IFFI: Glitches, glamour and glory in Goa
The 45th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), the oldest in the country, righted itself after some glaring hiccups and embarrassing goof-ups on the first few days. For those of us who have been regulars or have been following the controversies plaguing this festival in the past, it’s nothing new to hear of disputes or the occasional flash-in-the-pan euphoric moment that gets associated with it. Goa remains — as it has always been — an adored venue for guests of the festival. Sadly, what many of us had not bargained for this year were the unexpected delays, confusion, complete mismanagement and the visible discomfiture on the faces of some of the delegates.
But to be entirely dismissive of all the other glorious details of the festival, including the films from 70 countries curated by the selection committee, would be unfair. The festival, despite its organisational shortcomings, is worth a dekko for anyone and everyone who loves cinema. Besides feature films, lovers of cinema can see numerous awardwinning documentaries and shorts. And where else would you get to see, in the same place, retrospectives of iconic filmmakers such as Mohsen Makhmalbaf of Iran, Jeon Soo-il of South Korea and Krzysztof Kiéslowski of Poland? Or the restored films of Charlie Chaplin and François Truffaut, as well as other greats like Robin Williams, Richard Attenborough, Gordon Willis and Alain Resnais? Or a special package of films in the “Window on South Asian Cinema” section?
Why the organisers chose not to highlight the selection of a film that was made 26 years ago and never saw the light of the day, which won its female lead Shabana Azmi the Best Actress Award at the North Korea Film Festival in 1983, remains a mystery.
Gulzar’s Libaas screened for the first time in 26 years All disputes aside, what I was most fascinated by was the inclusion of the unreleased film Libaas in the retrospective of the poet-lyricistfilmmaker and Dadasaheb Phalke Award-winner Gulzar. One must salute IFFI for including this gem of a film with haunting music by the classic trio of Lata, R.D. Burman and Gulzar.
The poet, who was in conversation with music director and filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj after the screening, spoke of the great surprise he felt when he was informed of the film’s inclusion along with Aandhi, Ijaazat, Koshish, Lekin, Mere Apne and Maachis. Why the organisers chose not to highlight the selection of a film that was made 26 years ago and never saw the light of the day, which won its female lead Shabana Azmi the Best Actress Award at the North Korea Film Festival in 1983, remains a mystery. This film about marital discord between a theatre director Sudhir (Naseeruddin Shah) and his actress wife Seema (Azmi) is full of crisp humour and the sort of everyday dialogue that only Gulzar could pen. Raj Babbar plays TK, a rich friend of the couple, and the “other man” in this triangle. Gulzar’s brilliance as a writer shines through as the neglected wife walks out on her husband to lead a meaningful life with TK.
It is to Gulzar’s credit that the film, while presenting a predicament for its female lead, offers no preconceived bias or any judgement for or against her action. To a ques- tion asked by his daughter Meghna about the storyline being somewhat similar to his later work Ijaazat (based on Bengali writer Subodh Ghosh’s story) — which, in contrast to this film, has a note of finality — the director instantly admitted to being aware of his rather “unfinished and unfair approach” to the characters in Libaas. Seema, who is torn between her first husband and her new-found love, remains caught between the two until she makes a decision, but Sudhir never gets to know her wavering mind or her ambivalence. At the end of the session, when asked what he felt about the film, the self- effacing director said, much to the audience’s amusement, that he liked what he saw and that he was, after all, “a good writer”. NFDC Bazaar IFFI is not restricted to Kala Academy and the INOX multiplex. The NFDC Bazaar at The Marriott — a platform for South Asian filmmakers to present their stories to the international film fraternity — has moved into its seventh year, with more than a thousand delegates attending this year from as many as 40 countries. The Co-Production Market Screenwriters’ Lab, Romance Screenwriters’ Lab and Work-in-Progress Labs presented nearly 50 projects this year, along with some completed films and others that are in the final stages of editing. The Bazaar pulled in great crowds for the interactive sessions moderated by well-known film critics, in which directors such as Dibakar Banerjee, Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar, Shekhar Kapur, Anupam Kher and Satish Kaushik participated.