Cinema and Beyond

Remembering the Greats

It will celebrate the cinema of Japanese duo Wakamatsu and Adachi and late Indian filmmaker Mani Kaul,who was the creative director at Osian’s. Cinefan has instituted in his memory the annual Mani Kaul Memorial Lecture series,the first of which will be delivered by Marco Mueller,director of the Rome film festival.

Japanese Fuschia

As part of Japanese films that will be screened at the festival are pink films — a genre of soft-core pornographic theatrical films — Naokazu Chinzei’s Ring My Bell and Satoshi Yamaguchi’s The Smell of Curry and Rice. Known as Pinku Eiga in Japan,they first appeared in the ’60s and dominated the industry for over two decades. In their revived avatar,the films stress on plots,character development and dialogues.

Eat Your Cake & Watch it

Arrested in 2010 on unspecified charges and sentenced to house arrest for six years,Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi made a short film chronicling a day in his life under confinement. The recording was smuggled to the 2011 Cannes film festival,hidden in a cake. The film,titled This Is Not a Film,met with great critical acclaim and intensified the efforts in securing his release. Panahi’s son will attend the screening and address the audience.

Power Panel

The films in the Osian’s Cinefan Competition have been divided into four sections: Arab and Asian,Indian,First Features and Shorts. International imports on the jury include Marco Mueller; Hollywood screenwriter James V Hart; Afghan author Atiq Rahimi; and Jordan-based filmmaker Annemarie Jacir. From the Indian contingent,there will be indie filmmaker Ashvin Kumar; painter and director Muzzafar Ali; theatre actor Lillette Dubey and Gurvinder Singh,who made the award-winning film Anhe Ghorhey Da Dana.