Vasan Bala’s Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota (English title: The Man Who Feels No Pain) premiered at the Midnight Madness section of the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Much to everyone’s surprise, the film was greeted with a standing ovation. Bala, who has previously directed the unreleased Peddlers and co-wrote Bombay Velvet and Raman Raghav 2.0, is tasting success for his first release.
The Man Who Feels No Pain was a riot! Thank you @mmadnesstiff and @PeterKapow for another tremendous night!!#TIFF18 #TIFF1159 pic.twitter.com/2CRdLyamHk
— Pierre Bois (@pierreboisjr) September 15, 2018
The film has also won the People’s Choice Award at the prestigious film festival, where films like Peter Farrelly’s Green Book, Barry Jenkins’s If Beale Street Could Talk and Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, took the top honours. British director Sandhya Suri’s The Field picked up the Best Short Film prize, where she documents the efforts of a female agricultural worker during the annual harvest season.
Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota – the title borrowed from Amitabh Bachchan’s iconic dialogue from the 1980s – confidently doffs its hat to the pulpy action films from that era and also fuses it with elements of a martial arts movie (featuring Jackie Chan). Bala’s film posters retained the Devanagiri font during their TIFF exhibition, choosing to celebrate the old school posters of 1980s Bollywood.
Isn’t it cool that @Vasan_Bala‘s MARD KO DARD NAHIN HOTA retained the Devnagari script in its Toronto (@TIFF_NET) posters too. Getting great reviews already. pic.twitter.com/OZ7TWGS605
— वरुण (@varungrover) September 15, 2018
The film starring Abhimanyu Dassani, Radhika Madan, Gulshan Devaiah and Mahesh Manjrekar, is produced by Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP and is scheduled to release in India on November 23, 2018.
