Deepak Laad
The golden jubilee edition of International Film Festival is underway. The first edition was held in Delhi with the patronage of the first prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru - presently fallen in fervid disfavor with the regime at the centre. Though our nation was the first to hold film festival in Asia, those followed in our footsteps - Singapore, Beijing , Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai have today moved ahead of us. We are not mentioned in the same breath as the world famous Cannes, Toronto, Sundance, Marrakech, Locarno and Karlovy Vary festivals. The festival has failed to come of age in our country as Government runs it like a public sector undertaking.
The grand vision statement of IFFI is drawn out from the Vedic scriptures, Maha Upanishad, which goes thus - “This is for me and that is for others - is the thinking of narrow minded person. For those who are broad minded, liberal or noble people the entire world is one big family”. The very spirit of this tenet is thrown out of the window by the very Directorate of Film Festivals of India (DFF), that initiates and presents film festivals in India, as they hog the whole limelight and reduce the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), that works its butts off in organizing the festival to mere event management firm -wouldn’t even think it fit to make their mention in the glossy festival catalogue.
Film festivals offer opportunities to the film directors, actors, script writers, musicians and technicians of diverse branches of film making from across the globe to showcase their wares before the cinephiles residing in different parts of the world. In turn, in their works, the audiences get glimpses of customs, culture, history and sociopolitical conditions prevalent in other parts of the world, that are different from theirs. Festivals offer forums to the anti establishment artist community to bring forth before the world audience the behind the iron curtains goings-on in authoritarian rules. As such the objectives of the festival, essentially and ideally need to be founded on the underpinnings of truthfulness ,broad-mindedness, leniency and liberalism “ bereft of prejudices and judmentalism.
Since the advent of BJP at the centre and in several states, hegemony of Hindu beliefs and practices is on the rise. The shadow of Hindu brand of cultural nationalism can be seen looming large on the Festival turf too. Nudity, bold scenes, love making scenes are essence of international cinema, wherever the scripts demand so. Two years ago, two films, one titled ‘S Durga’ - originally ‘Sexy Durga’- by Kerala filmmaker Sanal Sasidharan and the other ‘Nude’ by Ravi Jadhav were banned only because the bold titles had shaken the thin skinned shallow sensibility of the film certificating authority. Such schoolmistress like puritan approach is not conducive to the international festival and puts the open-minded liberal movie makers off.
The 50th edition is not any different than those of the past. The iffy affairs of IFFI continue. The red carpet laying and construction of kiosks work was going on at the main venue in febrile last minute rush even when the inaugural function was already underway. At Porvorim Inox on the first day the befuddled ticketing staff were not aware that they were supposed to book tickets. There was no sign of ESG representatives at the venues.
In years gone by the cinephiles have relished lavish canvasses mounted on celluloid by such great as Susan Bier, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Jiri Menzel, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ken Loach, Agnieszka Holland, Kim Ki duk, Wong Kar Wai, Kiarostami, Majid Majidi, Atiq Rahimi and so on. Now with the number of bland movies on the rise, the number of delegates has already started dwindling. The chaos , uncourteous and unprofessional manner of crowd handling , delayed screenings upsetting viewers’ subsequent schedules have caused the delegates turn away from this event. Year back ,a group from down south that found itself at the receiving end of ESG member’s outburst had left in huff half way through the edition. Celebrities coming from regional film industries of Mollywood and Tollywood have stopped attending the event in recent years, as they were not extended the courtesy they deserved. The number of students of film and television institutes too has dried up.
It’s a pity that Bollywood, the biggest film industry in the nation and also this side of the world, has not backed the Festival as it should have. Barring a few B-grade stars, character artistes, stars of yesteryears no leading stars showed up at the venue. No big banner from the Hindi film industry thought it worthwhile to have world-premier of its film at IFFI. The top actresses ever ready to give their right arm to make it to the red carpet at Cannes have treated IFFI as down market and have stayed away.
Sadly, the Festival that is touted as International has not caught the attention of top class luminaries from Hollywood or UK film industry who are conspicuous by their absence. Mostly those few ‘foreign’ actors-directors we see around are mainly from Iran, Japan, South Korea, Latin America and Balkan countries.
International festivals are celebrations of world cinema and need to be celebrated with pomp, grandeur, gusto and gaiety and that needs adequate funds at disposal. The main hurdle seems to be paucity of funds. It is mounted on a ungenerous budget of some Rs 25 crore. The Centre contributes about Rs five crore. The posters that are strung on poles in the town look lackluster and bland with letterings so small that one needs to climb the pole to read their content. The installations in the town’s squares are an eyesore - shabby and incomplete. The festival is fast hurtling towards ignominy, so corrective measures need to be taken in the future to make it vibrant once again.
