From a band that promises to treat the auditory senses, toshort films that will provide an evening full of entertainment, to agastronomic picnic under the stars that vows to charm the taste buds, theBonjour India, Festival of France, has begun to take Goa by storm.
February 8 saw the band, the Scratch Bandits Crew, performat Tito’s Mambo Café. The trio, Supa-Jay, Geoffresh and Syr are known fordeveloping their own personal scratching tools and recently released the albumNovember 31. They placed on the table electro music. February 23 will see thescreening of 18 short French films with English subtitles at ESG. “Every yearin France we have a Short Film Festival and it is from here that the films areselected for Bonjour India,” says Karine Christophe, Deputy Director ofAlliance Française, Panjim. The films will span genres such as documentary,animation, narrative and experimental. The Gastronomic Picnic on March 16 willprovide participants the opportunity to indulge in a combination of French andIndian cuisine. “A new addition to this planned three-day sojourn is thepresence of the author Chowra Makaremi for the release of the Englishtranslation of her book Aziz’s Notebook: At the Heart of the IranianRevolution,” says Christophe. The book is based on the memoirs of hergrandfather.
The Bonjour India Festival spans 16 cities in India “Chandigarh, Mumbai, Delhi, Trivandrum to name a few “ and is a three-month longextravaganza beginning in January and continuing up to March. While there arebut four events scheduled for Goa, the other cities will host ballets, aerialshows, visual arts exhibitions, theatre and dance among others. “Consideringthe size of Alliance Française in Goa, we have but four events. The AllianceFrançaise organisations in other cities are larger,” says Christophe.
The activities of Alliance Française are not limited to justBonjour India; throughout the year the schedule is replete with programmes suchas the Wine Workshop, exhibitions, French courses, screening of French films,theatre workshops.
