Film Festival
It was a Saturday another weekend had started. But this Saturday was a special one for me because I was looking forward to it. There was a Film Festival which was organized as a tribute to Renu Saluja. She was a film editor who had achieved tremendous success across the globe and had shown a different direction to Indian cinemas. The film festival was being organized by GRAFTII (Graduates of the Film and Television Institute of India) at Fun Cinemas. I had received a mail of the event almost a week in advance. So I booked the tickets in advance and didn’t want to take a risk to miss out on these movies. The kind of movies to be shown were mostly the art film types of which you normally do not get a cd or something so that you can watch them anytime. Many people around me feel very shocked as to how can one watch art films they are so boring. But I don’t know why, I love and enjoy watching them. The film fest was to start from Thursday evening, but as I had office I could not attend on Thursday or Friday. So I had decided to watch on Saturday where I had an weekly off.
On Saturday the date was 17th June 2006 I got ready and reached the theatre around 9.30 a.m. I went early coz I had made a tele booking and had to collect the tickets one hour in advance. I reached in time but the counter opened only at 10.00 a.m. Then the first movie “Dharavi” started at 10.30 a.m. The movie was simply brilliant, it started Om Puri and Shabana Azmi. The story of the movie was based on people living at Dharavi, which is the largest slum area in the whole of Asia and is in Mumbai. This movie was been shot in the year 1992 and after the movie was over the director of the film was present there Sudhir Mishra. Tom Alter he is a very old film actor he was hosting the show. He called upon Sudhir Mishra to share his experiences in making the film, when he spoke about the film, it showed the amount of enthusiasm this man had and the kind of depth he had which could reflect in the characters of the movie. It was very nice for me to see all this as I had not expected anything of such sort. I was very amused to be there. I was eagerly waiting for the next movie to start.
Sudhir Mishra again, he was associated with the second movie of the day. He had assisted the director of the movie Saeed Mirza. He again shared his wonderful experience related with this movie “Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho” which was released in the year 1984. This was a story of a senior citizen or an old man who files a case against his landlord for his building repairs. This movie also had a very nice feel to it, the way it was directed. The movie showed a wonderful chemistry between the old couple and his children who support him in fighting the court case against his landlord. It had a lot of comedy coupled wtih emotion. Overall I think the movie was amazing.
Then after the two movies it was almost 3.30p.m now there was a short lunch break. I went out for some snacks at the food court which was in the cinema hall. I was not at all bored or even tired. I finished up eating my snack and was looking forward for the next movie to begin.
After the lunch break was the most awaited movie of the day at 4.00pm which was “Bandit Queen”. This was a movie directed by Shekar Kapur who is an internationally recognized director. Bandit Queen this movie was based on the true story of a bandit named Phoolan Devi. It was hard to believe kind of a story, no one can ever relate that such a tragedy can happen with anybody. Also the way the movie was made was incomparable. The performances also were outstanding, overall this movie was a remarkable making by the director. The film fest had the largest no of audience present for the screening of Bandit Queen. The audience was typically from the film fraternity, so I guess I was a bit different, but yet was very much with the crowd.
Then was the time for the final movie of the day “Ardh Satya”. It started at around 7.10p.m but before the screening again Tom Alter came on the stage and announced for the director of the movie Govind Nihalani to come over and say a few words. He talked about the movie and shared his experience. This movie was released in the year 1983 that was way to back. But then when I watched the movie I felt nothing has changed here everything is still the same where the Indian corruption and politics is concerned. This movie had notable actors like Om Puri, Smita Patil, Amrish Puri. The movie was based on a story of a police officer based at Mumbai (earlier Bombay). The story focused on the way this cop performs his duties and what is the balance he had to achieve while performing his duties. It showed everything around him was a half truth and he either needed to live with it or die with it.
Finally, after watching the four movies I had to return home now. I was still feeling they could have screened a couple more. But the whole day was simply fantastic. I enjoyed every minute of the time I spent watching the movies, hope to get a chance soon to visit some more film fests.
