Festive Season

To everyone’s surprise,Jai Tank’s Madholal Keep Walking,a small budget film has walked away with top honours at the Cairo Film Festival. Tank says,“The cast and crew of the film were all from a theatre background. If we were to release it in India first,not many people would actually go to the cinemas and watch it.” The film draws inspiration from the Mumbai train blasts and Tank unravels a story that salutes the undying spirit of man. While the film has been nominated at the 8th Third Eye Asian Film Festival,the lead actor Subrat Dutta won the Best Actor Award in Cairo.

Filmmaker Onir and producer-actor Sanjay Suri are making sure that their I AM series,which is a compilation of four short stories (20-25 minutes each),gets a good amount of visibility before its a commercial release. I AM,which deals with incest,rape,child abuse,gay rights and issues affecting the most vulnerable segment of our society,has been doing the round of film festivals but the biggest honour till date has come in the form of selection at Cinemart,the world’s largest film market. “It isn’t easy to break into the overseas film market. This is a huge milestone that pretty much paves the way for a movie to find prospective buyers at a global level,” says Onir,who is on the move to promote his film.

Most people thought that Tera Kya Hoga Johnny would be a perfect fit in Bollywood,but director Sudhir Mishra thought otherwise and premiered it at the London International Film Festival. Three of Mishra’s films had earlier premiered in London. He is going there with a film after 17 years. And this film,starring Neil Nitin Mukesh and Shahana Goswami,has already won praises at the London Film Festival which gives the film a chance to be sold in the overseas market and also gain worldwide recognition.

When it comes to exemplary honour,Anant Mahadevan’s Red Alert seems to have bagged a number of awards. After its world premiere at Stuttgart,it was honoured with the director’s vision award and a five-star rating by German critics. Suneil Shetty won the Best Actor Award at the South Asian International Film Festival in New York. Mahadevan,who was inspired by a news report,is happy to have brought the Naxalite movement on the world stage. “It is a 40-year-old problem,but it is during the last few years that things have gone from bad to worse. It is important to understand the plight of both parties,” he says. With Anusha Rizvi’s Peepli Live heading to the Sundance festival,it looks like Indian films are a rage abroad.