NYIFF 2026-The Great Shamsuddin Family

The Great Shamsuddin Family
Director: Anusha Rizvi
Starring: Kritika Kamra, Juhi Babbar Soni, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Purab Kohli , Sheeba Chaddha, Farida Jalal, Dolly Ahluwalia, Natasha Rastogi, Joyeeta Dutta , Nishank Verma , Manisha Gupta, Rana Pratap Senger, Rahul Misra, Jeff Goldberg, Introducing Anushka Banerjee
Run time: 1 hour 38 minutes
Language: Hindi

Synopsis:
On a summer morning in Delhi, BANI AHMED, a 40-year female divorced writer is struggling to meet a 24 hour deadline for a vital submission to a University in America. Despite Bani’s determination to seize the day, circumstances propel it out of her control. First her cousin Iram arrives with an emergency of her own. Iram is followed by Amitav, a Professor with a not so secret crush on Bani, who is accompanied by a young crush of his own. Bani summons her elder sister Humaira to deal with Iram’s crisis but finds her mother and formidable aunt on her doorstep instead. They have an agenda of their own. Before Bani knows it, she has been enveloped by an avalanche of friends, sisters, mother, aunts, and cousins, each with their own grudges, issues, and agendas. The maelstrom that follows is a hilarious unfolding of family feuds, hysterical riffs between mothers and daughters, and the cunning resourcefulness of old women. Dire emergencies, including Interfaith marriage, fearful mob justice, and longstanding festering feuds make Bani’s existential dilemmas pale in comparison. The film is a mirror to contemporary India and our expectations and understandings of women, Muslims, Delhi and India are given an intimate jolt, while reaffirming familial bonds and friendships.

Anusha Rizvi is an acclaimed director and screenwriter whose debut, Peepli Live, was India’s official Academy Award entry and the first Indian film at Sundance. It won the Gollapudi Srinivas National Award and Best First Film at the Durban International Film Festival.
Her work includes her recent release, The Great Shamsuddin Family (2025), and documentaries for National Geographic (Hijack IC-814) and the BBC. A former NDTV journalist and Berkeley Fellow, Rizvi produces the revived art Dastangoi. She is currently writing The Park and developing series on Tihar Pr*son and the docu-series A Killing in Mansa.

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Host or Publisher Indo-American Arts Council