Agony and ecstasy of a festival

The annual International Film Festival of India is an event that most film buffs look forward to. Yet, some of the movies featured here are so bad that they are not accepted at festivals anywhere else in the world. What is the criteria used by the organisers in choosing these films, asks GAUTAMAN BHASKARAN.

THE International Film Festival of India, now rolling in New Delhi, has some attractive offerings to make. But that they could come adulterated with some really bad stuff is a fact that critics and buffs have, over the years, learnt to accept with a sense of defeat. As one movie lover, a cartoonist by profession who works out of the national capital has been pointing out to me, noise and criticism may well spell the doom of this annual cinematic extravaganza. "This is the only opportunity we get to watch some good foreign fare, and if this were to go, we would be devastated", he says.

The Directorate of Film Festivals, which organises this jamboree, is well aware of this, and probably uses this as an excuse to keep the event going despite glaring misses and a terrible lack of focus.

Admittedly, the Asian Competition - where 15 entries are vying this year for three major awards - is an attempt at giving some kind of character to the Festival. But over the years, this section has not been able to attract the cream of Asian cinema, and the reasons are obvious. In the absence of a viable market, no country, no studio, no director want to send their work to India. The result, we are left pecking at the leftovers from other festivals.

Of the 15 pictures in Asian Competition this year, I see a mere handful of promises. Amos Gitai's "Kadosh" from Israel is a sensitive portrayal of religious bigotry: two sisters act as the protagonists here to carry a caring, critical film beyond the easy sentiment of outraged justice.

We have Malti Sahai's (the Festival Director) word on some other works in Competition. "Postmen in the Mountains" (from China) and "Poppoya" (Japan) are excellent stuff, she avers. One would like to believe that. Even then the ratio of good-vs-bad appears annoyingly tilted towards the latter. Three good movies out of 15 is disappointing.

What about India here ? Well, we have Pankaj Butalia's "Karvaan" and Jayaraaj's "Karunam", which are not the best. Shyam Benegal's "Samar" and Shaji Karun's "Vaanaprastham" are, but they have not been allowed to compete. One wonders what was the criterion the selection panel followed in choosing Butalia and Jayaraaj.

Lack of transparency is a major problem with the Indian Festival. After years, it is still unclear who ultimately decides what should go, and what should not. And the glaring contrast -- while some pictures are great, the others are very poor - makes one suspect that there really is no concerted policy as far as the selection is concerned.

Take, for instance, "Dropouts" from The Netherlands that I watched the other night here. It is B grade, something that no festival would touch. Yet,it found a place under the Indian sun ! One can be reasonably certain that one has to suffer several such movies in this Festival too.

Now for some highlights. Chen Kaige comes from China with "The Emperor and the Assassin". It is a historical epic about ancient battles on a screen that is spectacular, with the inimitable Gong Li adding to the allure, but the ponderous storytelling and a dramatically flat narration fatally hamper Chen's contribution to India's Cinema of the World slot.

Danish writer-director Soren Kragh-Jacobsen spreads the Von Trier-Vinterberg "Dogma" of film-making (no artificial lighting or sets or even camera tripods) further with his "Mifune". When a newly-wedded youngster goes to the countryside to tidy up the place after his father's death, he goes wild bonding with a retarded brother and a house-keeper-cum-call girl.

Youssef Chahine rolls a dozen Joan Crawford pictures into one to give us "The Other". This Egyptian entry plans a virtual-reality computer trip to Paris for a terrorist and a jealous mother. High drama with barely a moment to reflect what is going on.

There is no violence in violence-man Takeshi Kitano's latest offering, "Kikujiro". In fact,for one whose "Hana-Bi" among others exploded in blood and gore, "Kikujiro" is a genteel tale of boy who befriends a man on a journey to find a mother he has never seen. Kitano says that he was inspired by "The Wizard of Oz". So be it.

The Spanish auteur, Pedro Almodovar, draws "All About My Mother" out of a pot of brew whose ingredients are such classics as "All About Eve" and "A Streetcar Named Desire". The Almodovar film has a certain elegance about it, though the story itself is no great shakes. You can understand what happens when an unstable and unhappy actress gets together with a transvestite whore, a pregnant HIV plus nun, a lesbian junky....

Probably, Luc Besson (with his "John of Arc"), Miklos Jancso ("The Lord's Lantern in Budapest"), Majid Majidi ("Colour of Paradise"), Carlos Saura ("Tango") and Jasmin Dizdar ("Beautiful People") will prevail on the Cinema of the World with saner canvas.

And if one has had enough of these, there is an excellent retrospective of Roberto Rossellini, and brilliant tributes for Bibi Anderson, Robert Bresson and Ritwick Ghatak. Will that make the day for a diehard fan of films ?

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