Film fest promises to be bigger and better this year

KOLKATA: The inaugural ceremony of 21st edition of the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) will be graced by the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Sharmila Tagore, Moushumi Chatterjee and Vidya Balan, among other luminaries. Shah Rukh Khan, who is the brand ambassador of the Bengal, will however not be able to make it to the festival because of prior shooting commitments.For city’s cine-buffs, the biggest incentive is the screening of Carlos Saura’s ‘Zonda, folclore argentino’. In a coup of sorts, this is the first film festival in India that will get to screen the Spanish master’s latest movie!
Some months back, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had sent actor-director Arindam Sil to the Cannes Film Festival to facilitate the selection of good movies for KIFF. The efforts seem to have borne fruit what with the organisers having successfully managed to get quite a few award-winning films from this year’s Cannes, Berlin and Venice Film Festivals. They include Jafar Panahi’s Iranian drama titled ‘Taxi’ which won the Golden Bear and the FIPRESCI Prize at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. Then there is Tsai Ming-liang ‘Afternoon’ that was screened at this year’s Venice International Film Festival as well as Alexander Sokurov’s 2015 French drama titled ‘Francofonia’ that was screened at the main competition section of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival. Nanni Moretti’s ‘Mia Madre’, Takeshi Miike’s ‘Yakuza Apocalypse: The Great War of the Underworld’ and Hou Hsiao-hsien’s ‘The Assassin’ are also a part of the KIFF screening list. Andreas Dresen’s ‘As We Were Dreaming’, which was in the main competition of Berlin International Film Festival, has also been selected. Festival-favourite Kim Ki Duk’s ‘Stop’ and Mani Ratnam’s ‘OK Kanmani’ that was premiered at the Busan Film Festival’s Window to Asian Cinema category have also made it to KIFF. Sources insist that this is just the tip of the iceberg what with more big announcements likely to be made soon.
Incidentally, Amitabh Bachchan and Vidya Balan will be shooting in Kolkata during the end of November for Ribhu Dasgupta’s Hindi thriller titled ‘TE3N’. But the inauguration of KIFF is not going to coincide with the shooting dates of ‘TE3N’ in the city. Both these stars will be in town on November 14 specially to attend the festival. While shooting for ‘TE3N’ will begin from November 21, Bachchan’s work in this city will begin from November 27.
Bachchan’s inaugural speech at last year’s KIFF was one of the most-talked-about subjects related to the film festival. This year too, the expectations are no less from the actor. The presence of stalwarts apart, KIFF’s inaugural ceremony is going to witness a unique audio-visual presentation. The show is being conceived and presented by Bickram Ghosh. Participating in this programme that will have a maximum duration of 15 minutes will be stalwart musicians like vocalist Ustad Rashid Khan, sarod player Pt Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar, saxophone player George Brooks and percussionist Taufiq Quereshi. “It will be an audio-visual presentation involving dance of different genres,” Ghosh said, refusing to divulge further on the genres of dance that will be a part of the show. Mazumdar, who is currently in Bangladesh, told TOI, “Along with Rashid and Bickram, I was part of last year’s inaugural programme too. I have been asked to participate this year as well.”
Percussionist Ratul Shankar is composing the theme music for the festival. Earlier on, he had composed the music that was played at the Netaji Indoor Stadium to welcome Pranab Mukherjee during his first visit to the city after he was sworn in as the President of India. Sources say that Shankar is using instruments like the electric sitar, flute and different kinds of percussions for the minute-long theme song.