The currency crunch has taken the spotlight away from preparations for the International Film Festival of India which is just eight days away. About 6,000 delegates have received clearances for the festival and work is expected to be completed by 18 November. But the excitement and fanfare is missing. A sign, perhaps, that it is either maturing or becoming routine. We hope it is the former and not the latter. There is no more talk about trying to become like Cannes, a dream that most Goans dreamed and then gave up. The festival is, by and large, organized by the Directorate of film Festivals which is based in New Delhi with Goa playing host. There were plans to create a separate enclave outside the city for the film festival which were unveiled when Manohar Parrikar was chief minister. A lot of water has flowed under the Mandovi bridge since then and now the priority is construction of bridges across the Mandovi and Zuari. With nearly Rs 1,050 crore flowing from the exchequer into social security schemes there is literally no cash to build film festival infrastructure. So, like last year, Goa will have to rely of existing facilities to organize another festival and that might not be too bad an idea, especially when one is broke.
