Aparna Sanyal

This remarkable journey across our planet and universe explores how meteorites, shooting stars, and deep impacts have awoken our wonder about other realms—and make us rethink our destinies.

Traversing centuries of Tibetan Buddhist lore, this film brings to life the fascinating story of Guru Padmasambhava - one of the greatest Buddhist teachers from the Indian sub-continent. Also referred to as Guru Rinpoche, he is credited with establishing the Buddha Dharma in Tibet in the 8th century, as well as initiating the 'Nyingma Lineage', that continues to be acknowledged as the oldest school of Buddhism to be still followed in the Himalayan regions of present-day Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal and Mongolia. For many of us who know of Tibetan Buddhism through its most prominent contemporary teacher, His Holiness The Dalai Lama, this film offers a comprehensive look at its origins and the elements that make Vajrayana, the 'third' vehicle of Buddhism, so unique.

In the world's only deaf-mute village where silence reigns, tension mounts as Misra Khatoon approaches childbirth. The villagers surround her home and beat drums seeking a response from the newborn.

Schizophrenia. It may be one word, but it immediately conjures up multiple connotations. Mad. Incurable. Violent. Suicidal. Chemical imbalances. Crazy. A lifelong condition. Inevitable dependency on Medicines. Dark. Terrible. 'A Drop of Sunshine' challenges these notions. It questions the mainstream view of the condition and seeks alternate ways of recovering from it. Through the powerful story of its young and gutsy protagonist, Reshma Valiappan, it seeks to give viewers a new vocabulary to address the stigmatized mental illness. The film proposes that the only treatment method that can work in Schizophrenia is one where the so-called 'patient' is encouraged and empowered to become an equal partner in the process of healing.

In a dim, dusty room within Mumbai's Slums, locals gather as a film is projected, transporting those who enter into a realm offering solace from the relentless urban chaos. An exquisite examination of the rhythm and ambiance inside the exterminating alternative cinema space- the video parlors.

Aspiring to make it big in the page 3 industry, an established paparazzi Manoj takes his chance against fellow photographers in a race to capture the most sensational photos in order to battle the realities of life. Maithili language film.

Alvina visits her late Grandfather’s House, on the 5th anniversary of his demise. She and her grandmother bond over their memories and affection towards him. As they spend slow afternoons together, talking about him, his patriarchal tendencies begin to surface. Alvina speaks to her father, and a childhood of fear and tyranny surfaces in her father’s recollections. Her grandmother’s experiences as a woman and a wife are colored by the same tyranny. These well kept secrets only had the tree outside the balcony and the walls of the house as witness, and their burden brings the house to life, and makes the tree restless.

Pushed to the margins of the very wedding celebrations they contribute to, a group of migrant Muslim band players waits in the city’s corners until the ceremony ends.

Why do we have such a contentious relationship with the idea of dying? What keeps us from looking at death, or the dying, in the eye, from making peace with the process? The Film wonders if the process of dying can become meaningful and if embracing our own mortality might be the key to a more fulfilling life.

As the region of Barak Valley, Assam, India, is swiftly giving way to newer formations, structures, and beliefs, two siblings converse over the phone about their deserted childhood home situated in the same region while residing far from it.

Inspired by movies, a young girl from the Banjara tribe in rural Maharashtra fights for her dream of becoming a kabaddi player to escape a forced marriage. During a district-level tournament, she slips into a Bollywood-tinted dream, momentarily becoming the hero she’s always imagined.

Through a series of unanswered phone calls made by an unnamed narrator, we listen to the dreams, fears, and ambitions of a migrant man working as a cook in Bombay, while witnessing glimpses of daily life unfolding across the city

Realizing all that is left of his great-grandfather are the tools of his caste trade - a pair of scissors, a comb, and a mirror, a filmmaker sets out for his hometown hoping to make sense of his family and their inheritance.

Brair Kani explores an ancestral house located in Srinagar, Kashmir. Using the attic as a site of reflection, the film navigates the relationship between space, belonging and personal history. Inhabiting the confines of the attic, the house spirits exist simultaneously as carriers of collective memory and as manifestations of the emotional landscape.

As I prepare to bid farewell to a childhood home, grief returns unannounced, leaving us once more at its quiet threshold.