Pyre trailer: 18-award film on love and ageing to release Oct 30

Vinod Kapri’s Pyre has dropped its first full-length trailer, and the mood is deliberately far from the usual Bollywood rush. The film, set in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, follows an ageing couple through the routines, arguments and quiet companionship of a mountain village that is slowly emptying out. It is scheduled for a theatrical release on October 30 in Hindi and Malayalam.

A 28-year absence frames the story

The trailer centres on Padam Singh and Tulsi, known as Aama-Bubu, who live in a remote hill village with limited access to basic facilities. Their days are shaped by chores and familiar disagreements, but the real shadow is their son Hariya, who has been away for 28 years. His absence turns the film into a meditation on migration: young people leave for work, and the people left behind grow old while waiting.

The trailer moves between small comic moments and more difficult conversations about health, decline and uncertainty. That tonal balance, gentle humour sitting alongside old-age fragility, is what makes the preview feel lived-in rather than sentimental.

Who is in Pyre, and where to catch it

• Cast: First-time actors Padam Singh Kapri, 80, and Heera Devi, 70, both from Uttarakhand.
• Director: Vinod Kapri, who also wrote the film.
• Producers: Vinod Kapri, Suresh Joshi and Arindra Rai Chaudhuri under Bhagirathi Films and Mashakbeen Studios.
• Pre-release screenings: Berinag, Bageshwar and Srinagar Garhwal from October 14 to 17 via Picture Time, a mobile theatre initiative.
• Theatrical release: October 30 in Hindi and Malayalam.

Why the awards run matters

Before its Indian release, Pyre has already travelled to international festivals and picked up 18 awards, including 15 Best Film honours, along with recognition for direction, music, cinematography and sound. For Hindi film fans, that suggests a small film with unusually strong craft credentials, particularly the chance to see the Himalayan landscape and two non-professional actors carry a feature on the big screen.

Director Vinod Kapri said he was looking forward to audiences experiencing the story and the Himalayan setting in cinemas. The early mobile screenings also serve a practical purpose: they take the film to audiences in the hills who rarely have access to permanent theatres.

For fans who follow the festival circuit, the gap between international acclaim and an Indian theatrical date can feel long. The Hindi and Malayalam release on October 30 closes it, while the early hill screenings show the makers are trying to reach the communities the story actually comes from.

For viewers who like their cinema intimate and rooted, Pyre looks like a welcome October alternative.

Source: India Today