Once Fall descends on NYC, I typically retire into my own cocoon of spending way more time indoors, taking long baths, eating pumpkin pie and indulging in the pleasure of watching movies. There is nothing more fabulous in my book than a day spent watching the latest blockbuster or most talked about indie hit. Thankfully this coming week one of the most anticipated events of the season, the South Asian International Film Festival — or SAIFF for short — takes over a few venues throughout the Big Apple with an array of Bollywood blockbusters, some Hindi indie flicks and even India’s official entry to the Oscar for 2010. The festival is in perfect synchronicity with our need to go inward with the first chill, but also our desire to warm our hearts with the kind of emotions only Indian cinema can provide.  

The opening night selection this year is a bigger than life, magical modern retelling of the tale of ‘Aladin’, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Sanjay Dutt and Jacqueline Fernandes. The film promises to be an all-out, no holds barred Bollywood extravaganza and is directed by Sujoy Ghosh. The music, by masters Vishal and Shekhar, has been a best-seller since hitting the stores a couple of weeks ago. The world premiere of the film, at the Paris Theater on October 28th, will include a post-screening Q & A session with members of the cast — although the Big B Genie will elude us, hunky Aladin AKA Riteish Deshmukh is scheduled to be there — and director Ghosh himself. OK, so my feelings are quite transparent, ever since running into the polite and gorgeous Deshmukh at brunch in Bombay, I have been smitten by his looks and more than a little awed by his dancing skills. But I digress…

Also in the festival is the highly anticipated film ‘Fatso’ directed by that ‘Monsoon Wedding’ Uncle we all love to hate Rajat Kapoor and starring the highly eccentric Ranvir Shorey, who supposedly put on loads of weight to ‘fit’ the part. If that reminds you of Robert De Niro, trust me the similarities between the two actors do not end there! Rajat Kapoor is a personal favorite of mine, able to don the writer/director’s hat perfectly — as in the brilliant ‘Mixed Doubles’ about the weaknesses of married men and what destruction those flaws can bring on — as well as ever being the perfect thespian, as in the one-man piece ‘Siddharth: The Prisoner’ and Sudhir Mishra’s ‘Khoya Khoya Chand’. Fatso is the kind of film that simply cannot go wrong for me. Kapoor directing Shorey, it’s like saying Scorsese and his muse, with a dash of spice thrown in.

I will not be left wanting for more of the charismatic Rajat Kapoor, as he has two films in this year’s festival. He also stars in ‘Raat Gayi Baat Gayi?’ along with Neha Dupia and Viney Pathak, which will be screening on the evening of Monday, November 2nd, at the School of Visual Arts Theater. Another wonderfully funny yet poignant film about the conservative institution of marriage in an increasingly modernized India. And in the poster Kapoor looks dashing and smart. A deadly combination for any man! It’s a guessing game at this point whether Kapoor himself will be attending the festival, he’s saying yes one day, then no the next, then back to yes, due to some scheduling conflicts… Last update, it was YES, so fingers crossed everyone!

Closing the festival will be Paresh Mokashi’s feature directorial debut ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’, a Marathi film depicting the birth of the Indian film industry. Set in 1914, the film follows the struggle of Dadasaheb Phalke while making the first silent Indian film ‘Raja Harishchandra’ against all the odds. Mokashi’s film has been chosen as India’s official 2010 entry to the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language film category, which marks only the second time a Marathi film has been picked.

Of course, there are other fantastic films in between, like the feature ‘Karma Calling’, starring the delightfully handsome rising star Samrat Chakrabarti, the documentary ‘Project Kashmir’ and the poignant ‘Gabhricha Paus’ — The Damned Rain — a film about the farmers of Maharashtra that has been getting quite a lot of attention since playing at the Indian Film Festival of LA.

So, with films to delight everyone from the Bollywood fanatics, to the die-hard independent cinema fans and even regional cinema lovers, SAIFF promises to the be all the entertainment I need to warm up my October! And have I ever steered you wrong as far as hip happenings and significant events? OK then, see you at the movies…

For tickets and more info, go to www.saiff.org.