At Goa, the IFFI 2006 script goes awry

The International Film Festival 2006 is two days away from closing, and has the dubious distinction of having attained near-mythic status in terms of chaos and mismanagement

At the 8216;world premiere8217; of Anirudh Roy Chowdhury8217;s Anuranan, lead actor Rahul Bose had to give away his seat. To this writer, left stranded in the filled-to-capacity tiny INOX theatre, it was a boon: the aisles, I was told by a frowning official brandishing a crackling walkie-talkie, were out of bounds too.

The seat was plumb in the front row. But you don8217;t look a gift-horse and a co-operative Bose in the mouth, and two hours later, I walked out of the theatre with a crick in the neck. But at least that was one film I actually got to watch.

An obvious thing for a weathered film critic on the job to do, you8217;d think, but something which has turned into a monumental enterprise in Goa this year. The queues are endless. The separate queue for the media and delegates, created after two days of yelling and shouting, works only up to a point: theatres fill up much before you reach the doors.

The International Film Festival 2006 is two days away from closing, and has the dubious distinction of having attained near-mythic status in terms of chaos and mismanagement. The organisers clearly believe in not stopping at one boo-boo a day: part of the amusing sideshow at this fest, like at all other fests, is doing the numbers, and right from day one, IFFI 8216;06 has been ringing the change as fast as it can manage.

The widespread fear that Bollywood babes Bipasha, Esha and Priyanka along with the other attendees, would get stuck to the stage, which was being painted till a minute before the show started, was unfounded. But all other misgivings were rapidly confirmed. The multiplicity of authority, a huge bugbear of IFFI even before it moved to Goa three years ago, has become even more acute. The split between the Press Information Bureau PIB, the Directorate of Film Festivals DFF and the Entertainment Society of Goa ESG is wide open: everyone is happily blaming the other for the ongoing debacles.

To the first two, the ESG is intent upon taking the festival away, and if that happens, despite an MoU to the contrary, there will no reason for the DFF to exist. And if you ask Nandini Paliwal, CEO of ESG and a professional bureaucrat, she will give you to understand that her 20-member team is doing the best it can, under the circumstances. There8217;s also a Mumbai-based event management company, which is bringing in Bollywood singers and stars for the out-of-the-venue entertainment, all the better to add to the muddle.

Daily entertainment is being provided by the rantings of filmmkers and actors. TV Chandran, who was refused entry into an official party because he wasn8217;t carrying an invitation, aired his grievances in a press conference meant to introduce his film. Prominent south Indian filmmakers like him are being ignored, he charged, as opposed to a has-been Bollywood star like Juhi Chawla. The cast and crew for Marathi film Mai Baap, another premiere, weren8217;t invited on to the stage, and when a veteran actor demanded the microphone to do the honours, he was shunted off.

Story continues below this ad

A total capacity of 2,300 seats in all five theatres at INOX and Kala Academy, the other main festival venue, is the site for pitched battles between the 6,000 plus delegates, some of whom blithely bring along their underage kiddies to watch movies with explicit adult content. Stung by the mounting criticism, and a querulous query from Goa Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane, chief secretary JP Singh yesterday defended the numbers of delegate passes issuing, saying that 8216;even Cannes, which has 20 screens, issues 40,000 passes8217;.

But this is not Cannes. And going by the internecine warfare between the agencies, which are attempting to run the festival, it won8217;t be, not for a long, long time. It8217;s not just Jahnu Barua, member of the jury for the Competition section, who feels that Goa shouldn8217;t take on the festival till the infrastructure is completely ready. So say all of us. Goa has great beaches, but no public transportation. You can get a glass of reasonable red in the INOX courtyard, but you may not be able to catch the film you want to. Getting a 8216;Volver8217;, a 8216;Borat8217;, or a 8216;Babel8217;, in the same year they made waves at Cannes and other festivals worldwide is great, but it is not enough.