MAMI FILM FESTIVAL STARTED IN MUMBAI (INDIA)
MAMI NE KYA DIYA
The 9th international film festival organised by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI) was inaugurated on Thursday at Y.B. Chavan Auditorium at Mumbai with much fanfare amidst the presence of distinguished film personalities from India as well as abroad. The highlight of the Festival is that Amitabh Bachchan, was named as the "Indian Cinema's Global Icon." This award was handed over to Tina Munim, an old time film actress and now queen of Ambani Business empire. And by the way it is Ambani's Adlab which has contributed generous funds to MAMI this year.
Javed Akhtar script, songwriter got life time achievement award for his contribution to cinema. Javed of Salim Javed screen writer team , that had given box office super duper hits Zanjeer, Deevar and Sholay to Indian Film industry. After split, Javed has given some of the best poetry to Hindi films, a number of songs have become anthem for the indian youth.
Pyarelal Sharma, of the famous music composer duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal, was given `The Outstanding Contribution to Indian Film Music Award' and scriptwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar the `Lifetime Achievement Award.' Mr. Pyarelal Sharma, a trained violinist, while remembering all the filmmakers and singers and technicians he worked with spoke about Laxmikant. "Without Laxmiji all this would not have been possible and I remember him," said the composer, who has won several awards and composed for films such as Dosti, Utsav, Karz, and Tezaab.
The festival started with pop song by Rageshwari Loomba and her father. This petite, ravishing beauty has good voice as well as screen presence, done comparing for the opening session.
This year the festival is dedicated to filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee who passed away last year. He was the founder chairman of the academy and his film Anuradha will be the centrepiece of the festival, said Shyam Benegal, present chairman. This year nearly 100 films from 32 countries have so far . been shown during the festival. Several of these films have been showcased and won awards at prestigious festivals such as the Berlin,Cannes and Goa film festivals
The eight-day-long festival opened with the Chinese film "The Curse of the Golden Flower" directed by Zhang Yimou. Set in 10th century China, the film is not only visual delight but also an example for perfection in costumes, sets, details, action et al.It also gives an idea about the private not so private lives of kings, queens their chieftains, conspiracies in the palaces. No doubt the films like this needs lot of Junoon. Though a number of fight sequences
in the movie are digitally crafted but looks very much real.
This festival will be remembered for its special show casing of South African and
Spanish films.
Under African section all the films shown were produced / co produced by Anant Singh.
He produced films on a range of themes. His Sarafina, directed by Darrell James Roodt
is based stage musical. His another film shown in MAMI Yesterday is his stride taken by South African independent cinema.,in fact it was nominated in the Oscar ,The Long Run, is a movie wherein marathon become a metaphor for something beyond the stereotyped coach-athlete interacton that veers between dependency and definance.
This time Spanish films were very popular among the film critics, viewers alike. More then half of the viewers were sitting on stairs and floor to see Lady Nitwit directed by Manuel Ibara. Based on play this film got many nomination at Gaya Award for best director, best actress, best costume and best supporting actor/ actress. The Spanish delegation led by Fernando Colomo was thrilled to see the response to Lady Nitwit, The education of a fairy, Volver and The Near East., Life in Colour, Crossing Borders.
Another interesting section which pulled the crowd was India Worldwide. At one point of time it was regarded as niche, now draw the common viewers also. The movies shown in this section were Chaurhen (The Cross Roads) directed by Rajshree Ojha, trained at American Film Institute, Vanaja directed by Rajnesh Domalpalli, The Bong Connection directed by Anjan Datt, Faltu Utpatang Chutpat Kahani directed by Kalpesh Patel, Outsourced directed by John Jeffcoat and The golden Bracelet by Kavi Raz.
A section dedicated to Iranian film maker Alireza Raieesian also attracted the crowd, particularly his film The Deserted Station based on an incident when a photographer husband and school teacher wife during their cross country journey has unforeseen stop in a deserted place as their truck breaks down..The wife has retired due to unexplained illness. The husband walks to the nearest town, a dismal little place devoid of men as they all are working in the cities. One man stays behind to take charge of the local school. He is also a mechanic and a farmer. He accompanies the husband to fix up truck while the wife takes temporary charge of class. To this simple set up, Raiesian packs up so much into it that multiple viewings may be felt. That is the magic created by him. Another films by him Havana File, The Journey and Rehaneh shows different shades of life and time of Iranian society with his magic directional touch.
In a short span of 7 days, it is not possible for any one to see all the films slated in the festival but of course every one has an opportunity to pick up some of the films of his taste from the array of countries, cultures, directors. This also gives a fair idea that what is cooking up in world cinema, the films normally shown in the festivals hardly see
commercial circuit release.
