Punjab honour killing film ‘Dear Jassi’ in competition at 2023 London Film Festival

“This is a heart-wrenching love story and my friend, director Tarsem, has done an extraordinary job,” said Gulshan Grover in a message from Toronto.

London: A film inspired by a real-life honour killing in Punjab, ‘Dear Jassi, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this week has been selected in the official competition category for this year’s BFI London Film Festival, starting early next month. Directed by India-born filmmaker Tarsem Singh Dhandwar, the film also marks a debut for producer Sanjay Grover – the son of Bollywood actor Gulshan Grover, who was representing him at the Canadian screenings while his son was busy with a shoot in London.

“This is a heart-wrenching love story and my friend, director Tarsem, has done an extraordinary job,” said Gulshan Grover in a message from Toronto.

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“Also, it’s a very special moment for me because ‘Dear Jassi’ is a film produced by my son Sanjay, his first independent film after working at Hollywood studios,” he said.

The story of the film is set in the 1990s, when on a trip to visit her extended family in Jagraon, Indo-Canadian Jassi – played on screen by Pavia Sidhu – meets Mithu – played by Yugam Sood, a rickshaw driver who lives down the street. The sweethearts begin exchanging love letters and Mithu starts making travel plans. But when Jassi sees her family lash out at one of her cousin’s suitors, she realises there’s no easy way to pursue their relationship.

“Both a true work of art and an unblinking chronicle of continuing injustice, ‘Dear Jassi’ demonstrates immense storytelling talent and filmmaking rigour while capturing the brutality that lies on the other side of a beautiful sunset, if you’re brave enough to turn the camera,” according to TIFF, where the film was part of its official selection.

The film will now compete with nine other worldwide entries at the London Film Festival, which opens on October 4. The other Indian films selected for screenings at the annual festival include ‘The Buckingham Murders’ in the “Thrill” section of the line-up, directed by Hansal Mehta and starring Kareena Kapoor in the lead. In the same section is another Indian thriller, ‘Stolen’, directed by Karan Tejpal with actor Abhishake Banerjee in the lead.

In the “Experimenta” section, is director Aarti Sunder’s abstract set of ghost stories entitled ‘Platform Ghosts – Turker, Farmer, Bot’.