Photo Division Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Government of India   On 2nd March 2024, after having watched Indian maestro Mrinal Sen’s critically acclaimed film ‘‘Kharij’’ [1982] on Screen 9 of PVR Cinema during 15th Bangalore International Film Festival 2024, Haobam Paban Kumar sat together with film critic Lalit Rao (FIPRESCI) to talk about the theme of disappearance in his latest film ‘Joseph’s Son’ [2023]&n...

IFFI 51, 16-24 January, 35: Encapsulating BanglaDesh’s Liberation War is Meghmallar “In Bangladesh, we call the 1971 Liberation War as the People’s War. My film Meghmallar is the story of a small-town family’s struggle during the war time.” – Bangladeshi Film Director Zahidur Rahim Anjan “This is not the story of one family, but of every family in the-then East Pakistan. Every family had a contribution in the Liberation War, the most important event ...

18th Third Eye Asian Film Festival, I Organised by the Asian Film Foundation and P.L. Deshpande Maharashtra Kala Academy, the 18th Third Eye Asian Film Festival (TEAFF) has just concluded. Held during March 1-6, at the Mini-Theatre, located on the third floor of the Ravindra Natya Mandir Complex, Prabhadevi, Mumbai, the festival screened films in six slots each day. Paani, in Marathi language, directed by Adinath Kothare, was the inaugural film while Mai Ghaat, also in Marathi, directed by An...

MIFF 2020: “Why can’t we appreciate off-camera sounds?”—B. Lenin Son of legendary director-editor A. Bhimsingh, B. Lenin started his editing career at the age of 18, in 1965. But guess what he wanted to become as a young boy? A projectionist! Why? Read on. “I am one of eight siblings and saw very little of my father as a child, because he used to work around twenty hours a day. When he came home, sometimes at 4 am, I would ask my mother who this man was. We ch...

IFFI 50: MIFF 2020 to offer Rs. 10 lakh as prize to best film Festival Director, Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF as it is known globally), Mrs. Smita Vats Sharma called for the widest and biggest participation of film-makers and film lovers, for the 16th edition of the oldest and largest film festival for non-feature films in South Asia. Addressing a press conference at the golden jubilee edition of the International Film Festival of India, Mrs. Sharma, who is also the Director Gener...

Shoplifters, Review: Only those cannot study at home need to go to school Through many decades, albeit once in a while, a Japanese film comes up in the rich tradition of Frank Capra, Vittorio De Sica, Satyajit Ray, Ritwick Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, and the better films of Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Back in the 30s, 40s and 50s, in the days of Yasujirō Ozu and Mikio Naruse, it was called neo-realistic cinema. Most of these films were made with non-star casts, on shoe-string budgets, had realistic styles...

Ahaa Re (The Two Lovers/Oh, Look at You), Review: Castle of love on bedrock of food When you want to make a film about love, lost and found, romance, sublime and selfless, it is a good idea not to include components like villains, fights, item songs, crude comedy, sexual overtones and foul language. So what do you fill your screenplay with? How about conflicts and disparities, of many hues and various proportions? And food? Yes, food. Well if you are a foodie, and a romantic foodie, then why ...

MIFF 2018, XIX: Pierre Assouline ...