Mumbai 2009, Afterword: Down With Viral

Mumbai Film Fest ended on 5th November. For the next four days I have been sleeping. This strange viral attack has left me confined to my bed. There is no fever, but there is everything else. Don't feel like doing anything, least of all watching a new movie. Fellini's La Dolce Vita and Hitchcock's North by Northwest, among others, are waiting for me, the newest additions to the Movies folder on my laptop. But I feel saturated. If I actually have to watch a movie, I would rather choose one of the 34 I saw during the past one week. Would love to revise most of them.

34 films from nearly as many countries, in more than 17 languages. From Romantic Comedy to Thriller to Courtroom Drama to Documentary to Surreal Fantasy to Psychological Drama to Crime to Period Biopic - it was a complete experience. The award winners were:

The British film White Lightnin' won the International Competition for the first feature film of directors (Golden Gateway).

The Italian film La Pivellina won the Jury Grand Prize (Silver Gateway).

Adrian Biniez won the Best Director award for his film Gigante.

Edward Hogg for White Lightnin' and Paprika Steen for Applaus won the awards for Best Actor and Actress respectively.

A special Jury Award was given to Mark Gyori for camerawork and Gyorgy Kovacf for sound for the film Katalin Varga.

Road to Sangam won the Audience Choice Award while Sirta La Gal Ba (Whisper With The Wind) from Iraq received the Mumbai Young Critics' Jury Award.

Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos recieved the honourary International Lifetime Achievement Award. Amitabh Bachchan was also awarded an honourary Lifetime Achievement.

In spite of watching as many films as I could, I missed three of the above mentioned films. They will now feature in my list of 'Badly Need to Watch' films.

Would like to mention Tatarak (Sweet Rush) from Poland; and Kan Door Huid Heen (Can Go Through Skin) from Netherlands. These two films affected me greatly. If cinema art for me has acquired new meanings during this week, these two films have made the most difference.

P.S. On my way back home after the festival, had three different encounters on the train. All of them were men under influence of alcohol and the drama they created was no less than any of the films I had seen. Hitchcock had rightly said that drama is life with the dull bits cut out. As I lie in my bed, down with viral, life and its drama continues. Hoping to join it ASAP...

Mumbai 2009, Day #7: Finally attached

All these days, I was watching movies with a certain detachment. Unlike my nature, I was subconsciously keeping myself at a distance from the characters I saw on screen. Perhaps that was the only way I could have finished 34 films in seven days. At the end of each day I was planning the next and hardly thought about the films I had just saw. It was a non-sentimental approach of celebrating cinema in a mad mad rush.

On the last day, however, after the last movie, I had this feeling - 'FIN' (as they say in French for The End). As I sat at Marine Drive, I recalled all the 34 movies and saw those characters standing there, looking at me. I just realized that I was going to miss them, and miss this experience. At that moment I felt what I had witnessed, their complicated lives and deaths and hopes and desires, from diverse cultures and belief systems. I felt then that my exhaustion is not merely physical but emotional as well. I felt drained. I longed for more of it, although I knew it had become physically impossible for me to watch one more movie. When it has ended, I finally find myself attached to it.

I spent the last day of the fest at Metro, and the movies of the day were:

The Last Thakur, a thriller from Bangladesh.

Singularidades de umarapariga loura (Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl), a Portuguese short-story, perhaps the only avoidable movie I saw during these seven days.

Complices (Partners), the closing movie for me, a French murder-mystery involving teenage crime and sexuality.

And the two movies which made the day special:

Tres Deseos (The Three Wishes), a Kieslowskian drama from Argentina. From writing to use of background score, this deeply psychological account of a married couple's weekend trip to Colonia reminded me strongly of Trois Colours trilogy. The tribute to Kieslowski was evident as Victoria talks about a scene from Trois Colours: Bleu. A definite re-watch.

Huacho, a neo-realistic take on the life of this rural Chilean family. It was honest, affecting, and beautiful. Although the pace was such that many left the theater mid-way. But I loved it.

It has been a beautiful week, one of the most beautiful of my life. The experience has ended. The hangover has merely begun. Gifted myself a red rose as I finally moved towards Churchgate station to catch the train to home... Life is beautiful! Cinema is forever!!

