Into its 7th edition, with 170 films and over 60 guests, the Bangalore International Film Festival (BIFFES, 4-11 Decvember 2014) has gradually swelled in scope and ambition. But at the opening ceremony, Karnataka’s Chief Minister Mr Siddaramaiah wanted and promised more. A permanent BIFFES Cell, he declared, would be set up within the Karnataka Chalanchitra Academy (which organises the festival together with the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce ) created by the Government five years ago to develop a film culture; and he also promised a Kannada Film Policy in the very near future.
BIFFES treated film lovers to a wide cross section of films clubbed into a range of sections: Kannada, Asian and Indian competitions, Cinema of the World, FIPRESCI and NETPAC award winners, focus on South Korea and the Netherlands, French Grand Classics, Centenary Year Remembrances (Honappa Bhagavather, Hunusur Krishnamurthy), Retrospectives of Krysztof Zanussi and Phillip Noyce, homages to Alain Resnais, Balu Mahnidra, C R Simha and K M Shankarappa, Restored Cinema and some “recommended films”.
An overall review of a festival invariably spotlights a few films from the bewildering range of old and new works (a few of them true gems) on offer. The Indian Competition had 11 films, four of them Malayalam. Several films were women-centric, which spoke of heartening or tragic journeys of women as they break away – mainly in the teeth of bitter social and familial opposition – from traditional moorings and come into their own. The protagonist of Alif (dir: N K Muhammed Koya) quietly defies society and the husband who has left her to carve a space for herself, her head held high. Adomya (dir Bobby Sarma Baruah) is the tale of a woman who is abandoned by society and family when she contracts HIV from her husband, but fights to give herself and her daughter a dignified life.
In Munnariyippu(dir Venu), a smart young journalist’s selfish and insensitive pursuit of a story results in unforeseen consequences for her. Young Gauri, the girl with the Down’s Syndrome in the tender film Yellow (Special Jury Award, dir. Mahesh Limaye) picks up life’s challenges, becomes a champion swimmer and affirms that she “can do it”. Krantidhara (dir Himanshu Katua)’s heroine, Pratignya, a diligent and compassionate but thoroughly subdued housewife awakes to life’s critical challenges and asserts herself when she faces her moment of truth. And Kuttram Kudithal (dir Bramma G) is an agonising voyage of a young school teacher who has to face society and the law for slapping a child in her class.
Surprisingly, many of the films ended with a sense of liberation from within, a feeling of release which spelt a new beginning, a new path. In Yellow, the mother (it is as much her journey as her daughter’s) finally cuts the umbilical cord that ties her to her daughter and regains her confidence in life, even as she knows that her daughter’s problem will never be fully solved. In Munnariyippu, the ex-convict, in a startling, but psychologically convincing climax, finds his ‘home’ his ‘solace’ in the very space he had left behind. In Agasi Parlour (dir Mahantesh Ramdurg), the aging couple decide to leave their home and set off on a journey into the unknown. Unto the Dusk(Best Film, dir. Saajan Balu), a complex film of a man’s passage through various tortuous stages of life through reflection, through a tryst with nature, with a seminary and most of all, himself.
To be sure, many of the competing films tackled burning issues of the day, but there were others with a difference. Pannaaiyarum Padminium (Special Jury Award, dir. S U Arun Kumar) places a modest car, a Premier Padmini, at the heart of a funny, burlesque tale, with a deliberate, wacky, self-mocking but intelligent stylisation and a mix of genres. Everything happens in and around the car, so one can be tempted to regard the narrative as the car’s journey! BIFFES had 2 juries for Kannada films, which included one NETPAC jury. While P Sheshadri’s ironical tale, December 1 bagged the NETPAC Jury Award, the NETPAC Jury Special Mention went to Fig Fruit and the Wasps. NETPAC also had prizes in the Asian Cinema competition category. Labour of Love (dir. Aditya Vikram Sengupta), a quiet, thoughtful film about a young couple enduring the pressures of recession, took the NETPAC Jury Award, while the Pakistani film Dukhtar (dir Afia Nathaniel) received a Jury Special Mention. Set in the mountainous north, amidst gorgeous peaks and verdant slopes, and later the leafless plains, Dukhtar is a simply and engagingly told yet tough tale of child bride practices among tribes and a mother’s determination to see that her adolescent daughter does not face the pain of being married to an old man. The Best Kannada Film given by the Jury for Kannada films went to Hajj (dir. Nikhil Manjoo L).
Besides, special sections were devoted to NETPAC and FIPRESCI award-winners, while the Cinema of the World (COW) brought to audiences a few contemporary jewels – Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan), Timbuktu (Abderrehmane Sissako), Tales (Rakshan Bani Etemad), Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne), Coming Home (Zhang Yimou) among many others. Surprisingly, the wide-ranging section COW, had a disproportionately large number of French entries – 17 – making it a section unto itself!
With seminars on Gender Violence and International Film Festivals, a master class by Govind Nihalani and panel discussions, there was plenty for the eager audience. Hopefully, the next time around, Bengaluru’s traffic woes will allow the public to move rapidly from one venue to another, and catch up on films rather than wallow in a car among unmoving buses.
–Latika Padgaonkar{DIV}