The 6th Calcutta Film Festival
OF SIGHS AND SURPRISES

Come Winter and the festival spirit hovers in Calcutta. After the grand success of the European Union Film Festival (at Nandan Film Centre) which showed 14 contemporary films from 14 European cities (headed by France, which holds the European Union Presidency till December 31, this year) the 6th Calcutta film festival set the pace for various other kinds of festivals, crafts, music and dances...

BY November 19, most Calcuttans were already missing the grand spectacle, heaving a sigh over not having more opportunities for seeing the wonderful world of creative emotions, romance and international dreams woven through films. However, the Calcutta film festival bid farewell without any great fanfare this time.

Unlike in previous years, it had no closing ceremony films, which are usually shown in the late evenings, extending beyond midnight. However, during the evening, the turn out was in large numbers — specially for the international attractions around the Nandan Film Centre, the Rabindra Sadan, Sisir Manch and Bangla Akademy — which are situated all next to each other and predominant venues for the press and delegates. The crowds added to the festival spirit with members of film societies, journalists, cameramen and television crews surrounding celebrities. As films were being shown in different parts of Calcutta, which included prominent cinema houses like Lighthouse, Chaplin, New Empire, Paradise, besides Madhusudan Manch, Girish Manch and New Cinema among others, ticket sales were usually brisk and up-beat. News(Malayalam)spectives of Luis Bunuel and Jean Luc Godard were scheduled at Nandan and Rabindra Sadan at 9 a.m. and drew enthusiastic cinema buffs and students.

Although Budhadeb Bhattacharjee, the new chief minister of West Bengal, had opened the film festival alongwith the outgoing chief minister Jyoti Basu who inaugurated it, the former appeared to be keeping a low Exclusive(Kannada). Even in the parting dinner at Taj Bengal or the Press-Media get together with the foreign delegates at the Oberoi Grand on November 16, he was conspicuous by his absence. With almost 80 lakhs spent in organising and playing host to international delegates from America, Germany, United Kingdom, Luxembourgh, Brazil, Argentina and Korea, the week-long festival had shown some wholesome films chosen from almost 40 countries including Iran, Cuba, Hungary, Austria, Chile and Spain. However, names by themselves have a way of attracting generally and films like Making Love, Venus Beauty (France), The Girl of Your Dreams (Spain) and Run Lola Run (Germany) had the crowds making a bee-line for them. Eliseo Subiela’s inaugural film, The Adventure of God set the ball rolling for his other films Little Miracles, The Dark Side of the Heart, Wake Up Love and Don’t Die Without Telling Me Where You Are Going. The director was seen almost always in a desperate mood trying to accommodate interview sessions. Italian films as always drew large audiences, with Guiseppe Bertolucci’s Not For This World attracting large audiences.

Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi’s latest film Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease had the audience falling over each other, specially at Nandan and such was the case with Tango made by the award-winning filmmaker Carlos Saura, with cinematography by Victoria Storara, who had earlier recorded the Oscar-winning Apocalypse Now by Coppalas, Reds by Warren Beatty and The Last Emperor by Bertolucci. His Goya in Bordeaux was also well received. Some engaging children’s films shown in the afternoons at Sisir Manch included My Little Devil and Mujse Dosti Karoge by Gopi Desai, Karamati Coat by Ajay Kartik, Jungle Book II by Duncan Melachlan (USA) and Hire Ki Anguthi by Rituporna Ghosh (Bengal).

Australian filmmaker Paul Cox’s latest offering Innocence was another big draw. It showed some unusual elderly romance— love and betrayal beyond the age of retirement. Among the News(Malayalam)spectives, Godard’s Breathlesss and Bunuel’s Nazarin drew full houses. So did the Luxembourgh package (for the first time in India) which included Paul Keiffer’s Schacko Klak and Herman Van Eyken’s Ties and Ropes, telling a simplistic tale of a polio stricken dancing girl, exploited by her foster parents for commercial gains.

American NRI filmmaker, Raj Basu’s debut film, Wings of Hope evoked great interest from both the press and the festival audience.
Iran’s latest package was also a very big success with Dariush Mehrjui’s The Lady, Hamid Jabellis’ Son of Maryam and Parvez Shahbazi’s Whispers drawing large crowds. In conjunction with the festival of Germany in India, “A decade of German Films were also part a part of the Calcutta fest. Notable films in this package were Caroline Links’ Beyond Silence (nominated for Oscar 1999), Oskar Rohlers The Untouchable (German film award 2000) and Wim Wenders’ Beuna Vista Social Club (Oscar nomination 2000).

Nabyendu Chatterjee’s Mansur Mia(n)r Ghora was the only Bengali entry in the film festival. It drew rave notices for its unusual theme of emotional conflict between a Calcutta-based hackney-carriage driver and his son, who buys a taxi to improve life styles and economy.

However, there were other Indian films too; though few and far between. Kaliyattam by Jayaraj, Waves by Mani Ratnam, Bollywood Calling by Nagesh Kukunoor and Karavan by Pankaj Butalia.
The 6th Calcutta fest apparently seemed more concerned with international entries and not quite attuned to inviting more Indian films, which were in demand by the foreign delegates. Except for Devi by the late Satyajit Ray and some of G Aravindan’s films like Esthappan and Vastuhara, there were no appropriate News(Malayalam)spectives of Bengali films or regular screenings of Indian award-winning films of the past few years. An exception was a News(Malayalam)spective of the late Chhabi Biswas with a photo-exhibition.

In fact, the director of the festival, Ansu Sur, was questioned about this but his answer was not very satisfying.

The Open Forums were illuminative interaction sessions with foreign filmmakers and delegates on various themes and subjects.

Lectures by Bunuel’s script writer Jean Claude Carriere on Luis Bunuel organised by the Federation of Film Societies drew a rapt attentive audience of students and serious film enthusiasts. The lecture on Parallel Cinema in India by British film critic Derek Malcom was also enlightening. Derek also rounded off the festival with his last lecture in memory of Satyajit Ray Shall We Shoot the Film Critic? (on the role of film critics) which was remarkably frank, illuminative and elucidatory, evoking thought-provoking responses and enthusiasm at Nandan II on the eve of November 19.

Anver Kamal Siddiqqui

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