Journalism of Courage
Opening night bloopers come in for flak.
Putting together a film festival is a majestic effort of logistics,meetings,screenings and last minute modifications. Consider then the scale of one of Indias biggest film festivals – MAMI,organised by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images. Eight days (seven if you discount the opening day which had one film),215 feature films from 59 countries,15 documentaries,24 short films,nine screens across Mumbai and a prize money of Rs one crore should have opened with a bang worthy of its impressive numbers. At the end of it all,when the opening ceremony on October 21 was marred by bad acoustics,poor management and hosts committing bloopers,it became tough to maintain enthusiasm for the film festival. The opening night held at Chandan cinema in Juhu,Mumbai was attended by directors Ramesh Sippy,Ravi Chopra,Sudhir Mishra,Ayan Mukherjee and Kunal Kohli,actors Ranvir Shorey,Arunoday Singh and veteran actor Manoj Kumar,who will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the festival this year.
After a tedious registration process where confusion reigned supreme,the event finally took off with Prachi Desai and Minissha Lamba hosting the opening night. MAMI chairman Shyam Benegal then gave a brief welcome speech following which the hosts called upon the all female jury members. Academy Award winner and jury head Jane Campion came in smiling with South Korean actor Yoon Jeonghee even as other jury members,film producer Tanya Seghatchian,Iranian-filmmaker-scriptwriter Samira Makhmalbaf,who did not attend the inaugural event,were introduced to the assembled audience. At this point,Suhasini Maniratnam,who was present was not introduced by the hosts which led Campion to prod them about their blooper. Suhasini,however,forgave the oversight and warmly greeted everyone.
There was also a badly choreographed dance-drama that increased the audiences restlessness. And when Minissha tried to laud the performance by terming it mesmerising the crowd and critics present shouted a huge no unanimously. Even the venue received a lot of flak. The acoustics at Chandan cinema were lacking immensely. It was difficult to make out what was being said as a couple of speakers refused to work and the others could not carry the sound across the 1100 hundred seater theatre.
During the festival,the jury will be watching 14 films that have been selected from more than 190 entries from around the world. When asked what criterion the jury would use to select the best movies,Campion said,I personally like films where I can see that the filmmaker has done something well. I like it when I get to see new things,fresh ideas and courageous and curious filmmaking. However,the beauty of a jury is that its not one persons opinion,but many peoples views put together.
The festival that opened with a screening of David Finchers The Social Network concludes on October 28. Supported by the government of Maharashtra,MAMI is a Reliance Big Entertainment initiative.
