Still Iffy

Films are about fantasy. So the little fantasy about creating a Cannes on Goa8217;s beach front could have been sustained if the international film festival being staged here had displayed any signs of evolving into a credible event. The evidence, unfortunately, militates against such an assumption. Going by the appalling standards set by the just-concluded 37th International Film Festival, the situation is clearly lurching into slide zone. In the three years that Goa has hosted the event, while the infrastructure may have improved marginally, the festival itself is a picture of organised chaos.

The body of evidence is considerable. They range from minor slip-ups like brochures carrying the wrong pictures to festival authorities failing to identify their special invitees. If the queues were a test of human endurance, seating 5,000 registered delegates and 450 accredited journalists in 2,100 seats defied the laws of probability. No surprise then that disgruntlement was the general theme. It appears that the festival authorities were pretty even-handed in their bid to make everybody feel unwelcome, from foreign guests to home-grown talent. Meanwhile, the familiar turf battles assumed epic proportions, with the innumerable authorities involved in the event snarling at each other. A country with a impressive film culture like India8217;s surely deserves better.

So is there a way out? The information and broadcasting ministry has a solution. Just bring the international film festival back to New Delhi and all will be well, it intones. We have heard this before, and we are not convinced. In fact, we are not even convinced that India needs an information and broadcasting ministry. The government must indeed take action 8212; by stepping out of the festival klieg lights. Let those who have the expertise and the inclination, organise these events in the manner they deserve to be run: with professionalism. If the anarchy of the Goa festival drives home this lesson it may have served some purpose.