IFFI 52, 047: 2021 will have been the last IFFI where FD participated and contributed At every IFFI, the Films Division (FD) of the Union Government of India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), plays a prominent role. It provides technical support and runs a stall, among other things. Along with the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), the Children’s Film Society of India (CFSI) and the National Film Archive of India (NFAI), it is to be merged with the National Film ...

IFFI 52, 029: Kalkokkho is a phantasmagorical movie Amidst the paranoia and dread inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, an apathetic but adept doctor is taken hostage by a young woman. Captive in an almost desolate house with three women – the paranoid young woman along with an amnesic old woman and a lonely young girl – the doctor discovers that forces beyond his comprehension are at play and he might be trapped not only in space but also in time. The film explores the sense of dre...

IFFI 52, 01: It’s happening The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) is one of Asia’s oldest and India’s biggest international film festivals. The 52nd edition of IFFI will be held during 20-28 November, in a hybrid format, considering the success of the 51st edition, in January 2021. The Festival is being organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India in collaboration with the State Government of Go...

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 ...

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...

IFFI 50: Ceremonial closing As the sun set over the river Mandovi in Goa, on the 28th of November, 2019, the 50th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) rolled out the red carpet for the closing ceremony. The spectacular, star studded closing ceremony brought the nine day festivities of 200 odd screenings, master classes, in-conversation sessions, and more, to a fitting climax. Gracing the valedictory ceremony, Babul Supriyo, Union Minister of State for Environment, Fores...

IFFI 50, III: 50th festival since 1952 Started way back in 1952, the first ever IFFI was organised by the Films Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, with the patronage of the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. This was also the first International Film Festival held anywhere in Asia. It inspired many budding talents to become film-makers, especially the film Bicycle Thieves, which remains a classic 70 years later. Seen in the picture, r...

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 ...

The Valley, Review: A suicide, a steep cliff, the sea and a gun Silicon it is. And IT. The Valley story is told from the perspective of an Indian family. It is placed in the present, or the not too distant past. The Valley follows the slice of life, realistic style of narration and strikes a chord frequently. In English, it features Indian, Pakistani and American actors, with only one easily identifiable name that Indians will relate too. Yet, it is recommended viewing. The film retraces eve...

MIFF 2018, XIX: Pierre Assouline ...

16th Third Eye Asian Film Festival: IX Biler Diary, Cyanide and Jana Aranya. A Bengali film about a boarding school based on Hindu religious values, an Iranian political thriller about the period immediately preceding the Islamic revolution and a raved work of the master, Satyajit Ray—these were the last feature films I saw at the 16th Third Eye Asian Film Festival, Mumbai. The festival was organised in December 2017 by the Asian Film Foundation and P.L. Deshpande Maharashtra Kala Acad...

IFFI Goa 2017, XII: Winners’ List, and a few regrets It was an evening of regret. At the closing ceremony of the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which concluded in Panaji, Goa on November 28, six films/directors made it to the top, of which I had seen only 30% of one, the only one to win two prizes. Why I did not see the others, and why only 30% of a particular one will be explained below. But first, the LIST. Films  (In absentia) 1. Morocco-born French Directo...

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, V: And the Oscar for restoring classics goes to…AMPAS! American body Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is best known for presenting the annual awards, which are characterised by a figurine called the Oscar. Though that is the face of the academy, it does much more service to the cause of both American and international cinema than most people would imagine, including holding an annual student Oscars. At the Black Box of Panaji&rsqu...

In the only Urdu/Hindi film he ever made, Indian cinema’s Bengali language grandmaster Satyajit Ray used chess as a metaphor, setting it against the backdrop of the crumbling Navabi rule over Avadh (Lucknow), and its imminent take-over by the British East India company. It was simply called Shatranj Ke Khilari (The Chess Players). Another chess film, a 30-minute short made in 1988, was called Queen Sacrifice. The present film manages with just a pawn sacrifice! Two feature-length recent ...

...