My IFFK Experience
Film,as we all know is one of the most influential mass media of our century.It has reached every nook and corner of the world that now every common man regards film to be his favorite medium.Initially film viewing was once in a while process.But nowadays it has become an everyday affair owing to the development of technology.We get many opportunities to see movies today.But rarely we get an opportunity to open a critical eye in analyzing it.This is resolved in the IFFK venues.The term Infotainment becomes a truth here.Information plus Entertainment is the primary motive in organizing IFFKs.Keralites impatiently wait for those days all through the year.Once it starts the capital city becomes crowded with film lovers.A third eye works fruitfully in all of them and they think and act in an elevated manner.They take up issues discussed in the movies with an open mind.They get the rarest opportunity to watch movies from every part of the work.Thus they become blessed with the aesthetic sense which makes them enact the various issues dealt in the movies with the solutions they offer in their everyday lives.This helps them to mould their opinions in many things and reincarnate themselves as new human beings .Thus films and film festivals provide a platform to voice the concerns,anxieties and happiness inherent in the society.
1.Parveez
The film is all about the small world of an adult man collapses when his father throws him out of the house. When Parviz is cast out of the community where he has lived for 50 years, he discovers there are other ways to gain respect.
Parviz is a sad figure who is obese and in his 50′s living with his father, in Tehran. He is unemployed and unmarried and does the needs of his apartment neighbours.Things come to a head when the father tells his son he has decided to remarry. Parviz has no other choice but surrender his place to his step-mother and leave home. Parviz finds it difficult to get used to this new solitary life far from his neighborhood and the people he knows. He thus concocts a novel way of fighting back against the injustice done to him. That day he came to know about his presence was only for visible once people need his help, otherwise he is just an invisible soul for them.The film makes you little emotional but the ending went on comical. The camera sticks on to Parviz almost all time from the starting, grabbing even the breaths of him in medium shots. On the whole the film have portraits the life with a lot of realities. The direction by Majid Barzegar have done justice to the storyline. And for no doubt “PARVIZ” is a complete Iranian film.
2.Astu
Word “Astu” literally means “So Be It“, has metaphorical and filial associations. The film is about a father-daughter relationship that reverses the equation between father and daughter, when the father, a retired Sanskrit scholar, suddenly loses his memory and the daughter finds herself mothering him like a child. ‘Being in the moment’ is a strong subtext in this story as it is in all human relationships.
Veteran theatre and film actor Mohan Agashe, who is also a trained and practicing psychiatrist, plays the father in the film while Irawati Harshe plays the daughter.
The screen peeps into Dr.Chakrapani Shastri, retired director of a research institute ,who is suffering from Alzheimers. His daughter Ira and her partner Dr. Madhav are trying to cope with Appa’s decaying memory. One day Appa (Chakrapani) disappears and and is found by a couple (Anta and Channamma) who takes care of an elephant (Lakshmi). They are from Andhra Pradesh while Shastri and Ira are Maharashtrian. Here lies the twist in the story, the film stick on to the magnetic fluxes in relationships, wherein lies the power of script and screenplay.
The film delves into every corner of a perfect family system. Life captured in camera. The character of Channamma appears almost at the end, yet catches the attention of audience. Love, lessons of acceptance and strength, of a mother is highlighted by Channamma. The climactic scenes are very poignant
3.Kaliyachan
The film potraits the life of a GURU and SHISHYA. The character Kunji meets the Kaliyachan , who is the head of Kaliyarangu (group for Kathakali play). The perfomance by Manoj K Jayan , that unravels the underlying conflicts within the mind of a Kathakali artist. The film is based on a poem by Shri. P Kunjiraman, the famous poet. The script as well as the direction did 100% justice to the poem without losing its effect.
Kaliyachan is based on the mind set of Kathakali artist who lives with a chaotic mind. Kunjiraman is an artist who struggles in his life and profession; he feels even the characters for which he done on the plays turning against him. Kalamandalam Sivan Namboodiri kept the role of GURU safer from his side. The love towards Nila, mother and Devu (a girl who is a keep/ sammantham for Kunjiraman) was portaited well perfect. Character of Devu was done by Thirtha Mudbeker , who kept safe the Character.
The screenplay was the backbone for the film, and the script had a blend with the direction. Farook Abdul did his best on his role as a director. The sound mixing and editing was another wonderful experience. The film had a set of “KATHAKALI PADAMS” which are so soothing. On the whole Kaliyachan is a wonderful set of lives which lived on screen.