Mumbai 2009, Day #6: Genres and a Zombie

Chronic severe sleep deprivation. I look like a zombie.

Siete Minutos (Seven Minutes), a beautiful romantic comedy from Spain.

Sturm (Storm), an intense and gripping political thriller based on the atrocities caused to Bosnian Muslims by Yugoslavian National Army.

Junk food. I eat like a zombie.

Menteur (Liar), about this Belgian guy whose failure has turned him into an obsessive compulsive liar.

Katalin Varga; a Romanian drama: what happens when Katalin has to leave her home and her husband as he discovers her past and the truth behind their son.

I can't see it as I move about, but my face talks to me like a zombie.

Pick of the day: Sandali Khali (Empty Chair), a surreal Iranian fantasy discussing life, death, chance, and the responsibilities of the creator. Thought Iranian movies are all about simplicity. Not when the director is Saman Estereki. Met him. Says things are always between real and unreal for him. Took interest in my interpretation of his abstract stuff.

Performance of the day: Kerry Fox for Storm.

I am drowning, deep, down, going...

One more day. Just one more day! Will it be enough? Can anything be enough?

"Sex is overrated. I'm fine without it". (from Seven Minutes)

I am a zombie.

Mumbai 2009, Day #5: Bus, Taxi, Sprint and Eternity...

He: Tomorrow... How long does tomorrow last?
She: An eternity... and a day.

Mumbai 2009 is having a retrospective on the legendary filmmaker from Greece, Theo Angelopoulos. This film that I saw today features commonly in 'Greatest Films Ever' lists. The eight-minute long closing shot can definitely be considered as one of the best closing shots in cinema history. But this experience had a price.

Instead of the usual festival venue at Fun Republic, Andheri, this morning we started for Ghatkopar. Didn't know the route. Didn't know exactly how long it would take. The first bus we took broke down. 20-25 minutes got wasted. The other bus we took got caught in the morning traffic over the WE Highway. We didn't have time. Decided to take a cab. It took 160 bucks, but we reached the gate of the Mall precisely on time. As we entered, the guards told us that it was the wrong gate. We had no time left. And the mall is too goddamn huge. So, we had to sprint - it was the only way out. Ran all around the campus. Entered. Lifts not working. Rushed over the dead escalators and reached the third floor. All this while, we could not find any other delegate in sight. Is this a wrong address? - was out worst fear. But then we saw the poster of the film fest. And finally, as we try to rush into the theater, the security person says that the show has been postponed. We were 75 minutes before time!

While waiting for the first movie to start, knowing very well that tonight's last movie would not end before 11pm, we thought we our day was screwed. But it turned out to be perhaps the most fruitful day of my cinema experience. After the opening Greek movie, each movie that followed was special, each capable of making your day, giving you a high, and today there were five of them, back to back. Well, this indeed is a film festival.

Ausencia (Absence), a Mexican crime drama; Eastern Plays, the story of two brothers among the misguided youth of Bulgaria, that had bagged Best Film and Director awards at Tokyo, 2009; La Belle Personne (The Beautiful Person), perhaps the best teenage romance I have seen, perhaps because no one does it better than the French; and finally Andrzej Wajda's Tatarak (Sweet Rush) from Poland, an unbelievable fusion of real and fiction. Would like to mention Krystyna Janda's as the performance of the day, not only for the psychological layers she displayed as Marta, but for the spirit with which she played herself - Krystyna, the actor, suffering with the loss of her real-life husband, and shooting for this Wajda film. Confused on reading this? Many there were confused after the movie as well. Just take this - this film was awarded the Alfred Bauer Prize at Berlin 2009, the award which is given "to a movie which opens new perspectives in film art." This did just this. The eternity of these films made my day!

Mumbai 2009, Day #4: Finally Slept Through One...

Among my friends doing internship, stories of people sleeping in the operation theatre while holding the retractor beside the patient was common. The way the limits of my body are being stretched these days, I have started to believe those stories. Today, finally, I slept through an entire movie. It was a short one and so was my much needed nap. I feel guilty about that, but I should not. Finishing nineteen movies in four days is something remarkable in itself, I suppose.

