A mix of genres marked the day four of the fifth edition of Jagran Film Festival
Sasha Agha, Tia Bajpai, Akhil Kapur, filmmaker Anand Kumar, Claudia Ciesla
Not many can forget the frenzy that one witnessed during the Jagran Film Festival (JFF) last year. This year too, crowds have been pouring in to catch a wide variety of world and Indian cinema. Interestingly, even the afternoon shows saw an encouraging response.
Shilpa Shukla at the screening of Aankhon Dekhi at the fifth Jagran Film Festival
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If the diversity of subjects being dealt with in these films wasn’t enough, the workshops, debate sessions and short films kept film lovers hooked.
Lured by world cinema
Day four saw international cinema take centrestage even as Dutch, Spanish, Finnish, Portuguese, Russian, and French films were screened. The day opened with a morning panel discussion; this panel comprised of senior film critics Jai Prakash Chouksey (from Dainik Bhaskar), Ravi Buley (from Amar Ujala), Ajay Brahmatmaj (from Dainik Jagran) and Shubha Shetty-Saha (Group Entertainment Editor, mid-day and Dainik Jagran). The panel dissected the current state of movie reviewing. The discussion served to highlight the problems that critics face as well as how one could improve the standards of film journalism.
Sasha Agha, Tia Bajpai, Akhil Kapur, filmmaker Anand Kumar and Claudia Ciesla at the premiere of Desi Kattey at the fifth Jagran Film Festival at PVR Andheri. Pics/Satyajit Desai
Coming back to films, Dutch film, How to Describe a Cloud, was the first movie to be screened on day four. Also enjoying a good response was Arto Halonen’s A Patriotic Man; the Finnish comedy was lapped by audiences. Marcelo Gomez’s Brazilian drama, The Man of the Crowd, on the other hand, had film students glued to their seats. Another international film making its Asian premiere was the 85-long-minute Russian masterpiece, Break Loose.
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Ajay Brahmatmaj of Dainik Jagran, Ravi Buley of Amar Ujala, Jai Prakash Chouksey of Dainik Bhaskar and Shubha Shetty-Saha of mid-day discussed movie reviewing as part of a morning session at the Jagran Film Festival
Patrice Chereau’s Cosi Fan Tutte may have found relatively few takers, but Bhalji Pendharkar’s Chhatrapati Shivaji, that followed the black-and-white classic, was very well-received. After which Bimal Roy’s Do Bigah Zameen (1953) was screened, as it was part of the retrospective section.
Among the evening shows, the Malayalam film, Kerala Verma Pazhassi Raja, saw curiosity get the better of film enthusiasts.
Bollywood bonanza
Among the Bollywood screenings, one saw scores of people line up to watch Ankhon Dekhi that was screened in the evening. Director Rajat Kapoor participated in media interactions; much to his delight, thecinema hall was packed. The film, Q, too had a fair share of people turn up for its screening, ditto for Pradeep Sarkar’s Rani Mukherjee-starrer Mardaani and Feroze Abbas Khan’s social and political satire, Dekh Tamasha Dekh.
The evening also saw a heated debate on the mad ad world. Overall, it was an action-packed day.
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