Schedule

Friday, February 21, 2025
4:30–9:30 p.m. 

Saturday, February 22, 2025
5–9:30 p.m. 

Join the Indian Film Festival of Houston and Asia Society Texas Center to celebrate the cinematic voices of India and the Diaspora with a fresh lineup of feature films, documentaries, and shorts! Each day will also include a reception with live music performances. 

Additional details about the films will be coming soon.

Schedule

Friday, February 21, 2025

4:30 p.m. Opening Remarks and Welcome Address

4:45 p.m. Documentary Film Agent of Happiness
Director: Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbo | Duration: 94 minutes | Language: Dzongkha, Nepali (English subtitles), English Synopsis: Primed to be the happiest country in the world, Bhutan invented the Gross National Happiness Index. As Amber embarks on a cross-country road trip with a colleague, Agent of Happiness reveals itself to be an ingenious, absorbing ethnographic portrait of a society reeling under the weight of its own loneliness.

6:20 p.m. Short Film Free as a Bird
Director: Aditya Khude | Duration: 16 minutes | Language: Hindi (English subtitles), English | Cast: Ashish Vidyarthi, Shrikant Yadav. Varsha Dandale, Parna Pethe, Siddharth Menon
Synopsis: Set in the bustling city of Mumbai, the story is about a lower-middle-class family living in a small one-room kitchen. Raj and Priya, who aspire to a more prosperous future, go through a humiliating incident on their anniversary at the beach, where they become entangled in a police raid.

6:40 p.m. Reception and Entertainment by Moodafaruka

7:45 p.m. Feature Film Mehta Boys
Director: Boman Irani | Duration: 116 minutes | Language: English | Cast: Boman Irani, Avinash Tiwary, Shreya Chaudhary, Puja Sarup
Synopsis: The film attempts to explore the strange yet universal cross-wiring between fathers and sons. It’s a conflict of one of them trying to become a man while the other is losing every version of the man he once was. A father and son embark on an involuntary 48 hours odyssey, navigating clashing perspectives as they confront the intricate nuances of their strained relationship.

Saturday, February 22, 2025

5 p.m. Opening Remarks and Welcome Address

5:15 p.m. Feature Film The Ancient (Puratawn)
Director: Suman Ghosh | Duration: 100 minutes | Language: Bengali, Hindi (English subtitles) | Featuring: Sharmila Tagore, Rituparna Sengupta, Indranil Sen
Synopsis: Ritika and her husband Rajeev return to her ancestral house in West Bengal to celebrate her mother’s 80th birthday. The film deftly braids in questions of failing memory, cherishing the past, a fear of obsolescence and reconciliation into a haunting, moving story that is at its heart about burying the ghosts of the past in order to make peace with what has happened so that one can move on.

7:30 p.m. Special Event

For more information, please contact [email protected].

About the Indian Film Festival of Houston

The Indian Film Festival of Houston (IFFH) Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization devoted to education in the fields of film and television and in creating a greater appreciation of Indian cinema and culture by showcasing quality films that honor entertainment industry performers.

Performing Arts and Culture programs at Asia Society Texas are presented by Syamal and Susmita Poddar. Major support comes from Nancy C. Allen, Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, The Brown Foundation, Inc., the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance, Houston Endowment Inc. Generous funding also provided by The Anchorage Foundation of Texas, The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts, and Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas), National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, and the Wortham Foundation. Additional support is provided by The Clayton Fund, and the Friends of Asia Society, a dedicated group of individuals and organizations committed to bringing exceptional programming to Asia Society Texas.

Performing Arts and Culture Presenting Sponsors

Syamal and Susmita Poddar

Performing Arts and Culture Program Sponsors

Program Partners

About Asia Society Texas

Asia Society Texas believes in the strength and beauty of diverse perspectives and people. As an educational institution, we advance cultural exchange by celebrating the vibrant diversity of Asia, inspiring empathy, and fostering a better understanding of our interconnected world. Spanning the fields of arts, business, culture, education, and policy, our programming is rooted in the educational and cultural development of our community — trusting in the power of art, dialogue, and ideas to combat bias and build a more inclusive society.