Lighting up the screen at Cannes

The Lunchbox 

The most recent Indian film to seal the accolades at Cannes was Lunchbox. The movie, directed by Ritesh Batra, won the Critics Week Viewer Choice award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

Marana Simhasanam

Marana Simhasanam is a Malayalam film about the first execution through an electric chair in India. Oppression based on classes within the society and the abuse of political influence is something that this movie grapples with. It won the Caméra d’Or at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.

Piravi

Piravi, a movie based on the true story of the disappearance of an engineering student, also won the Caméra d’Or — Mention d’honneur award at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.  Incidentally, this was also Shaji N Karun’s debut film. 

Salaam Bombay 

Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay is about the lives of children who live off the streets and the hardships they face. It won the Camera d’Or and the Audience Award at the 1988 edition of the festival.

Kharij

A film based on a novel by Ramapada Chowdhury, Kharij won the Special Jury Prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. The story revolves around the death of child house-help and what ensues in the middle-class family’s home after that.

Pather Panchali

As the story goes, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister was so moved by this film that he ensured it entered the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. Well, Pather Panchali went onto win the Palme d’Or for Best Human Document. The film made by Satyajit Ray became a landmark in Indian cinema.

Do Bigha Zameen

A film that had a strong socialist narrative, Do Bigha Zameen won the Prix Internationale at the 1954 edition of the festival. The movie, directed by Bimal Roy, was also nominated for the Grand Prize.

Neecha Nagar

India’s first film to win a Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival was Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar. The movie won the award in 1946, the year that the festival came back into existence after a brief period of exile owing to the Second World War. The main area of focus for this movie was the economic disparity prevalent in Indian society.