And the four movies of today were so good, a definite rise in standards from yesterday's stuff. Goodbye Solo, was a Jim Jarmusch-like story about this taxi driver who develops friendship with a seventy-something man with secrets of his own. Den Peremozhenykh (The Day of Defeated) was a colourful satire set in the changing political scenario in Ukraine, where a death and the funeral guides us through the minds and mannerisms of these interesting characters of a small town, reminiscent of Fellini's Amarcord. The near-perfect Turkish film Uzak Ihtimal (Wrong Rosary) generated an unprecedented audience response on the sweet love story of Musa, a Musilm muezzin and Clara, a Christian nun. But for me the biggest high of the day was this psychological Dutch crime drama, Kan Door Huid Heen (Can Go Through Skin), a post-traumatic study into the mind of Marieke, which was achieved by the innovative use of montage and sound design. It taught me a thing or two. It was a movie I would love to make.

The actor of the day would be Nadir Saribacak for his restrained performance in Wrong Rosary. He underplayed it so well, he made it difficult to appreciate his performance. I am sure everyone in the audience loved him for being Musa.

Mumbai 2009, Day #3: Games For Survival

Perhaps I am trying too hard to connect the movies I watch each day under a common title. But the 'connection' was a little too obvious on the first two days, and was almost so today. Today's movies showed different aspects of human drive to survive: the best film winner at Rome 2008, Jang-e-Taryak (Opium Wars), about two American soldiers stranded in an isolated place with a local Afghan family displaying our inherent animal nature of struggle and survival; Bist (Twenty), an Iranian drama about how the owner's decision to sell his banquet hall is going to make things difficult for his staff; Los Bastardos, an insight into the lives of two Mexican manual labourers; and today's pick - La Pivellina, a sweet Italian film about how a two year-old, lost-and-found baby girl named Asia affects the lives of red-haired circus-worker Patti and those around her. Apart from these, we saw La Tigra, Chaco, a simple, warm love-story set in a small town in Argentina. The post-screening discussion with its directors added value to this honest attempt.

It has been three days. Fifteen movies. I am having hardly five hours of sleep per day. And the day involves traveling for hours and disrupted food habits. When I sleep, I dream about being there and meeting film personalities. I am getting insane. And there are four more days to go!

Mumbai 2009, Day #2: About Special Men

The day began with one of the best biopics I have ever seen, China's official entry for Oscars: Mei Lanfang (Forever Enthralled), about the life of one of the most legendary Chinese opera performers of all time. It was the kind of cinematic experience you wish about, a fine blend of fact and fiction and of music, art and theatre, with a unique cultural and historical flavour to it. I thought it was going to be my movie of the day. But movies that followed have made it extremely difficult to decide: the heart-warming documentary Unmistaken Child, about the search of the reincarnation of Tibetan master Lama Konchog; the Hindustani film Muhafiz, 1994, (as part of Shashi Kapoor Retrospective) that talks about the state of Urdu in modern India through the last days of a famous Urdu poet; and The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela, about a Filipino ladyboy prostitute. All these movies told great stories about special men and each was as good as the other.

Apart from these I saw this Hungarian movie Nem Vagyok a Baratod (I Am Not Your Friend). I selected this film because I am still in awe with Hukkle, the only Hungarian film I had seen before today. And I thought another film from Hungary would be interesting to watch. After the show, I talked to Gyorgy Palfi, the director and I could not believe it when while talking to him I realised that it was he who had made Hukkle. I told him how unforgettable it was and took his autograph.

Also had the chance to meet Paprika Steen, whom I mentioned in my last post, and her director Mikael C. Rieks. When I told them that their film reminded of Kieslowski, they informed me that it has actually been nominated for some award named after the Polish master. Overall, it was a hugely rewarding day.

For the performance of today I would like to mention that of Om Puri in Muhafiz. As always, he excells as the Urdu professor, with a Hindi M.A. degree and an undying hope that Urdu poetry would survive, and through his eyes we witness the personal life of Nur Shahjehanbadi, Shashi Kapoor in an unforgettable performance. Leon Lai in a restricted and subtle portrayal of the Chinese superstar, 'the King of female roles', Mei Lanfang was amazing too.

P.S. This friend of mine, one of my partners in the discovery of world cinema, who was there with me during Pune 2008, has come to Mumbai specifically for this fest. For the next three days, he wll join me there. Looking forward to more moments to cherish...

