30 Indian LGBTQ+ films to be screened at Liberty Cinema from June 1-5, 2022, reports The Daily Eye Newsdesk 

KASHISH 2022, South Asia’s biggest LGBTQ+ film festival will kick start the Pride Month on June 1^st, screening around 194+ films from 53 Countries at Liberty Cinema (1^st to the 5th), Alliance Française de Bombay (2^nd to the 4th) and online (3^rd to the 12th).

Indian LGBTQ+ films lead with the highest number of films at the festival, totaling 31, that include feature length narrative films, documentary films and short films.

“We are super thrilled to present such an amazing collection of LGBTQ+ films from India - 30 of them! It reaffirms our position as India and South Asia’s biggest LGBTQ+ film festival. And to showcase all of them on the big screen at Liberty Cinema is a joy in itself. We are coming out of the pandemic lockdown for 2 years with flying colors and we hope audiences come to the festival to enjoy this grand treat we have for them”, said Sridhar Rangayan, festival director.   

The festival opens on June 1^st with an Indian film this year, titled Antharam in Malayalam and Tamil, about a trans woman’s journey of acceptance, played by real life transgender actress Negha.

This will be followed by big ticket films like Badhai Do, starring Rajkumar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar and directed by Harshwardhan Kulkarni, on June 2^nd and Sheer Qorma, starring Shabana Azmi, Divya Dutta and Swara Bharkar, directed by Faraz Ansari on June 4^th. While Badhai Do plays as a Special Feature, Sheer Qorma will play as Indian Narrative Centerpiece film, followed by a panel discussion titled, ‘Mainstreaming Lesbian & Non-Binary Identities’.

Other notable feature length films are Holy Wound by Asok R Nath with no dialogues, Naanu Ladies in Kannada by Shailaja Padindala, a non-binary filmmaker, ‘July, 2020’ in English directed by Sahej Nandrajog and Sanwri - Love Beyond Gender in Hindi, directed by Pallavi Roy.

Two other notable films are ‘Trans Kashmir’, about transgender community in Kashmir by Surabhi Dewan, and Mumu Shelly by Batul Mukhtiar.

Also interestingly, KASHISH 2022 will screen the first ever LGBTQ+ film in Sanskrit, titled Balbhushanani (Child Ornaments), directed by Chinmay Sudhir Shende.

There are films in various Indian languages like Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, Urdu, Kashmiri and Assamese.

Registrations are open for the festival at:

https://www.instamojo.com/KASHISH_MIQFF/ for people to buy festival passes, with special discount for students, transgender persons and senior citizens.

HIGHLIGHTS OF INDIAN LGBTQ+ FILMS AT KASHISH 2022

5 Indian Narrative Features out of which 1 is the opening film and 2 are playing in competition in the Narrative Features category.

20 Narrative Short films out of which 10 are in competition in Indian Narrative Shorts, Riyad Wadia Award for Best Emerging Indian Filmmaker and Student Short categories. 

4 documentary shorts, out of which 1 is in competition in Documentary Short category and 1 documentary feature, which is playing as the Indian documentary centerpiece film.

LIST OF INDIAN LGBTQ+ FILMS SCREENING AT KASHISH 2022

ANTHARAM - Dir: Abhijith Pulparambath / 71 min / 2021 / Narrative Feature / Malayalam, Tamil

BADHAI DO - Dir: Harshavardhan Kulkarni / 147 min / 2022 / Narrative Feature / Hindi

CHHOTI SHAMEEZ - Dir: Shruti Vohra / 15 min / 2021 / Narrative Short / Hindi

BALBHUSHANANI (Child Ornaments) - Dir: Chinmay Sudhir Shende / 8 min / 2021 / Narrative Short / Sanskrit

DAL BHAT - Dir: Nemil Shah / 32 min / 2021 / Narrative Short / Gujarati, Hindi

DEAR BHARGAVA - Dir: Ramnath Shanbhag / 16 min / 2021 / Narrative Short / Kannada  

