A film festival that has it all

The latest fever going around town is of the filmy kind. With the Bangalore International Film Festival taking the city by storm, Bangaloreans are feasting their eyes and minds on some of the finest movies from all over the world. Movie buffs and serious cinema watchers get a taste of International, national and local cinema in theatres close to their homes. Jurors from all over the world will judge the best films in the International Competition, Asian Competition, Indian Cinema, Kannada Cinema, Cinema of the World, Retrospective Cinema by film-makers like Hsiao Hsien Hou, Theo Angelopoulus, Micheal Cacoyannis, Dariush Mehrjui, G Arvindan and Puttanna Kanagal, and 12 other categories. The highlight of the film festival is the Nostalgia series where vintage film classics are screened. The Political Cinema category too has brought a whole new dimension to the film festival. Also, there is special focus on Polish and Egyptians films this year. Indeed it has something for all and yet stands out from other festivals.

The festival that started on Friday gradually picked up pace by the weekend. The fervour surrounding the festival is for all to see. The weekend came and went and the theatres still continue running houseful and enquiry for passes have mounted. Students and even elderly citizens are seen watching movies in huge numbers. For the convenience of the public, daily passes are sold for four shows of the day. Stalls have been put up at all venues to sell on the spot passes. There are nine screens — Lido (MG Road), Inox (JP Nagar), GM Rejoyz (Malleshwaram), Information Department (Infantry Road), Suchitra (Banaskankari) and Badami House (NR Square) spread across Bangalore so that viewers need not waste time commuting. Prabha Narayanan, a painter and an ardent movie lover who has been catching almost four shows per day says that she is delighted that the film festival is in town. “It has been a superb experience so far. We should have such films screened more often,” she says. Her favourite movie which she is sure to win an award is Sara, an Iranian movie directed by Dariush Mehrjui which she thinks is a radical film. “About 85 per cent of the films screened are good, the rest are a struggle to watch; they are either too realistic or too vague. It could be abstract or politics of the world which some may not understand,” she says. She is happy with the arrangements and wishes that the movies could have been screened on a rotational basis in all the screens. On an average, 12 Indian movies are being screened per week with Tulu Cinema making a foray with Shivadwaj Shetty’s Gaggara. In the retrospective series Puttanna Kanagal’s classics such as Gejje Pooje, Nagara Haavu and many others are being showcased. Many Indian classics like Chidambaram (Malayalam) and Sant Tukaram (Marathi) will be screened. In the Kannada Cinema category, movies like National Award winner Puttakana Highway and even Upendra’s Super will be screened. Friday to Monday the afternoon show at Information Department was dedicated to David Cronenberg’s movies under the Master Classes Category. The best films have been chosen to be screened twice in the course of the week. Some of them are Elena (Russia), Biutiful (Mexican), Bettada Jeeva (India) and Beaufort (Israel). With two days left for the festival to end, cinema lovers will be rushing to cram in as many movies as possible.