No magic in the dark

Old-timers recall a different kind of festival. The International Film Festival of India was not always a lacklustre event. Festival delight...

Old-timers recall a different kind of festival. The International Film Festival of India was not always a lacklustre event. Festival delights, those precious revelatory moments in the dark when the viewer stumbles upon a master, weren8217;t quite so rare.

Nostalgic stories are fondly retold of that first competitive event in New Delhi, 1965, when the winner of the Golden Peacock was an entry from Ceylon and the package in the Information section boasted of Antonioni, Kurosawa, Bunuel, Wajda, Polanski, Bergman and Kazan.

Or of that most distinguished gathering in 1977, when New Delhi played proud host to Kurosawa and Antonioni. And those other years when the visiting delegates included Frank Capra, Immamura, Zanussi, Polanski8230; No, the IFFI was never in the same league as Berlin, Cannes and Venice, but it was definitely an event to reckon with. So what happened?

The day after the 33rd IFFI wound up in the nation8217;s capital, and while the memories and the disappointments are still raw, it8217;s time to wonder why. Why is it that over the years, the festival has been almost completely emptied of the big names, the latest films, the most respected critics? Why must it have to fill its basket with the leftover fare from festivals abroad? Why do even Indian filmmakers increasingly give it a miss, preferring to showcase their films in countries in the West? Why did both the capital8217;s elite and the average filmgoer stay away from IFFI 2002 8212; leading the festival director to confess to 8216;modest8217; ticket sales, a description that veers towards understatement?

There can be many answers. Critics have long railed at the ministry of information and broadcasting8217;s inept management, the surrendering of the festival to bureaucrats who have neither the interest nor the vision that is needed to work out a unique character for the event which could then be internationally promoted. There is also, it is said, the problem of finance. Reportedly, the IFFI is likely to be victimised even further in the ongoing squabbling between the I038;B ministry and the finance ministry over pruning 8216;wasteful expenditure8217;.

It could also be the venue. Many have argued that the festival be shifted from the capital to a city with a film industry, a film-going culture of it own. There are several possible reasons for the IFFI8217;s decline. Before the last of the festival posters are taken down, let8217;s look at some of them at least.