By – B B Nagpal : It is now more than seventy-six years since the first International Film Festival was held in the world and during this period the number of Festivals all over the world has grown to more than five hundred festivals every year.In India alone, there are about fifteen International Festivals for feature films, apart from those held for children or short/documentary films. The practice of holding festivals started in Venice in Italy in 1932 as part of the city’s traditional International Art Exhibition. The Cannes International Film Festival of France was started in 1939.
Nations that were rebuilding their film industries after the World War saw in festivals a chance for world recognition. As international political alliances were being reconstituted, the festivals provided an opportunity for interaction. Festivals were started in Berlin, Moscow, Karlovy Vary (Czechoslovakia), London, San Francisco and New York City.
In India, the first Festival was held in 1952 in Mumbai with the second one coming almost ten years later in 1961 in Delhi which like the first one was non-competitive. The first competitive Festival was held in 1965 and was graded ‘A’ category by the Paris based Federation International De Producers De Films (FIAPF). This was followed by competitive Festivals held in Delhi in 1969 and 1974 when it was decided to make this an annual fete.
Following this recognition, India adopted, at its sixth festival in 1975, a permanent insignia. This comprises a representation of the peacock, India’s national bird, with the permanent motto of the festival ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakum’ (The whole world is a family). The same year it was decided to hold a non-competitive festival of festival films (Filmotsav) alternating with IFFI. While the Filmotsavs were organised at major film producing centres of India, IFFI was held in New Delhi only.
While the Festivals have been held annually since then (with the solitary exception of 2001 when it was called off because of severe drought in the State of Karnataka which was to host it in Bangalore), it has undergone many changes and is now competitive every year. Furthermore, Goa was designated as a permanent venue for the festival from the 35th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in 2004.
There are several new features in the 39th IFFI being held from 22 November to 2 December.
Over 225 films from more than thirty countries will be screened at the festival in several sections. Veteran actress Rekha will inaugurate the Festival in Panaji on 22 November in the presence of Goa Governor S S Sidhu, Chief Minister Digambar Kamath, and Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Minister Anand Sharma. While upcoming actress Amrita Rao will conduct the opening ceremony, Rekha will be assisted by Telugu actress Illina D Cruz, who is originally from Goa, in lighting the traditional lamp.
Talented actor Kamal Haasan will be the Chief Guest at the closing ceremony on 2 December at which the awards will also be presented. ‘Song of Sparrows’ by the eminent Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi will be the closing film.
Around Rs 250 million is being spent by the Directorate of Film Festivals of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, which is organizing the Festival in collaboration with the Entertainment Society of Goa (on behalf of the Goa Government) and the Indian film industry.
A unique feature this year is the screening of four films made with the Taj Mahal – recognized once again recently as one of the seven wonders of the world – from the silent era in 1928 to the last one in 2005 made by Akbar Khan who himself will be attending the Festival. The other films in ‘Taj Mahal: A Celluloid Journey’ will be Shiraj (silent film) – 1928, Shah Jahan –1964, and Taj Mahal –1963.
The competition section will have 15 films from all over the world. These include My Mother’s Tears (Argentina/Germany), Rupantor (Transformation) (Bangladesh), The Shaft (China), Kanachivaram and Mahasatta (India), The Song of Sparrows (Iran), The Red Spot (Japan/Germany), Tulpan (Kazakhstan), Pensil (Malaysia), Ploning (Philippines), Akasa Kusum (Sri Lanka), and The Coffin (Thailand).
While the main attraction will be the 56 films in the Cinema of the World section, another interesting section is Film India Worldwide which will showcase films made by Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in collaboration with foreign filmmakers or made on Indian themes. The entries in this segment are Tandoori Love (Switzerland), Death Without Consent ( USA ), Barah Aana and Chaurasta-Cross Roads of Love (India). The films of eminent filmmakers Aki Kaurismaki (Finland), John Landis (USA) and Wong Kar Wai (Hong Kong) will be screened in the Foreign Retrospectives.
There will be special tributes to filmmakers Peter Chan, who is chairing the international jury, and Niki Karimi who is also a member of the jury.
In addition, there will be 47 films (26 Feature Films and 21 Non-Features) in the Indian Panorama, the highest for any year since the Panorama was first started in 1978.
Three highly lauded Hindi films on relevant social issues – ‘Taare Zameen Par’, ‘A Wednesday’ and ‘Summer of 2007’ – and the award-winning Kannada film ‘Gulabi Talkies’ form part of the 26 feature and 21 non-feature films of the Indian Panorama, the features being the highest since this section was introduced in 1978.
In addition, the Malayalam feature film ‘Pulijanmam’ by Priyanandan and the non-feature Bengali ‘Bishar Blues’ by Amitabh Chakraborty get automatic entry for having won the best film awards in their categories in the 54th National Film Awards. ‘Yarwing’, a film in Kokborok language of Tripura by Joseph Pulinthanath be the inaugural film of the Panorama Section.
