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Images from the Third World
It
is indeed heartening to know that the International Film Festival of
India- 2006 will have an Asian/African/ Latin American competition
section. The Golden Peacock Award will be given to the Best Film in
this section, while the Silver Peacock will be given to the Most
Promising Director. That IFFI has been chopping and changing its
format since its inception in the early 1950s is only too well known.
Why they gave up the competition section in the 1970s is hard to
comprehend. Over the past two or three years, they have reintroduced
the competition section in dribs and drabs. But grouping Asia, Africa
and Latin America may be a good idea because IFFI will then have a
Third World identity. Up to date IFFI has never had any identity.
After years of drumming it into them, they have finally realised the
need to have this particular slot. It will also help in marketing
these films. Sadly, the market section of IFFI has always been found
wanting and operates on a trial-and-error basis. The Confederation of
Indian Industries (CII) did it for the last two years, even after
bungling the first year. Last year’s director Afzal Ammanullah had
no answer as to why they were being persisted with. But giving the
Silver Peacock to the Most Promising Director appears to be rather
vague. It should have been to the Best Director as the Golden Peacock
goes to the Best Film. A Special Jury award will be given to the
director of a film for his individual artistic contribution. It is
also rather vague and should have been more specific. The jury will
be headed by Australian filmmaker Rolf De Heer and consist of five
members, one of which is Indian—Assamese filmmaker Jahnu Barua.
There will also be a variety of films ranging from Country Focus, Film
India Worldwide, Indian Premiers and Foreign Retrospectives. There
will be a retrospective of the late Govindan Aravindan (in his
lifetime few knew what G. stood for), the renowned Malayalam filmmaker
whose premature death was a great loss to Indian cinema. It will open
with Vasthuhara on November 26. The other four films to be
screened are Thampu, Kanchan Sita, Chidambaran
and Estaphan. Aravindan was a man of few words and this writer
often remembers his soft and polite invitations to see his films but
quite often the heavy schedule did not permit one to see all the films
one would have liked to, so one must put his films on a priority
list. The festival will open with a Spanish film Volver on
November 24 and conclude with a Mexican film Babel on December
3. There will also be homage to the film personalities that have died
in the last year, like renowned filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee,
actress Nadira, music director Naushad and Kannada actor Raj Kumar,
which means there will be a wide variety of films on display. Only the
organisation must be better than the last two IFFIs. Timings should
be strictly adhered to, the invitees must be controlled, even curbed
and the public should be able to see the IFFI films at the local
cinemas. The sad fact is that the multiplexes charge such high rates
that true lovers of cinema are not able to see them. Then inviting
tenders for the running of the main multiplex must be done post-haste.
Inox has been given an unfair advantage for reasons best known to the
powers that be and any opposition to them doesn’t seem to find the
light of day. What one needs in running IFFI is transparency but this
has never been the case. One must also take the locals into
confidence, not bulldoze one’s way along like the then Chief
Minister Manohar Parrikar did in the initial year. There is still
over a month left for IFFI, so let’s hope the teething troubles are
over and one can look forward to an exciting, informative and
entertaining film festival, which should flow as smoothly as the
Mandovi in whatever we call a winter.
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