Mumbai 2009, Day #1: Belonged to the ladies

It does not happen often that you finish watching five movies in a single day, within 12 hrs. But from today, it is going to be my case for one full week. With five great movies today, the fest begins for me. And today it belonged to the ladies.

Two of the five movies had women directors. And all but one had ladies as protagonists: Mar Nero (Black Sea), a beautiful Italian film about the old Gemma and her young Romanian caregiver; Zanan-e Bedun-e Mardan (Women Without Men), a surrealistic political Persian drama about four women and how the unrest in Iran during 1953 affects their lives; Applaus (Applause), a Danish film about the personal turmoil in the life of a famous middle-aged actress; and finally Fish Tank, an English film about the fifteen-year old tough and wiry Mia. I had a chance meeting with Mr. Lekh Tandon and the movie we saw was the disturbing and brutal sexploitation film from Greece, Kynodontas (Dogtooth), which left the audience shocked and enraged.

The best performances were those of Ilaria Occhini as Gemma in Mar Nero, for which she has already won Best Actress Silver Lion at Locarno; and of Paprika Steen as Thea in Applause. But the movie that gave me a truely cinematic experience today was Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank, the winner of Jury Prize at Cannes, 2009. The red-black silhouette of the pretty and talented Katie Jarvis dancing to the tune of California Dreamin' made my day:

All the leaves are brown
And the sky is grey,
I've been for a walk
On a winter's day...

Mumbai 2009, Opening Day: They Told Me To Go Back

As evident by my last post, I was extremely excited about this day, the opening day of Mumbai Film Festival, 2009. The opening movie was Steven Soderbergh's latest offering, Matt Damon starer, The Informant!. The opening ceremony, followed by this movie was scheduled at 1900hrs. And I was there well in time. They gave me my delegate pass, after looking at the counterfoil of my registration form and informed me that I can join in from the next morning. I was not allowed to attend the screening tonight! "Today's entry is only by invitation." - the girl at the help desk explained with a forced smile. "Well, I don't know who was supposed to invite me.", I said. She couldn't appreciate the humour. I forgave her.

I had waited for this day for two months. I had waited for the evening the whole day. I didn't watch any movie during the day as I had to watch this. And there I was, on my way back. The Red Carpet, the media flashes, the announcements, the music, the Security, the expensive cars, the honourable guests - it was all there. But it wasn't for me. The Mumbai Film Festival had started. And I was going back.

Let me put it clearly. I knew the Opening Ceremony was not meant for the general public. But who cares about that! I was just expecting the thousand bucks I had paid to get the delegate pass would let me in one of the four theaters - all screening the opening movie. The opening day couldn't give anything for me to cherish. Tomorrow is going to be my Day #1.

I don't blame anyone. I forgive them all. But it is true that I was feeling a mix of too many emotions at that moment. One of them was disappointment. Others, too personal for me to talk about. It is OK, I said to myself, and moved towards Landmark book store. The wonderful book on the cinema of Jean Renoir was waiting for me...

The Stage is Set...

It has been a long wait. Over two months. And finally, it is over. Believe me, the last few days were real slow.

The only film festival I have attended is Pune Film Festival 2008. Had watched 17 movies in 4 days. It was an experience I could never forget. This year, I missed it. And was gearing up for the 2010 Pune fest, to be held in January. Got to know about this fest to be held in Mumbai and for the past two months I have been waiting impatiently.

Finally the wait is over. I am not going to do anything else but lose myself to this binge of movies. I never watch more than one movie a day, let it grow on myself, read about it and watch another on getting up the next morning. But from tomorrow, I am going to indulge. I hope to finish 35 movies during this week. Have already spent hours planning it out from the schedule they have released. Perhaps the planning was the most exciting part.

I'll have to leave home at 8am. And would return only at midnight, to leave again the next morning. It is going to be a hell of a ride. And although, I would miss the company of my friends who were there with me at Pune 2008, one of them is coming to Mumbai and would join me for three days. And my brother would join me for some shows as well. I can't wait any more. The stage is set just too well...

P.S. I dont know whether I'll have time. But would love to post daily reports about my experience there. Although, it seems too much to demand from myself, I'll sincerely try. C ya!!!