Chinese 'Wheat' to whet IFFI appetite
Saibal Chatterjee
Monday, November 23, 2009
Special: All about IFFI 2009
The curtains will go up on the 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) on the night of November 23 with the screening of the visually lush Chinese period epic, Wheat, and a touch of Hindi cinema nostalgia provided by golden era great Waheeda Rehman.
Even as the Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, addressing the press on Saturday afternoon, allayed fears of a security threat, the heritage precincts of the Old Goa Medical College were being decked up for IFFI s sixth consecutive year in the coastal state known more for its love of food, feni and football than for its passion for films.
The ever-graceful Waheeda Rehman, as chief guest, will light the ceremonial lamp on IFFI s opening night assisted by up-and-coming Bollywood star Asin. Veteran actor Kabir Bedi and actress Divya Dutta will be at hand to host the inaugural show.
In its showpiece Cinema of the World section, IFFI has lined up 50-odd acclaimed films from over 40 nations. But the big programming coup of this year s IFFI is a retrospective of the films of Portugal s Manoel de Oliveira, the world s only active centenarian director.
Though the 102-year-old filmmaker is not making the Lisbon to Goa trip for he is busy shooting a new film, his latest work, Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl, which he wrapped up last year, will be part of the retrospective. De Oliveira is the only living filmmaker who began his career in the silent era.
The 40th IFFI has also programmed retrospectives of Thai writer-director Nonzee Nimibutr, British Indian director Gurinder Chadha and Brazilian veteran Joao Batista de Andrade, who will be presiding over the five-member Competition jury.
The jury includes Indian-Canadian cinematographer-director Vic Sarin and actress Sarika.
Two Indian films Satish Manwar s Gabhricha Paus (Marathi) and Atanu Ghosh s Angshumaner Chhobi (Bengali) will vie with 11 other films from Asia, Asia Pacific, Africa and Latin America, for the festival s top prize Golden Peacock and total prize money of Rs 40 lakh.
The chief minister has asserted that he wants the international film festival in Goa to add a new dimension to the touristy state by becoming one of the premier events of its kind in the world. We are keen to turn Goa into a favoured destination of cinema lovers, he says.
As part of that strategy, IFFI, which has hitherto been confined to the state capital Panaji, will this year draw Margao into its sweep. A new 1100-seater auditorium has been constructed in Margao for regular screening of IFFI films. The idea is to make more and more people of the state feel involved with IFFI, Mr Kamat told this correspondent in an informal chat.
IFFI, one of the oldest and largest, and dare we say most chaotic, film festivals in Asia, will, as always, showcase the best films produced during the past year by the world s most prolific industry.
The 2009 Indian Panorama 26 features and 18 non-features will see a host of seasoned IFFI regulars share the spotlight with a bunch of young and promising filmmakers from across the country. Alongside the likes of Buddhadeb Dasgupta s Janala (Bengali), Shaji N. Karun s Kutty Srank Sailor of Hearts (Malayalam), Rituparno Ghosh s Shob Charitro Kalponik (Bengali), Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukhtankar s Ek Cup Chai (Marathi) and M.S. Sathyu s Ijjodu (Kannada), the 40th IFFI will showcase films by debutants Paresh Mokashi (Harishchandrachi Factory, Marathi), Aijaz Khan (The White Elephant, Hindi) and Seema Kapoor (Haat The Weekly Bazaar, Rajasthani), among others.
This year promises to be Goan cinema s best yet in the annals of IFFI. A Konkani entry Laxmikant Shetgaonkar s Paltadacho Munis (The Man beyond the Bridge) has been chosen to be the opening film of the Indian Panorama not as a token favour, but strictly on merit.
The Vasco-based filmmaker s first feature won the Fipresci (Federation of International Film Critics) award for directorial debutants at the 34th Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Two other films that will be screened in IFFI have links with the home state Sangram Gaekwad s Zagor and Goa-based Tapan Acharya s Marathi-language film, Janma, both of which are part of the Indian Premieres section, in which eight new features will be unveiled.
International star Ben Kingsley is scheduled to wing down to Panaji to conduct an acting Master Class and flag off a new film inspired by the love story behind the Taj Mahal. In the proposed film, Kingsley is expected to play Emperor Shah Jahan to Aishwarya Rai s Mumtaz Mahal. A formal announcement about the project is due to be made in Goa during the course of IFFI.
(Saibal Chatterjee is a National Award-winning film critic who has covered film festivals around the world, including the ones in Cannes and Toronto. He will be writing exclusively for NDTVMovies.com from IFFI 2009)
