Siddiqui and Malhotra. Many have (deservedly) loved The Lunchbox, but Photograph deserves an equal amount of love, if not more.
The Lunchbox screens on SBS World Movies on Sunday, 12 November at 11:55 AM.
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Photograph
drama • romance • 2019
drama • romance • 2019
Popularly known as the ‘Festival of Lights’, the concept of making oneself open to light – which symbolises goodness, rationality, progress – and eliminating darkness – which symbolises oppression, regressive thinking and social evils – is important to how Diwali is viewed and celebrated across the world. The films in the section explore this symbolic and metaphorical meaning of ‘light’ and ‘dark’.
Anandi Gopal
Directed by Sameer Vidwans, is an autobiographical film that’s part of the Marathi New Wave currently taking hold of Indian cinema. It tells the story of Joshi, who became the first Indian female doctor to go to the United States and study western medicine, back in the 1800s. She graduated with an MD in March 1886, but died soon after returning to India at the tender age of twenty-one. In her short life, she became a strong and vocal advocate for the education of women and fought against superstitious practices through the application of western medical science.
Anandi Gopal screens on SBS World Movies on Sunday, 12 November at 7:25 AM.
Omkara
Indian director Vishal Bhardwaj has made some of the best and most original adaptations of Shakespeare. (2006) – an adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ – is the second installment in his Shakespeare Trilogy, preceded by Maqbool (an adaptation of ‘Macbeth’), and followed by Haider (an adaptation of ‘Hamlet’). Combined, Bhardwaj’s trilogy is a must-watch for any Shakespeare aficionado. Bhardwaj chooses the rustic backdrop of rural North India for his adaptation, and this setting bring to the surface the interplay of caste politics, gender-based discrimination and patriarchy – which are uniquely Indian – but nonetheless, play out within the overarching structure of Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’. Thus, I find Bhardwaj’s more disturbing and bleaker than Shakespeare’s original material, and Saif Ali Khan’s delightfully duplicitous career-best performance as ‘Langda Tyagi’ (Iago from Othello) is just the cherry on top.
The Orphanage
When Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat came out with her debut feature film Wolf and Sheep, I was completely blown away by the arrival of a fresh and distinctive voice who was telling stories about her region and culture through magic realism and a folk-tale sensibility. Sadat followed up her debut feature with an equally impressive second film, . Set in the 1980s, on the cusp of the period when the Soviets were looking to withdraw from Afghanistan, the film explores the lives of a group of children in an orphanage in Kabul. With the future of their country looking uncertain, cinema and in particular Bollywood films, become their escape. This is a beautiful film about hope in impossible circumstances. Sadat herself escaped from Kabul in 2021 when the
Diwali is all about spreading happiness and joy, and making others around you believe that they are deserving of happiness too. As a character in Kore-eda’s new humanist film Monster says, “If only some people deserve it, that’s not happiness. Happiness is for everyone.” The films in ’ are all about realising that happiness is within the grasp of us all.
Jamun
In Gaurav Mehra’s powerful social drama an ageing father battles the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s disease, while looking for a groom for his daughter who has a squint. The film is a testament to the towering presence of Raghubir Yadav, one of India’s most accomplished thespians, who essays the complex role of the father, bringing in such physicality to the role, as you see bit by bit the impact that Parkinson’s has on his mind and body. A heartbreaking film that’s carried by the central performance of Yadav you won’t forget anytime soon.
India Sweets and Spices
From the heartbreaking, let’s move towards life affirming for a change of mood. is a delicate – and mostly sweet, not spicy – slice-of-life film about a family from a South Asian background settled in the United States and the struggles they face as they try to balance their hybrid cultural identity. If you’ve enjoyed other South Asian diaspora films such as Bend it Like Beckham or the endlessly rewatchable The Namesake, then this film is sure to appeal to you and tug familiar strings. The film is led by stellar performances by Manisha Koirala and Adil Hussain (you can also see Hussain in the Sridevi-led feminist comedy-drama ).
India Sweets and Spices screens on SBS World Movies on Sunday, 12 November at 8.30 PM.
What is Diwali without a little bit of magic? It’s a time to embrace the fact that not everything is within our control, and even the most meticulously laid plans, leave space for the possibility of everyday miracles. In ‘’, you can explore films that add that extra bit of sparkle in our lives, making the impossible seem possible.
The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir
If you saw the blink-and-miss appearance of Dhanush in Russo Brothers’ 2022 action-drama The Gray Man and wondered what the fuss is about, you need to watch him charm you off your feet in . A fish-out-of-water adventure story, Dhanush plays a charming street magician in Mumbai who makes his living tricking people into believing that he has special magic powers. One day, he discovers that he has an estranged father in Paris, and he sets off to Europe to find him, armed with a fake 100 Euro note. The film has a Wes Anderson-like dreamy quality, as Dhanush, forever the unreliable narrator, makes his adventure seem more and more improbable and fantastical. A feel-good film that you’ll enjoy, especially if you’re an Anderson fan.
The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir screens on SBS World Movies on Sunday, 12 November at 4:40 PM.
Secret Superstar
A young singing prodigy must conceal her identity from her family while she goes on a journey to become India’s next big singing sensation. When you hear the premise of , you can’t help but think that the film’s protagonist needs a little bit of divine intervention to fulfil her quest. And this divine intervention arrives in the form of superstar Aamir Khan, who plays a rare supporting role in a performance that’s at once adorable, while at the same time being a spoof on self-obsessed Bollywood superstars. While Khan’s antics add levity to the narrative, this film is solely carried by the young shoulders of Zaira Wasim, giving one of the most memorable performances by a young actor in a Bollywood film. Watch this film for an unforgettable lead performance by Wasim, who has acted in just three films before announcing an indefinite retirement from acting.
These films and more are part of the A selection of these films will play throughout the day as part of the Diwali Marathon at SBS World Movies on Sunday, 12 November.
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