Hollywood hues
Average fare

Organisational lapses marked the recent MAMI film festival during which more
than 200 films were screened, writes Ervell E. Menezes 

THERE are film festivals and there are film festivals and they appeal to different folks in different ways. The key issue is the films on display and if at least 50 per cent of them are festival class, it is okay. The Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI) festival, or the Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) as it is fondly referred to, is not known for its organisational skills. The opening show was a farce. And organisational lapses continued to take place right through.

But MAMI had come to the town with an ambitious package — "Bringing world cinema to Mumbai" as one of the catchlines, which hasn’t been taken too seriously. It has, however, brought a few big names in cinema like director-scriptwriter Paul Schrader, who is chairman of the jury, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, Italian filmmaker Irene Bignardi and our own Shaji N. Karun of Piravi fame.

More than 200 films were on display, including 12 in the competition section. But the main venue Fun Cinema was not adequate for the main event. The management was bad and getting to the place was cumbersome with traffic snarls due to civic projects. The online registrations went for a toss and many preferred to see it at Metro, which was more orderly though one had to miss out on a number of festival biggies.

This is a problem every year. The festival has been like a virtual gypsy. Why does Mumbai not have a cinema complex like Siri Fort in New Delhi. It is sure to make a world of a difference.

One of the best films at the festival was the French-English Goodbye Solo, a touching story of a tough 70-year-old white North Carolinan named William, who hires a Senegalese cabbie Solo to drive him for two weeks to a mountaintop. That he wanted to end his life there is hinted at. This is picked up by the Senegalese immigrant, who is bent upon changing his plan. It is no easy job for Solo as the white Southerner is a loner, crusty and weighs his words.

In fact, he is almost totally incommunicado and Solo, with his persistence, tries to draw himself out of his silence. He takes him to his house where he is at once drawn towards Solo’s nine-year-old daughter Alex and his pregnant wife Quira, who is always quarrelling with Solo. Solo even moves in with William in order to get closer to the man. What’s even more heartening is that despite his problems, he does not hesitate to reach out to William.

Among other things we see the clash in cultures. How the Westerners are different from the Africans, whose family bonding is greater. They also look after their old. In better moments, William opts for country music instead of reggae and is a great fan of Hank Williams.

Director Raman Barhani does an excellent job keeping these two characters at centrestage. For this, the action shifts to different locales. The outdoor shots are impressive and balances a good deal of interiors. It is 91 minutes of rapt narrative with snatches of wit, all rounded up to its dramatic, even chilling climax.

The Belgian-French film No Hard Feelings is centered on 17-year-old Laurent Matagne who, while attending a Belgian boarding school, suspects that his French teacher Vapour could well be his father, who is thought dead in an air raid during World War II. How this idea is graphically developed is what No Hard Feelings is all about. Director Yves Hanchar is able to bring out this aura of mystery fetchingly and then you have the teacher-student relationship that comes across so realistically. How Vapour instills in Laurent that love for writing has to be seen to be believed. And all the while one is kept guessing about the identity of the teacher. It is a powerful narrative and the other cameos help in holding the attention span.

But many of the films were rather middling. They moved along langorously, held the attention span for most of the time but somehow ended up as damp squibs like for example Andre Wajda’s Sweet Rush which dealt with a November-April romance but it petered off after the young lad is drowned. It seems that Wajda had peaked off. A Monkey on the Back is about alcoholism and the Alcoholics Anonymous organisation but there is little new or riveting about the story.

English Strawberries is a spoof on the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia when Soviet tanks rolled into Prague during Alexander Dubcek’s rule but the love story and the Russian soldiers obsession with Germany are too pithy to hold ones attention. A good concept but badly executed.

Marginally better is Little Soldier centered on Lotte, a soldier who drinks in excess to numb her fury. After returning to her Danish hometown, she helps her dad Kurt in his brothel racket as a driver. She is at first put off by his girlfriend and call girl Lily, a Nigerian hooker, but this gradually changes when she realises the girl’s plight and having to bring up a little girl in Nigeria. Could Lily’s looks and attitude serve as a defensive cover not so different from the facade Lotte had to assume while in the Army, she eventually questions. The narrative is quite a mish-mash but at least it makes a point.

But most of those who attended MAMI were quite disappointed by the fare. Arjun Desai (73), a regular on the festival circuit, is just one of them. Of course, the newcomers (Rs 1000 for delegate status) found it novel but were guilty of disturbing the regulars by their late arrivals. Guess "being there" was more important than sampling the fare. The regulars too would be seen munching their sandwiches on the periphery of Metro. They just could not afford the exorbitant prices — Rs 40 for a cup of coffee.

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