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4.Vara - A Blessing
This 2013 English movie directed by the Bhutanese film director, Khyentse Norbu might irk you a little in the beginning , hearing the purely village characters tottering in English. As a movie based on Bengali short story ‘Rakta Aar Kanna'[ Blood And Tears] by Sunil Gangopadyay, the poetic Bengali language would have perfectly blended with the visuals and characters than the cut and throw rendering in English. But the saving grace is that without an option left, we blend in with the flow or rather the beauty of what we are watching deletes it from your mind.
I ran for ‘Vara' reading the festival Booklet that it is based on Devadasis and the classical dance form of Bharatanatyam as it conjures up images of beauty and grace. I assumed that whatever revolving around it will turn out to be good as well. And I was not wrong. Not in recent times have a watched a movie where unlike the way scantly clad heroines are thrown on your face, here ,the sensuousness of a woman is portrayed as if in a painting, through Shahana Goswami as Lila, a dancer who follows her mother's spiritual craving for lord Krishna as a lover and offers herself to the lord through her dance. Even the tight close up of her face speaks volumes.
Lila lives in her own carefree world. She agrees to pose for Shyam [Devesh Ranjan] a low cast to make a statue of Goddess Saraswati. She feels the magic of Krishna emanating from him and dreams of a mesmerizing world of Krishna and Radha, Shyam and herself. But their world is soon broken to bits by the conservative hooligans of the village. Raju [Ruvin De Silva], the young landlord manages to stay away from Lila's vivacious charm but not for long. The film gives a visual treat as the camera laps in the pristine beauty of the location as well as juxtaposing untouchability and rigid conservatism of some with the raw, bold, deeply spiritual and spontaneous emotions of a simple village girl and a boy. Though pregnant from Shyam, in the end Lila plays clever, keeping her dignity as well as that of her lover, Shyam who for her is none other than ‘Ghanashyam' or Krishna.
5.Club Sandwich
The charm of Club Sandwich is that 35 year-old single mother Paloma and her fifteen year-old son Hector, who are vacationing at a resort near the beach, are the very best of friends. They relish their warm and tender relationship, spending all of their time together – whether it be rubbing sun tan lotion into each others backs; bombing into the pool, playing rock-scissor-paper to decide who has the first shower, and simply laying quietly on their twin beds watching television in their hotel room.But while their relationship is wonderfully close, Hector is also changing. Hair is faintly growing on his upper lip; he is keen to keep applying deodorant under his arms; he has started masturbating and – unusually for him – one day he opts to stay in hotel while his mother heads off to the beach.The arrival of Jazmin at the resort complicates matters further. She there with her aged father and his new wife/nurse, but is more interested in getting to know Hector. With their facial expressions rarely changing, the teens start to spend time together – sat side-by-side on a bed, sat by the pool, basking in the water (until, rather amusingly, Paloma ‘bombs’ them – with the sexual chemistry between the two teenagers becoming more and more palpable.The joy of the film is Paloma’s reaction to the prospect of her son/best friend being entranced by Jazmin. Reacting almost like a jealous lover, she seeks to gently sabotage their time together (her face a picture of mixed emotions, while the expressions in the teens’ faces rarely changes) but her best efforts come to nothing –especially funny is a game consequences that she sets up, but turns out to work against her - as the pair kiss and sexually explore, which is all handled in a very tasteful and funny way.
6.Megha Dhaka Tara
The film’s narration starts in 1969, showing Nilkantha being admitted to mental asylum under the supervision of Doctor S. P. Mukherjee. Dr Mukherjee learns that the Prime Minister of India knows Nilkantha and is fond of his works and may request the hospital authority to take special care of him. In the hospital a police officer meets Nilkantha and tells Doctor Mukherjee that he is a wasted drunkard. Another patient of hospital mocks Nilkantha as “disgraced intellectual”. Even as a patient, he writes a play and stages it with other asylum patients.
The film shows how Durga (Nilkantha’s wife) wants to leave him saying “separation is essential”. Nilkantha witnessed partition of Bengal and that have relevance to the Bengal’s partition which happened in Indian history.Nilkantha witnessed partition of Bengal and its devastating effect in his childhood which made him attracted to the communist ideologies. He used film as a tool to teach, and make awareness among the people, and he says that he cannot hold on the commercial films. The film canvases all hazardous conditions of Nilkantha likely ,the struggles, contradictions, disappointments as well as the financial problems faced by him. He was not at all comfortable with the India’s communist policies.