The features include six in Malayalam, four each in Hindi and Tamil, three each in Marathi and Kannada, one each in Bengali, Assamese and Telugu, and one which is in English/Gujarati and Hindi.
The award-winning Jayaraj is the only filmmaker to have films in both the feature and non-feature sections.
Apart from ‘Pulijanmam’, the Malayalam films are ‘Vilapangalkkappuram’ by T V Chandran, ‘Gulmohar’ by Jayaraj, ‘Atayalangal’ by M G Sasi, ‘Oru Pennum Randaanum’ by Adoor Gopalakrishnan, ‘Aakashagopuram’ by Manu S Kumaran, and ‘Katha Parayumpol’ by Mohanan.
The Hindi films are ‘Summer 2007’ by Suhail Tatari, ‘a Wednesday’ by Neeraj Pandey, ‘Taare Zameen Par’ by Aamir khan, and ‘Jodha Akbar’ by Ashutosh Gowariker.
The Tamil films in addition to ‘Kanachivaram’ are ‘Kalloori’ by Balaji Sakthivel, ‘Mudhal Mudhal Mudhal Varai’ by Krishna Seshadri Gomatam, and ‘Billa’ by Vishnu Vardhan.
The Kannada films include ‘Gulabi Talkies’ by Girish Kassarvalli which won the best Indian film award at the Tenth Osian’s-Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema, ‘Banada Neralu’ by Umashankara Swamy, and ‘Gubbachigalu’ bu Abhaya Simha.
Apart from ‘Mahasatta’, the Marathi films are ‘Dohaa’ by Pushkaraj Paranjape, and ‘Valu’ by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni.
Apart from ‘Yarwing’, the other films are the Bengali ‘Chaturanga’ by Suman Mukhopadhyay, the Assamese ‘Mon Jai’ by M.Maniram, the Teluigu ‘Mee Sreyobhilashi’ by V Eshwar Reddy, and ‘Little Zizou’ by Sooni Taraporevala which is in English, Gujarati and Hindi.
The non-features include seven in English, four in Hindi, two each in Bengali and Malayalam, and one each in Kannada, Manipuri, Urdu, apart from one with only music and another which is in Hindi, Bengal and English.
The English films include ‘Distant Rumblings’ by Bani Prakash Das on the remains of the Second World War in Manipur and Nagaland, ‘A Friend turned Foe’ by Gautam Saikia, ‘Divided Colours of a Nation’ by Umesh Aggarwal, ‘Four Women and a Room’ by Ambarien Al Qadar, ‘The Journalist and the Jehadi’ by Ramesh Sharma, ‘The Land of Rupshupas’ by A K Sidhpuri, and ‘Rehana: A Quest for Freedom’ by Gargi Sen and Priyanka Mukherjee.
‘Dhin Tak Dha’ by ‘ShraddhaPasi’, ‘Apna Aloo Bazaar Becha’ by Pankaj H Gupta, ‘Children of the Pyre’ by Rajesh S Jala, and ‘Antardhwani’ by Jabbar Patel form the Hindi component.
The two Bengali films are ‘The Shop that sold Everything’ by Abhyuday Khaitan and ‘Yearn to Learn’ by S K Aboul Rajjak, while the Malayalam films are ‘Vellappokkathil’ by Jayaraj and ‘Memories, Movement and a Machine’ by K R Manoj.
The others are the Kannada ‘Putti’ by Jacob Varghese, the Urdu ‘Parwaaz’ by Biju Vishwanath, and the Manipuri ‘Ratan Thiyam – the man of Theatre’ by Nirmala Chanu and Oken Amakcham, apart from ‘Three of Us’ by Umesh Kulkarni which only has music and ‘Remembering Bimal Roy’ by Joy Bimal Roy in Hindi, Bengali, and English.
Six international acclaimed Indian films from the pre-1950 are also being screened from the Treasures of the National Film Archives of India.
Seven films of all-time veterans Dilip Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, B Saroja Devi and Tapan Sinha are being presented in Lifetime Classics to pay a tribute to these personalities for the Lifetime Honour they received from the Government to mark sixty years of Indian Independence. The Indian section will also have a special tribute to the legendary Bimal Roy with six films by or on him, and L V Prasad with two films. A special section will be a tribute to 75 years of Kannada cinema.
The Festival will also pay homage to film personalities G P Sippy, B R Chopra, F C Mehra, Jayashree Gadkar, Raghuvaran, Mahendra Kapoor, Jeeva, Sridhar, Vijay Tendulkar and Nabendu Ghosh who passed away over the past year.
There will be special lecture on Devika Rani and Himanshu Rai who were pioneers in the era of Film Studios, by Kishwar Desai.
In addition to the main Festival, there is a Film Bazaar organized by the National Film Development Corporation, a competition for short films and a unique business platform for short and documentary films to give impetus to the short film movement created by the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) and the Directorate of Film Festivals.