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ShareTORONTO: India is in a celebratory mode at the ongoing 33rd Toronto International Film Festival here with Deepa Mehta, Preity Zinta and first-time director Nandita Das garnering rave reviews for their latest work.
Toronto-based filmmaker Mehta, who enjoys a special niche in Canadian cinema with her India-themed films, has yet again wooed critics who are showering effusive words of praise for her latest work, Heaven on Earth.
The film is about a Punjabi girl who lands in Brampton, Canada as a newly-married bride only to run into an abusive husband and an unsympathetic mother-in-law. In its review, the Toronto Star newspaper praised "the magic elements that turn a kitchen-sink drama into soaring metaphor".
Zinta, who is generally dismissed as a bubbly actress incapable of handling roles with depth and complexity, has come up with a performance so well modulated in Mehta's film that the Screen Daily described it as "compelling". Praising the film and its director, the critic wrote, "She (Mehta) has a compelling vessel in Preity Zinta as the bereft and bemused Chand."
Noting Zinta's established reputation as a leading light of the song-and-dance genre of Hindi film, the CBC News, Canada's leading news channel, called her presence in the sensitive 'Heaven and Earth', "wonderfully ethereal".
Similarly, Nandita Das's transition from performer to director in 'Firaaq', afilm that probes the impact of the 2002 Gujarat riots on ordinary folk, has attracted much critical approbation here.
"The directing debut of the superb actress is a probing and discerning work," a critic said in the Screen Daily. "In her movies as an actress, Das is a vibrant and physical performer. As a director, she shows considerable visual talent, deploying imagery both harsh and unrelenting."
Describing Heaven on Earth as "slow-burning and quietly potent", its critic called Mehta's film "a magnetic piece of narrative film-making".
The Indian film fraternity is celebrating this success by throwing parties one after the other. After a bash at a downtown restaurant hosted by the organizers of TIFF, the Singh is Kinng entourage moved to another do at the Four Seasons Hotel to celebrate the gala screening of the film earlier in the day.
Not very far away, the Firaaq team, spearheaded by Nandita Das and representatives of Percept Picture Company, hosted their own party and with good reason.
