reports Sandhya Iyer from the buzzing venue
T he Indian Panorama section of IFFI that is set to be one of the highlights of the festival was inaugurated on Sunday by Anand Sharma, union minister of state (I&B) and external affairs. And if the selection of films is anything to go by, it promises to offer a truly 'panoramic' view of Indian cinema.
The jury for the selection of the films comprised filmmaker Chitra Palekar and journalist Namrata Joshi among others who went through a grueling 18 days of screening 105 films in the feature film category and another 85 films in the non-feature section of Indian cinema. It took such intense screening to come up with 47 top class films.
And in keeping with this multilingual, multicultural spirit of the festival, the segment opened with Joseph Pulinthanath's film from Tripura called Yarwng in the lesserknown Kokborok language. The officials pointed out that the selection of the film was deliberate as it was to reiterate the point that Indian cinema does not comprise of only films made in Mumbai. Anand Sharma too was delighted about the selection of a film from Tripura and expressed, "I have been to almost every district in the country but I never knew that a language like Kokborok exists." And in a State that hardly produces any films, Joseph Pulinthanath's achievement is truly commendable. Another reason why the film found a place in the Indian Panorama section was because of its social relevance. Yarwng deals with the issue of tribal displacement, an issue that continues to resonate. Talking at the screening of the film, Pulinthanath said passionately, "The film talks about a reallife incident in the 70s where over 60000 tribals around the Tripura region were displaced. Many of them continue to be refugees with no home to call their own. This film is a plea and protest on behalf of all those displaced people floating in the sea of life."
The film itself was made under very trying circumstances, with most of the crew having to be brought from Kerala. "It was harrowing yet an enriching experience. We're happy we could take up an issue con cerning the marginalised section in the country," he added.
Anand Sharma, who has been an active participant in the festival so far, assured the filmmaker and audience present that this was one issue (tribal displacement in Tripura) that he would personally take up once he goes back to Delhi.
The other very interesting film in the non-feature film section was 16 MM - Memories, Movement And A Machine by K R Manoj that tracked the history and journey of film societies in Kerala. 16 MM has now been replaced by 35 MM and this transition to modern technology has also meant the end of a certain cinematic culture and all that it stood for. But most interesting is how the filmmaker captures the film society movement in Kerala and what led to its gradual decline. "16 MM is not more prevalent but hopefully, it will always stay in our archives and memory," said K R Manoj.
The other guest for the day was Tisca Chopra, who had come to represent Taare Zameen Par that is also a part of the Indian Panorama section. She said, "TZP is probably one of the few films to have straddled commercial and parallel cinema so well."
She informed that she had just returned after dubbing TZP in English for the Oscar jury.
To sum it up, Sharma expressed that he wished for our films would preserve their rich culture, so that future generations could inherit the proud legacy of Indian cinema.
http://epaper.sakaaltimes.com/ST/ST/2008/11/24/ArticleHtmls/24_11_2008_105_004.shtml
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