It’s curtains on Calcutta IFFI’99

The Cal fest was not without its fair share of controversy: delegate passes were issued to those with little to do with films. Which leaves us wondering: whom was the film festival really meant for?

Calcutta: The curtains have fallen on Calcutta’s mega movie show, the Calcutta International Film Festival of India ’99 (IFFI). Cooncluding on November 17, the festival, as in previous years, combined old films (classics) with more recent ones from all over the world - a cocktail of past reality and modern sensibility.

The British films promised a retrospective of Hitchcock films made during his early days in England which comes as part of a centenary tribute to the master of suspense, along with a package of new British films. Aside from a package of East European post-war films, the festival included such renowned filmmakers as Vera Chytilova’s Traps and Theo Angelopoulos’ Eternity And A Day.

Among the more prominent entries in terms of festival recognition were The Lady Ninza, a Japanese film entered in the San Sebastian Horror and Fantasy Festival. It also included Paul Cox’s Father Damien (Australia) and Two Women from Iran.

That does not mean that Indian participation at the festival was negligible. On the contrary, it featured the works of ace cameraman Subrata Mitra, who worked in the early Merchant-Ivory films like The Guru and The Householder. His film Bombay Talkies also figured as a subject of discussion by the filmmaker himself.

Added to the Indian participation were such films as Throne of Death by Murli Nair, who was accorded the Palme D’or at Cannes this year and Mani Kaul’s The Servant’s Shirt, made in the Netherlands, where he resides at present. The fest also screened Krutin Patel’s film ABCD with Madhur Jaffrey in a meaty role, and two Indo-French co-productions Hanuman and Hathi the former with Tabu in the lead role.

Among the old classics, a package of five films directed by Fellini, Oshima, Mizoguchi, a millennium presentation of some of the best French films of the century by Gaumont, a separate package of modern French films, besides an encounter with Gabriel Garcia Marquez in connection with the films he has scripted, a Hollywood retrospective of 10 films by Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, Sydney Lumet, Orson Welles and Steven Spielberg are to be held.

Filmmaker Goutam Ghose who was appointed chairperson is thoroughly disappointed by the fact that the entire festival was controlled by bureaucrats, who, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, West Bengal’s minister for information and cultural affairs, had promised, would “take a backseat.”

There was also a measure of controversy. The delegate cards were being issued to those who have little or no connection with films. Persons with no political clout, yet, who are genuinely connected with films were the worst sufferers. Which leaves us wondering: Whom was the film festival really meant for?