''Agra'' (, ) is a 2023 Hindi-language Indian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

, co-written and directed by

Kanu Behl Kanu Behl (born 1980) is an Indian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his work in Hindi cinema. He assisted director Dibaker Banerjee on the cult hit ''Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!'' and co-wrote ''LSD: Love Sex aur Dhokha''. His dire ...

. It features debutant Mohit Agarwal,

Priyanka Bose Priyanka Bose is an Indian actress and model. Active on stage and in films, she is best known for her role in the Italian film '' Gangor,'' among others. Priyanka started her film career with small roles in '' Love Sex aur Dhokha'', ''Sorry Bha ...

Ruhani Sharma Ruhani Sharma is an Indian actress and model who primarily works in Telugu films. She made her acting debut in with the Tamil film '' Kadaisi Bench Karthi'' (2017) and received praise for her lead role in ''Chi La Sow'' (2018), marking her Telu ...

Vibha Chibber Vibha Chibber is an Indian actress and theatre artist who appears in TV shows & Hindi films. She is well known for her memorable work in the successful television soaps '' Sapna Babul Ka... Bidaai'', '' Mrs. Kaushik Ki Paanch Bahuein'' and ''K ...

Sonal Jha Sonal Jha (born 29 July 1971) is an Indian film and television actress. Sonal Jha is best known for her roles in films such as ''Lipstick Under My Burkha'', ''3 Storeys'', '' Chillar Party'' and TV Serials such as '' Na Aana Is Des Laado'' and ...

and Aanchal Goswami in pivotal roles. The film follows Guru, a young single call center employee who still lives with his parents. Consumed by frustration, he plunges into a fever bordering on insanity, between pathetic fantasies, dating apps and hysterical self-harm. It premiered at the

2023 Cannes Film Festival The 76th annual Cannes Film Festival was a film festival that took place from 16 to 27 May 2023. Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund served as jury president. With the French film ''Anatomy of a Fall'' winning the Palme d'Or, the festival's top pr ...

Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (french: Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) is an independent selection of the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festiv ...

on 24 May 2023 with the description, "''Agra'' grasps the reality of patriarchy in India through the prism of male sexual misery".

Cast

* Mohit Agarwal as Guru *

as Priti *

as Mala *

Rahul Roy Rahul Roy (born 9 February 1968) is an Indian actor, producer and former model known for his works in Hindi films and television. Roy began his acting career with the 1990 blockbuster ''Aashiqui'', a Mahesh Bhatt production as the lead actor w ...

as Daddy ji *

as Mummy ji *

as Aunty ji * Aanchal Goswami as Chhavi, Guru's cousin

Production

In November 2022, the film was selected for India’s Film Bazaar strand, which is a part of Film Bazaar, the South Asia film project market operated by India’s National Film Development Corporation. ''Agra'' was filmed in June and July 2019. In 2020, when the film was in the middle of post production, It was held up for five months due to COVID-19 pandemic. It was shot on location in

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is ...

Release

The film premiered at

in Directors' Fortnight on 24 May 2023. In August 2023, it was selected at 2023

Indian Film Festival of Melbourne The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) is a Victoria State Government-funded annual festival based in Melbourne founded in 2012. It is presented by Film Victoria, and the provider is chosen through a tender process. The current tender prov ...

, where it won the Best Indie Film award and Best Performance in Film (male) award for Mohit Agarwal. It was screened at the

28th Busan International Film Festival 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

in 'A Window on Asian Cinema' on 7 October 2023, as well as at the 20th Hong Kong Asian Film Festival ( :zh:香港亞洲電影節) on 31 October and 12 November 2023. It was also screened at the MAMI film festival 2023 where it won the Special Jury Price.

Reception

On the review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

website, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on 7 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. ''Agra'' which had its world premiere in the

Directors’ Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (french: Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) is an independent selection of the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festiv ...

section of the

76th Cannes Film Festival The 76th annual Cannes Film Festival was a film festival that took place from 16 to 27 May 2023. Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund served as jury president. With the French film '' Anatomy of a Fall'' winning the Palme d'Or, the festival's top p ...

received a 5-minute standing ovation. Fabien Lemercier reviewing for

Cineuropa The MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe or simply Creative Europe MEDIA (formerly The MEDIA Programme of the European Union) is designed to support the European film and audiovisual industries. Budget The goal of programmers is to increase the ...

praised the film and wrote, "A hard-hitting and audacious film that will leave no one indifferent and that only a formally talented filmmaker like Kanu Behl could bring to a safe harbour beyond its ambient darkness." Namrata Joshi for

ScreenDaily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global film business. ...

wrote in review that in the film "The characters are developed well and have complexity to them, and the terrific ensemble cast elevates the film; particularly Bose, Agarwal and Roy..."

Shubhra Gupta Shubhra Gupta is an Indian film critic, writer and columnist for ''The Indian Express'' from New Delhi, India. She received the Ramnath Goenka Award for Best Writing on Cinema in 2012. She was a member of the Central Board of Film Certificati ...

of ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' gave a positive review and described it as "a triumphal return to Cannes".

Anna M. M. Vetticad Anna Mercy Mathews Vetticad, commonly known as Anna M. M. Vetticad, is an Indian film critic and journalist. She has been in the field of journalism since 1994. Vetticad has also hosted her own interview show, ''Star Trek'', on Headlines Today ...

wrote on ''Himal Southasian'': "Agra is an unsettling reminder of why society should study the victim-turned-victimiser phenomenon, the heterogeneity of evil and persecution, if we wish to combat the self-destructive nature of patriarchy." Vetticad added, "The optimistic view is that just as 'life finds a way', to quote Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, so too good cinema will find its audience."

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{Rotten tomatoes
''Agra''
at Quinzaine des cinéastes 2023 films Films shot in Agra Indian drama films 2020s Hindi-language films 2023 drama films Hindi-language drama films Film productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic Films about self-harm Indian feminist films Films about online dating Films set in Uttar Pradesh Indian romantic drama films Films about domestic violence