Over the weekend, one of our most anticipated films of the year dropped an absolutely incredible trailer. TIFF Midnight Madness award winner, Vasan Bala (Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota / The Man Who Feels No Pain) returns to the big screen with Jigra, a big budget thriller starring Alia Bhatt (Gangubai Kathiawadi) and relative Vedang Raina (Netflix's The Archies) in his feature film debut.
Produced by the legendary Dharma Productions studio in Mumbai, Jigra will be Vasan Bala's fourth feature overall, but his first to get international theatrical distribution, an incredibly exciting prospect that will hopefully put the filmmaker on some new radars as a talent to follow. Back in 2012, Bala's debut feature, Peddlers, was a Cannes Critics Week selection back in 2012, but remains in distribution limbo after twelve long years. In 2018 he stormed TIFF with martial arts comedy, The Man Who Feels No Pain, which wound up winning the Midnight Madness Audience Award, and two years ago in 2022 his crime thriller Monica, O My Darling released to positive ciritcal reaction on Netflix.
As is typical of Indian film productions, very little plot is revealed in this Jigra trailer, just the basics: Bhatt is Raina's big sister, and is willing to protect him at all costs. This trailer is all vibes, and those vibes are strong. Bala's command of craft is stellar, and he appears to take full advantage of the larger canvas a theatrical production supported by one of India's biggest studios affords. And we are all better for it.
Jigra is slotted for release on October 11th around the world, and we'll be there on opening night.