Bandra Film Festival celebrates International Women’s Day by screening four female-centric films

The films are available to watch at no cost on the festival's YouTube channel.

Bandra Film Festival, a solely digital film festival, is celebrating the International Women’s Day by screening four Indian-made films that are women-centric. The films are available to watch at no cost on the festival’s YouTube channel.

Amu, Leeches, Neem Jamun and Sita Sings the Blues make up the list.

Amu is directed by Shonali Bose, otherwise known for Margarita with a Straw and The Sky Is Pink, and was her 2005 debut as a director. The story, set in the backdrop of 1984 anti-Sikh riots, was based on her own novel of the same name. The film starred Konkona Sen Sharma. The film was critically acclaimed with an impressive score of 83 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Payal Sethi’s Leeches is a short film, clocking 27 minutes, and stars Sayani Gupta. The film confronts India’s bizarre obsession with virginity and purity and the horrifying concept of one-day bride.


Kamal Moolwani’s Neem Jamun is also a short film that tells a a poignant tale of a 12-year-old boy who undertakes a journey with his grandmother to help her visit another city and meet her son.

Nina Paley’s Sita sings the Blues is an animated musical romantic movie that created a lot of buzz around its release. The film got critical acclaim but it predictably created controversy with Hindu groups calling it derogatory. It scored a 100 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes. The film was a combination of a discussion among shadow puppets that discuss the events of Ramayana from Sita’s perspective.

The late legendary film critic Roger Ebert wrote in his review of the film back then, “I was enchanted. I was swept away. I was smiling from one end of the film to the other. It is astonishingly original. It brings together four entirely separate elements and combines them into a great whimsical chord. How did Paley’s mind work?”

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