NYIFF 2026-Baksho Bondi (Shadowbox) and Razaa (Short)

Baksho Bondi (Shadowbox)
Director: Tanushree Das, Saumyananda Sahi
Starring: Tillotama Shome, Chandan Bisht, Sayan Karmakar, Suman Saha
Run time: 1 hour 33 minutes
Language: Bengali, Hindi

Synopsis:
Maya lives with her husband, Sundar, and their teenage son, Debu, in a bustling suburb of Kolkata. She works multiple jobs, while Sundar is a retired soldier suffering from PTSD. Debu, often left to care for his father, is torn between embarrassment and affection.
One night Maya wakes to find Sundar gone. Sundar is a suspect in a M**der investigation, and a search ensues. When Sundar returns to Maya a few days later, the family balance is put to test.

Tanushree Das graduated from the University of Calcutta with a Masters in English Literature, and began her career as a theatre person – directing as well as acting. In 2011 Tanushree graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, with a Diploma in Film Editing. Tanushree‘s work as an editor has been screened to critical acclaim in film festivals around the world, including at Berlin, Locarno, Rotterdam, Rome, Pingyao, Hot Docs and Busan.
Born in Bangalore, Saumyananda Sahi studied philosophy at St Stephens College, Delhi before attending the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. Saumyananda has worked as a cinematographer on a variety of projects, both factual and fiction, which have gone on to screen and win awards at festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Sundance, Locarno and Rotterdam. He has been nominated for an Asia Pacific Award, Filmfare Award

Razaa(Short)
Director: Pooja Tolani
Starring: Geetanjali Kulkarni, Bhumika Sharma
Run time: 15 minutes
Language: Hindi, Urdu

Synopsis:
18-year-old Razaa plays a violent game on her phone as she and her mother Sabeen wait at a gynaecologist’s clinic to get an abortion. Sabeen is appalled at her nonchalance. As they argue about the morality of the difficult decision they must make, Razaa's father calls. They cannot let him find out about the pregnancy...

Pooja Tolani is an Indian screenwriter who makes her directorial debut with the short film Razaa.

Her screenwriting work includes Sacred Games 2 (directed by Anurag Kashyap, Neeraj Ghaywan, creatively headed by Vikramaditya Motwane), Lust Stories 2: The Mirror (directed by Konkona Sensharma) and Sarfira (directed by Sudha Kongara).

Pooja was selected for the U.S State Department International Visitors Leadership Program: Scripting Change in Contemporary Hindi Cinema - a three week exchange program for women screenwriters working in the Hindi film industry.

She has been awarded the Asia Society New Voices Fellowship for Screenwriters funded by Time Warner. She was mentored by director Sriram Raghavan during this programme.

She has also served as a member of the Executive Committee of Screenwriters Association - a trade union for Indian screenwriters. She is an alumni of the Film and Television Institute of India. She lives in Mumbai, India.

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