'Rang Rasiya', 'I Am Kalam' at Chicago film fest

Chicago, Aug 18 (IANS) Filmmaker Ketan Mehta's controversial film "Rang Rasiya" has been selected to open the Chicago South Asian Film Festival, which is starting Sep 30.

"Rang Rasiya" is the story of artist Raja Ravi Varma's passions, obsessions and his fierce struggle for creative freedom. He hurt the religious sentiments of the people by painting nudes of Indian mythological characters. Later on, his muse Sugandha inspired him to create exquisite paintings based on mythological themes and classic literature.

Nila Madhab Panda's "I Am Kalam" has been selected as the centrepiece of the film festival, said a statement from the festival.

The movie is a heartwarming story of a 13-year-old slum boy who aspires to be like A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former president of India.

Amole Gupte's "Stanley Ka Dabba" will also been screened in the feature films category of the festival which will end Oct 2.

As many as 27 films have been selected across a variety of genres, such as comedy, drama, romance, fantasy, and reality.

Also, filmmaker Sonali Gulati's autobiographical documentary "I Am", which chronicles the journey of an Indian lesbian filmmaker who returns to Delhi, 11 years later, to re-open what was once home, will also be screened at the fest.

Apart from that, films like "XXWhy" and "Jason" which touch upon LGBT issues and short films like "Do I?" and "Have I Shared Too Much?" will be shown at the event.

The bouquet of films include Athula Liyanage's "Bambara Wallala", Geeta Malik's "Troublemaker", Moinak Biswas and Arjun Gourisaria's "Spring In The Colony", Hemant Gaba's "Shuttlecock Boys", Anu Rana's "Ring Laila", Harjant Gill's "Roots of Love", Nasir Khan's "Made in Pakistan", Pankaj Johar's documentary "Still Standing", and Shelley Saywell's documentary "In the Name of the Family",

The short film category will have Snehal Patel's "The Eggie Files Director", Gursimran Sandhu's "Homecoming", M.S. Srikanth's "The Bridge", Vivek Shraya's "Seeking Single White Male", Abi Varghese's "The Return Address", Rakesh Chaudhary's "The Eclipse of Taregna", Jason Wang's "Second Best", Sofian Khan's "Small Voices", Sandeep Sharma's "A Portrait in Bombay" and Kenneth Lawrence's "Ronnie".

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I Am Kalam