It was a Saturday another weekend had started. But this Saturday was a special one for me because I was looking forward to it. There was a Film Festival which was organized as a tribute to Renu Saluja. She was a film editor who had achieved tremendous success across the globe and had shown a different direction to Indian cinemas. The film festival was being organized by GRAFTII (Graduates of the Film and Television Institute of India) at Fun Cinemas. I had received a mail of the event almost a week in advance. So I booked the tickets in advance and didn’t want to take a risk to miss out on these movies. The kind of movies to be shown were mostly the art film types of which you normally do not get a cd or something so that you can watch them anytime. Many people around me feel very shocked as to how can one watch art films they are so boring. But I don’t know why, I love and enjoy watching them. The film fest was to start from Thursday evening, but as I had office I could not attend on Thursday or Friday. So I had decided to watch on Saturday where I had an weekly off.
On Saturday the date was 17th June 2006 I got ready and reached the theatre around 9.30 a.m. I went early coz I had made a tele booking and had to collect the tickets one hour in advance. I reached in time but the counter opened only at 10.00 a.m. Then the first movie “Dharavi” started at 10.30 a.m. The movie was simply brilliant, it started Om Puri and Shabana Azmi. The story of the movie was based on people living at Dharavi, which is the largest slum area in the whole of Asia and is in Mumbai. This movie was been shot in the year 1992 and after the movie was over the director of the film was present there Sudhir Mishra. Tom Alter he is a very old film actor he was hosting the show. He called upon Sudhir Mishra to share his experiences in making the film, when he spoke about the film, it showed the amount of enthusiasm this man had and the kind of depth he had which could reflect in the characters of the movie. It was very nice for me to see all this as I had not expected anything of such sort. I was very amused to be there. I was eagerly waiting for the next movie to start.
Sudhir Mishra again, he was associated with the second movie of the day. He had assisted the director of the movie Saeed Mirza. He again shared his wonderful experience related with this movie “Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho” which was released in the year 1984. This was a story of a senior citizen or an old man who files a case against his landlord for his building repairs. This movie also had a very nice feel to it, the way it was directed. The movie showed a wonderful chemistry between the old couple and his children who support him in fighting the court case against his landlord. It had a lot of comedy coupled wtih emotion. Overall I think the movie was amazing.
Then after the two movies it was almost 3.30p.m now there was a short lunch break. I went out for some snacks at the food court which was in the cinema hall. I was not at all bored or even tired. I finished up eating my snack and was looking forward for the next movie to begin.
After the lunch break was the most awaited movie of the day at 4.00pm which was “Bandit Queen”. This was a movie directed by Shekar Kapur who is an internationally recognized director. Bandit Queen this movie was based on the true story of a bandit named Phoolan Devi. It was hard to believe kind of a story, no one can ever relate that such a tragedy can happen with anybody. Also the way the movie was made was incomparable. The performances also were outstanding, overall this movie was a remarkable making by the director. The film fest had the largest no of audience present for the screening of Bandit Queen. The audience was typically from the film fraternity, so I guess I was a bit different, but yet was very much with the crowd.
Then was the time for the final movie of the day “Ardh Satya”. It started at around 7.10p.m but before the screening again Tom Alter came on the stage and announced for the director of the movie Govind Nihalani to come over and say a few words. He talked about the movie and shared his experience. This movie was released in the year 1983 that was way to back. But then when I watched the movie I felt nothing has changed here everything is still the same where the Indian corruption and politics is concerned. This movie had notable actors like Om Puri, Smita Patil, Amrish Puri. The movie was based on a story of a police officer based at Mumbai (earlier Bombay). The story focused on the way this cop performs his duties and what is the balance he had to achieve while performing his duties. It showed everything around him was a half truth and he either needed to live with it or die with it.
Finally, after watching the four movies I had to return home now. I was still feeling they could have screened a couple more. But the whole day was simply fantastic. I enjoyed every minute of the time I spent watching the movies, hope to get a chance soon to visit some more film fests.
