Village Rockstars

Reviews of Rima Das’ Village Rockstars in Variety and Hollywood Reporter.

Starring:  Bhanita Das, Basanti Das
Director: Rima Das
India theatrical release date: Sep 28, 2018
Genre: Coming of age
Language: Assamese
Duration: 87 mins

AWARDS
National Film Awards
Best Film
Best Child Artist
Best Editing
Best Audiography (Location Sound Recordist)

Film Critics Circle of India (FCCI)
Best Indian Film

Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI)
Golden Gateway of India for Best Film—India Gold
OXFAM Award—Best Film on Gender Equality
Young Critics Choice Award

Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles
Grand Jury Prize—Best Feature Film

Cairo International Film Festival
Cairo Film Critics’ Week—Fathy Farag Prize for Best Artistic Contribution

Prag Cine Awards
Best Actress
Best Film

“A milestone film of sorts, Village Rockstars epitomises the trials and tribulations, and heralds the coming of age, of a filmmaker, of her protagonist, and of the indie film movement in India.”

Dalton

“Rima Das’ film is a lyrical montage of life and times in contemporary rural India. It subtly draws attention to complex gender issues – sometimes even subverting the conventional gender norms – without ever getting preachy. Bhanita Das – the pint-sized fiery ball of lovable energy – is endearingly natural. But just when one fears that the film might become schmaltzy, the film-maker takes control. The lens speaks volumes, sometimes conveying more than the dialogues. Such a work by a first-time director holds a lot of promise for Indian cinema.”

Priyanka Dasgupta, Times of India

“A masterwork is usually the result of strict adherence to artistic and functional rules. Village Rockstars respects none: it dons a raw, innocent cloak and exudes a degree of purity that deliberate craft can never bestow on a film… The film stands for something that is always under threat: the courage to ignore the reality that life is exceedingly difficult for cinema that is made on the margins of a giant production machinery and recognize that there always are ways out for those who revel in battling the odds, no matter how daunting, and overcoming them.”

Rating: 5 stars | Full review

Saibal Chatterjee, NDTV

“Gradually sucks you into a world so separate from your own… The totally untouched visuals seem so seeped in its place, and milieu. Satyajit Ray’s stunningly life-like directorial debut, Pather Panchali… had a similar effect on distantly urban Indians, let alone the West.”

| Feature

Mayanak Shekhar, Mid Day

“A women’s journey into the heart of the matter.”

Premchand, Mathrubhumi

“The film’s journey is one of those impossible showbiz fairy tales. And this unlikely success comes from Rima’s ability to tell a moving story with clarity and precision… The narrative plays out almost un-plotted like a documentary.”

Rating: 4 stars | Full review

Anupama Chopra, Film Companion

“You can sense the strong parallel with Das’ own strivings to make her film. It is, in a sense, the director’s own story. And how beautifully told it is, with not a shred of artifice. There is solid craft at work, but at no point calls attention to itself. The film flows, and we flow along with it.”

Rating: 4 stars | Full review

Shubhra Gupta, Indian Express

“A poem about the purity of childhood madnesses and, in a strange sense, also an ode to simpler times… In the styles of the best Indian film directors working today… in their treatment of places and characters, we can sense the generosity of Jean Renoir. This is perhaps because these directors seem capable of remaking Indian life with all its complexities into ‘beauty that just happens’. Of all these Renoiristas, Rima Das possesses the most affectionate eyes.”

Rating: 5 stars | Full review

Sreehari Nair, Rediff

Village Rockstars on IMDB