'Margarita' does India proud at Toronto film festival
The film, written by Bose and Nilesh Maniyar, and starring Kalki Koechlin, tells the story of a young woman living with cerebral palsy.
Margarita, with a Straw, directed by Shonali Bose, won the NETPAC Award for World or International Asian Film Premiere at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival that wrapped up on Sunday.
The award is given by a jury from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema or NETPAC. Margarita, which the jury described as "both universal and groundbreaking", is the only Indian film to win an award at TIFF this year.
The film, written by Bose and Nilesh Maniyar, and starring Kalki Koechlin, tells the story of a young woman living with cerebral palsy. Koechlin shines as the protagonist Laila, who wants to live life on her own terms despite her disability. Reacting to the award, Maniyar told MAIL TODAY, "We were competing with some of the amazing films from countries like South Korea and elsewhere. This means an end to an arduous journey of making the film and beginning of a challenge to take this film to the rest of the world." Bose has said the film was an intensely personal project for her.
She told MAIL TODAY that the award was announced on Ishan's fourth death anniversary and that he had "wrought this miracle for me and for the film". Margarita received an enthusiastic response at its world premiere and other screenings at TIFF.
The film festival's artistic director and programmer for South Asian films, Cameron Bailey, said he chose Margarita for TIFF as he considered it one of the strongest independent films India had produced in recent years. "I'm always hoping that film-makers who go a little bit beyond the familiar beaten path when it comes to commercial film-making in India reach their audience, I know there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Indians who want to see this kind of film," he added.
Bose said, "Our world premiere at TIFF has been outstanding. I am indebted to Cameron for believing in me and for selecting Margarita when it was just a rough cut."