“The gap was a little more,” gushes an excited Anurag Kashyap pointing to the distance between his seat and the screen. Languishing on the front seat of PVR ECX in The Chanakya Mall, the director is talking about the pre-multiplex avatar of the theatre where he was introduced to international cinema. “I remember watching Mississippi Burning here.” In the city for the announcement of MAMI’s Delhi Edition with the screening of Wes Anderson ‘s Isle of Dogs, the board member of Mumbai Academy of Moving Image, says Delhi always had a culture of watching World cinema. “I cut my teeth by watching films in embassies. My first was A Fugitive From The Past which I watched in the Japanese Embassy.”
With the International Film Festival of India moving to Goa, Cinefan Film Festival of Asian and Arabic cinema coming to an abrupt end and theatres like Shakuntalam closing down, Anurag says, there seems to be a lull in the festival circuit in Delhi and MAMI, which has been successfully holding Mumbai Film Festival for two decades now, will help revitalise it with its year-round programme. “The ambition is to become a world class festival. In our India Gold section, we discover various films every year; we want to do something similar in our international section.”
It seems the festival endeavours to bring Quentin Tarantino and Rajinikanth on the same platform. “Both matter,” observes Anurag. “We see film festival only as a serious academic activity. A festival should celebrate irreverence as much as it focusses on serious social concerns. The idea of genre film festival has somehow not taken root in India. There are festivals like Fantasia in Montreal, and BIFAN film festival in South Korea has showcased films of Rajinikanth.”
At one point Anurag was involved with the government in injecting fresh energy into IFFI. “I was, but at one point they perhaps started feeling that it is problematic to involve me. World over, there is no festival which can run without government support. But the involvement ends after appointing people. And the policy doesn’t change after every five years according to what suits the people in power.” Anurag says MAMI can’t compete with IFFI in terms of infrastructure and budget. “What we can promise is quality.”
A controversy’s child, Anurag was discovered at a film festival when his film Paanch was screened at the Cinefan Film Festival in Delhi in 2005. “Now the level of controversy has changed. Today, the masturbation scene in a mainstream film (Veere Di Wedding) is creating controversy. It shows we are growing,” chuckles Anurag as he polishes off his second platter of momos.
Meeting point
What is it that draws people out of homes to catch a movie in a film festival after standing in queues for hours? There is no better person to answer this than Anupama Chopra, seasoned film critic, who has been attending film festivals across the word for years. “People have repeatedly told me that some of the most valuable friendships that they have made are in those lines. A festival is not just about watching a film, it is about the atmosphere, the most random interactions.” Talking about the USP of the initiative, Chopra, festival director and part of the leadership team of MAMI, says, “You can’t, perhaps see these films at home unless you are pirating them. We would also like to brings in artistes and directors to create conversations that have value. It is something that adds so much to cinema viewing experience.” Chopra who grew up watching films at the Siri Fort, knows Delhi has a dedicated audience for quality films and well-attended festivals at the Habitat and India International Centre reflect that. “The big screen experience is always special and what we can add is screening films that are uncensored and unreleased. Most of these films won’t have a broader release in the country. I don’t think that a lot of people are doing it. Also, they are proper DCP screenings as the filmmakers meant them you to watch them.”
A class apart
Meanwhile, Dinesh Singh is busy mainstreaming classics. The founder of Navrasa Duende has curated the second edition of World Classic Film Festival with a lot of though. If last year was more about popular genre films of Frank Capra and Alfred Hitchcock, this year Singh has more ambitious plans with masterpieces of greats such as Ingmar Bergman, Norman Jewison, Marcel Carne, Andrei Tarkovsky; Victor Fleming, Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Vittorio De Sica and David Lean lined up for a two-day festival at Siri Fort auditorium. “I think it is a cause working propagating. Classic World itadition of and culture of a place. next t genration. One reason. I believe classics have the potential to be mainstream entertainers as well. Films such as Wild Strawberries, Fiddler on the Roof, Gone With The Wind and Jalsaghar still hold audience in sway. The event has experiential value, something which the discerning cherish a lot,” says Singh.
On the selection of films, Singh says, a lot of thought has gone into it as he has covered nine countries. “We have chosen three types of directors. One, who believed in producing popular yet classic movies.” Like David Lean for example whose Dr Zhivago is on the cards. “His movies are very artistic and classy yet he made them with audience in mind.” Then there are some directors who are ready to offer a helping hand to the audience. “They come mid-way and expect the audience to lift their taste a bit so that they can converge. A nice example of this is Satyajit Ray’s Jalsaghar. When Aparajito didn’t do so well, Ray wanted to do a movie which was artistic but had music and dance. I think he wanted to prove that he could also do all that but he chose a script that required it. Then there are movies of Ingmar Bergman, who believed in making movies for himself. He saw them as poetry written for himself. If you enjoy his poetry, you were welcome. He wouldn’t change his way.”
Singh knows the the value of films notwithstanding, the biggest challenge these days is to bring audience to theatres. “We have kept it ticketed this time so that only those who are serious about cinema should come. We got good response for Swan Lake and we have a data bank of discerning audience. We have tried to reach them through direct and social media marketing. Having said that, building a community of good art lovers is not a one day process. Even if I get 50 people for a movie like Wild Strawberries, I will be happy.”