HER CANVAS - Dir: Sagar Devram Minde / 10 min / 2022 / Narrative Short / No Dialogues  

HOLY WOUND - Dir: Asok R Nath / 90 min / 2021 / Narrative Feature / No Dialogues  

IMPASSE - Dir: Tuhin Basu / 24 min / 2021 / Narrative Short / Hindi, Tamil

JULY, 2020 - Dir: Sahej Nandrajog / 83 min / 2021 / Narrative Feature / English  

KADHAKAL ARANGILOODE - Dir: Athul Sabu Varughese / 22 min / 2021 / Documentary Short / Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil

KINAARA - Dir: Anureet Watta / 5 min / 2021 / Narrative Short / English

MAN & WIFE - Dir: Rahul Roye / 9 min / 2021 / Narrative Short / Bengali, English  

MITR CLINIC - PRIDE AND BEYOND - Dir: Shrikkanth Govindarajan / 10 min / 2021 / Documentary Short / English, Hindi

MUHAFIZ (The Protector) - Dir: Pradipta Ray / 18 min / 2021 / Narrative Short / Gujarati, Hindi

MUMU SHELLEY - Dir: Batul Mukhtiar / 50 min / 2021 / Narrative Short / Bengali, English, Hindi

NAANU LADIES - Dir: Shailaja Padindala / 90 min / 2022 / Narrative Feature / India, UK/ Kannada

KAAGAZ KE PANKH (Paper Wings) - Dir: Kshitij Kumar Pandey / 21 min / 2021 / Narrative Short / English, Hindi

GAIR (Pariah) - Dir: Nishant Roy Bombarde / 26 min / 2021 / Narrative Short / Hindi

PARTNER - Dir: Trupil Sharad Patil / 14 min / 2021 / Narrative Short / Marathi

SANWRI - LOVE BEYOND GENDER - Dir: Pallavi Roy / 110 min / 2022 / Narrative Feature / Hindi

SHEER QORMA - Dir: Faraz Arif Ansari / 30 min / 2021 / Narrative Short / Hindi, Urdu, English

TAAP - ABOUT MERCURY ROLLING DOWN THE BODIES - Dir: Soumyajit Ghosh Dastidar / 10 min / 2019 / Narrative Short / Marathi

THE CARESS - Dir: Bhargav Lahkar / 15 min / 2022 / Narrative Short / Assamese

THE FLORIST - Dir: Priyam Chanda / 15 min / 2021 / Narrative Short / Bengali

THE SORROW OF LOVE - Dir: Sohag Sen / 16 min / 2021 / Narrative Short / Bengali, English

KATHEKAGALA KANIVE (The Valley Of Stories) - Dir: Vikas Badiger / 30 min / 2021 / Documentary Short / Kannada

THIRD - Dir: Manash Pratim Dutta / 23 min / 2021 / Documentary Short / Assamese, English

THODI SI KHUSHI (A Bit Of Happiness) - Dir: Ashish Madurwar / 15 min / 2022 / Narrative Short / Hindi

TRANS KASHMIR - Dirs: Surbhi Dewan, S A Hanan / 62 min / 2022 / Documentary Feature / English, Kashmiri, Urdu

About KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival

KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival is South Asia's biggest queer film festival, and the first LGBTQ+ film festival in India to be held in a mainstream theatre. It is the first Indian LGBTQ+ festival to be held with approval by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, Government of India. Founded in 2010, KASHISH has grown to become an important medium for exhibition, production and distribution of LGBTQ+ films and the most needed platform to nurture the Indian LGBTQ+ movement. KASHISH has been voted as one of the Top 5 LGBT Film Festivals in the World, and also one of the Top 5 Film Festivals in India.

Besides the annual film festival its other initiatives are KASHISH Forward - India’s first traveling campus LGBTQ+ film festival, KASHISH Global – that facilitates screening of Indian LGBTQ+ films across the world, Best of KASHISH film screenings and KASHISH Chalchitra Utsav – a festival of LGBTQ+ films in regional languages.  

More information at http://mumbaiqueerfest.com