London Indian film festival shows subcontinent cinema in confident mood

The London Indian film festival got underway last week with the screening of Monsoon Shootout, a slick Mumbai-set cops-versus-gangsters movie that was well-received at its Cannes film festival premiere. Written and directed by Amit Kumari, it is produced by Anurag Kashyap the brilliant creator of last year's epic masala-western, Gangs of Wasseypur. Monsoon Shootout is your standard Mumbai thriller, but it is also a tightly scripted and cleverly woven tale. The film explores the three options open to a rookie policeman, (played by newcomer Vijay Varma) when he corners a gangland assassin (played brilliantly by Nawazuddin Siddiqui): let the villain escape; shoot him dead; or put him through Mumbai's corrupt and inefficient judicial system. Each story is told with a grim honesty that manages to veer from cliches about India's poverty and corruption. Siddiqui is fast becoming one of the greats of Indian cinema. One of the stars of Gangs, Siddiqui is the slightly- built son of a farmer from the impoverished state of Uttar Pradesh, and one of nine siblings. Like that other low-born icon of Hindi cinema, Nana Patekar, he has a raw and emotive presence, and a mesmeric screen persona full of pathos, vulnerability, intelligence and a hint of unpredictable menace. His on-screen wife is superbly played by Tannishtha Chatterjee, who starred in Brick Lane. The innovative storytelling of Shootout (think Sliding Doors, but full of sweaty Indian mobsters and harassed bureaucracy-burdened policemen instead of Gwyneth Paltrow) shows how technically expert Indian cinema is becoming. By avoiding happy endings, the film shows how confident Indians are now in facing social problems. None of these possibilities will lead to anything but a morally compromising bloodbath. Siddiqui also stars in a short film, directed by Dibakar Banerjee. It is among five shorts by leading young Indian film-makers that comprises Bombay Talkies, the film that will close the festival (Kashyap also made a contribution). Among the films I definitely want to catch is Tasher Desh (Land of Cards), by the rebel Bengali auteur Q, whose film Gandu (Arsehole) was banned in India for its explicit portrayal of oral sex and drug use. His punk concert at the British Film Institute during last year's festival was a blast – not least for the disconcerted respectable Bengali intellectuals who didn't expect thrash-metal rants about masturbation and dope-smoking. I'm also looking forward to 72 Miles, about a boy in rural Maharashtra who escapes borstal and falls in with a beggar woman and her family on his long walk home. Meanwhile BA Pass looks like an interesting Indian take on The Graduate, exploring the boredom and sexuality of Delhi's rich and under-employed housewives. All in all, this year's festival is varied and interesting, with a focus on the quirky and the innovative.