Pradeep Gupta
indianmusic.critic@gmail.com
The 9th international film festival organised by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI) was inaugurated on Thursday at Y.B. Chavan Auditorium at Mumbai with much fanfare amidst the presence of distinguished film personalities from India as well as abroad. The highlight of the Festival is that Amitabh Bachchan, was named as the "Indian Cinema's Global Icon." This award was handed over to Tina Munim, an old time film actress and now queen of Ambani Business empire. And by the way it is Ambani's Adlab which has contributed generous funds to MAMI this year.
Javed Akhtar script, songwriter got life time achievement award for his contribution to cinema. Javed of Salim Javed screen writer team , that had given box office super duper hits Zanjeer, Deevar and Sholay to Indian Film industry. After split, Javed has given some of the best poetry to Hindi films, a number of songs have become anthem for the indian youth.
Pyarelal Sharma, of the famous music composer duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal, was given `The Outstanding Contribution to Indian Film Music Award' and scriptwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar the `Lifetime Achievement Award.' Mr. Pyarelal Sharma, a trained violinist, while remembering all the filmmakers and singers and technicians he worked with spoke about Laxmikant. "Without Laxmiji all this would not have been possible and I remember him," said the composer, who has won several awards and composed for films such as Dosti, Utsav, Karz, and Tezaab.
The festival started with pop song by Rageshwari Loomba and her father. This petite, ravishing beauty has good voice as well as screen presence, done comparing for the opening session.
This year the festival is dedicated to filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee who passed away last year. He was the founder chairman of the academy and his film Anuradha will be the centrepiece of the festival, said Shyam Benegal, present chairman. This year nearly 100 films from 32 countries have so far . been shown during the festival. Several of these films have been showcased and won awards at prestigious festivals such as the Berlin,Cannes and Goa film festivals
The eight-day-long festival opened with the Chinese film "The Curse of the Golden Flower" directed by Zhang Yimou. Set in 10th century China, the film is not only visual delight but also an example for perfection in costumes, sets, details, action et al.It also gives an idea about the private not so private lives of kings, queens their chieftains, conspiracies in the palaces. No doubt the films like this needs lot of Junoon. Though a number of fight sequences
in the movie are digitally crafted but looks very much real.
This festival will be remembered for its special show casing of South African and
Spanish films.
Under African section all the films shown were produced / co produced by Anant Singh.
He produced films on a range of themes. His Sarafina, directed by Darrell James Roodt
is based stage musical. His another film shown in MAMI Yesterday is his stride taken by South African independent cinema.,in fact it was nominated in the Oscar ,The Long Run, is a movie wherein marathon become a metaphor for something beyond the stereotyped coach-athlete interacton that veers between dependency and definance.
This time Spanish films were very popular among the film critics, viewers alike. More then half of the viewers were sitting on stairs and floor to see Lady Nitwit directed by Manuel Ibara. Based on play this film got many nomination at Gaya Award for best director, best actress, best costume and best supporting actor/ actress. The Spanish delegation led by Fernando Colomo was thrilled to see the response to Lady Nitwit, The education of a fairy, Volver and The Near East., Life in Colour, Crossing Borders.
Another interesting section which pulled the crowd was India Worldwide. At one point of time it was regarded as niche, now draw the common viewers also. The movies shown in this section were Chaurhen (The Cross Roads) directed by Rajshree Ojha, trained at American Film Institute, Vanaja directed by Rajnesh Domalpalli, The Bong Connection directed by Anjan Datt, Faltu Utpatang Chutpat Kahani directed by Kalpesh Patel, Outsourced directed by John Jeffcoat and The golden Bracelet by Kavi Raz.
A section dedicated to Iranian film maker Alireza Raieesian also attracted the crowd, particularly his film The Deserted Station based on an incident when a photographer husband and school teacher wife during their cross country journey has unforeseen stop in a deserted place as their truck breaks down..The wife has retired due to unexplained illness. The husband walks to the nearest town, a dismal little place devoid of men as they all are working in the cities. One man stays behind to take charge of the local school. He is also a mechanic and a farmer. He accompanies the husband to fix up truck while the wife takes temporary charge of class. To this simple set up, Raiesian packs up so much into it that multiple viewings may be felt. That is the magic created by him. Another films by him Havana File, The Journey and Rehaneh shows different shades of life and time of Iranian society with his magic directional touch.
In a short span of 7 days, it is not possible for any one to see all the films slated in the festival but of course every one has an opportunity to pick up some of the films of his taste from the array of countries, cultures, directors. This also gives a fair idea that what is cooking up in world cinema, the films normally shown in the festivals hardly see
commercial circuit release.
Pradeep Gupta
indianmusic.critic@gmail.com
Looks like you had a gala time watching these assorted movies...
ReplyDeleteP.S.: welcome to the world of blogging!
The template looks fine to me...