Take on Talkies

The film festival has been organised at the Valmiki auditorium of the UP Sangeet Natak Akademi in Gomti Nagar in Lucknow by cultural group Kalam Vichar Manch in the memory of theatre doyen Habib Tanvir,who never hesitated to stand up for a cause.

In the rightness of things,the selection of films for screening comprise Nandita Das’s Firaaq based on Gujarat riots—it was the inaugural highlight—and other thought provoking films and documentaries,including Robert Benigni’s Oscar-winning Life is Beautiful about how a Jewish family turns the trauma of a Nazi camp into a breeze with sheer good spirit.

“Despite the prolific number and vast variety of ideas the present-day films in India are based on,only a few are striking a chord,” said Rag,adding that business dynamics had changed the very purpose of cinema. “Nobody is making films for the masses…they are all eyeing the NRIs who pay 20 dollars a ticket to see the films. Where is the scope for entertainment of the common Indian?”

The FTII head,who was Culture Secretary,Madhya Pradesh,applied for the post.

“I responded to the advertisement and cleared an interview by a panel comprising the likes of Shyam Benegal,” says Rag,who has even authored Dhuno ki Yatra a profile of film music composers from 1931 to 2005. He promised to bring to Lucknow the institute’s film appreciation course,if there was an initiative/invitation from here.

The programme for Saturday comprises screening of documentaries Gaanv ke Naav Theatre,Mor Naav Habib,Swaraj,Inquilab,and The Female Nude. The screening of Life is Beautiful would be at 3:30 pm and the programme would conclude with a seminar on ‘Cinema kis ki maang par’,addressed by screenwriter Piyush Mishra and documentary film makers Anwar Jamal and Devi Prasad Mishra.