The Kolkata Film Festival 2011 under the new state government headed by CM Mamata Banerjee has initiated several radical changes in the festival format,screening programmes and so on. Initiated by the Left Front Government in 1996,the festival will take place between November 10 and 17. The first change is a scaling down of the number of films selected for screening under different sections. The approximate number of movies has dwindled down to 150 according to an insider who wishes to remain anonymous. The inaugural programme has been shifted from the traditionally established Nandan I to the much wider Netaji Indoor Stadium,which is not really fit for screening films,as part of any International Film Festival. Acoustics at the Netaji Indoor Stadium are rather poor because it is a stadium generally used for exhibitions and fairs. Putting a proper sound system in place will pose a real challenge for the organisers. The third shift is at the administrative level where the top brass of mainstream Bengali films are at the helm of affairs. Ranjit Mullick,veteran actor,is the head of the advisory committee with Gautam Ghose,Prosenjit,Haranath Chakraborty,Anjan Dutt,film scholar Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay,Ujjal Chakraborty of Roop Kala Kendro,film critic Nirmal Dhar and Ratnotamma Sengupta and others on the board. A major attraction at the festival will be an exhibition of 100 still photographs taken by filmmaker Satyajit Ray. These photographs were clicked by the Oscar-winning filmmaker on the streets of Kolkata during the early 50s and mid60s. The famous French photographer Henri Cartier Bresson was his idol when as a young man,Ray would wander across the streets of the city with his camera and keep clicking anything that caught his fancy. A rare picture that will occupy the pride of place at the exhibition is a photograph of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa,taken by Ray,without the masters trademark dark glasses. The exhibition will be held on the ground floor of Nandan. Calcutta/Kolkata is the theme of the KFF this year where films rooted in the city will be screened. Among the movies chosen are Satyajit Rays Mahanagar,Mrinal Sens Kolkata 71,Birsa Dasguptas 033 and Gautam Ghoses Kaalbela while not a single film of Ritwik Ghatak has made it to this list. Ashok Kumar received a centenary tribute through the screening of four of his films Achhut Kanya,Kismet,Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi and Haatey Bazare. Turkish photographer and filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan will be bestowed with a retrospective of his movies. Sri Lankan filmmaker Vimukthi Jayasundaras Bengali film Chhatrak (Mushrooms) that has a 2.55-minute sex scene with Paoli Dam will be screened but without the controversial scene. The CM expressed her wish to select a feel-good film for the inauguration. So,after debating over Woody Allens Midnight In Paris and Alexander Sokurovs Faust,reports state that the vote has gone in favour of Dutch filmmaker Joram Lürsens The Magicians (2010) though this is yet to be officially confirmed. As many as seven auditoriums will be screening the festival films across the city. Additional venues like Biosocope,Inox and Navina have been roped in this year.