Eventhough he is in asylum , he kept on writing his own play, and made the patients there to act in that. When the play comes to and end in success, the camera takes you along with Nilkantha walking with a refugee to a colour shot, which shows some greenary which resembles the hope in future.On the whole Megha Dhaka Tara is not an easy film, being the director Kamalesh Mukherjee have thrown out many questions to the audience. The film also sets back the pride of Bengali films back on the scenario
7.The Rocket
The film opens on the birth of Ahlo , the only surviving member of a pair of twins. But twins, according to Laotian superstition, are thought to be highly problematic, one bringing good luck, the other bad. Ahlo’s mother has showered him with unconditional love from the outset, flatly rejecting her own mother’s urging that she kill him. Indeed, Ahlo’s grandmother (Bunsri Yindi), the only other person aware of the circumstances of his birth, remains his harshest critic. So when personal disaster strikes the family, she blames Ahlo and reveals his secret to his hitherto unaware father , arousing conflicting emotions in the stalwart paterfamilias.
Ahlo’s pariah status increases when he befriends an impish 9-year-old beauty, Kia, and her disreputable “Uncle Purple”, a shirtless, purple-suited James Brown aficionado who collaborated with Americans during the Vietnam War, and who proves endearing and wise as well as drunkenly irresponsible.Mordaunt previously directed a docu in Laos that featured kids who sold unexploded bombs for scrap metal, and that earlier experience invests this feature’s characters and milieu with an absolute integrity. No cheap exoticism or sentimental cuteness mars the authenticity of Ahlo’s everyday rhythms as he attempts to figure out the logic of his circumstances. Similarly, the helmer never resorts to any outside reading of the political forces at play; instead, the exploitation and flooding of entire villages to make way for a dam that serves no local interests are seen through the eyes of a child who must surmount his own image as the source of all malediction.
8. 101 Chodyangal
The story begins with Sivanandan losing his job in the sugar mill because he was the leader of its striking employees.He has two kids Anil Kumar Bokaro and Anagha , the boy is in the fifth grade and girl is mentally challenged. His wife Sati does manual labour under the Government's Employment Gaurantee Scheme to keep the family from starving. Anil getting midday meal from the school is an added advantage.
We see the first crisis in the family as the school stops the midday meals due to lack of funds and the children who can afford to bring food are requested to bring it and even share it with others.Anil promises his favourite teacher Mukundan Mater that he too will bring his share. The first day Anil gets his way with his mother with his tantrums, but, the next day he does not go to school because his mother refuses to give him food. It takes little convincing from Mukundan Master that he can attend classes even if he cannot bring food.
The crux of the film comes when Mukundan Master, who compiles cheap General Knowledge books that are sold in trains, for some additional income, decides to tap into Anil's curiosity and tells him to come up with 101 questions and promises that he will get Rupee one per question. And, how this mission transforms Anil and how he reacts to the happenings around him.
Sidhartha keeps the narrative simple and the technical gimmicks to the minimum (except for a digitally generated butterfly that flutters on the screen once in a while). This does not mean that the story is simple in any way, profound things from hunger to death are discussed without their weight being felt by the viewer beyond a point.These things do have a tendency to become manipulative and tug at the heartstrings but care is taken to see that they do not cross the threshold till the very end.
Coming to the performances, there is not much to pick and choose from as everyone is consistently good just revolving around Master Minon (the little star deserves every recognition coming his way for this role), may it be Indrajith as his teacher or Lena as his mother. Initially, we do wonder why the father figure is not someone strong whom the child can look up to. But we realise that Murugan has aptly cast as we go along with the story.
9.Kanyaka Talkies
The priest who comes to Kuyyali village in Kerala to spread the word of the Lord is haunted by a woman’s voice. Whose voice does he hallucinate? It is the voice of the countless heroines from C grade movies which were screened in theatre on which the Church is built. The voices of the soft pornography linger in the premises. What a wonderful way to express the interconnection between lust & religion, that abhors it completely.
It is a movie that also talks about the degradation of films & the end of an era in films where 35mm film projectors are out of use. A theatre owner does everything to keep his theatre running in the midst of changing technology. Life for him has meant running this theatre, he is passionate about these films & can’t do anything beyond this. Times have changed. Now he has few spectators for these films & the youth is all entertained by their cell phones through which they access pornography.
The hallucinations that the priest goes through are a sound marvel created by Rajivan Ayyappan. To absorb Kerala which is a nature’s delight you need to have a production designer like Marthandam Rajasekharan. The contribution & the combination of art & sound in the movie give it completeness. Each scene speaks about how things are gradually changing for the people in Kerala. It reflects on the influence of religion & films on their society.
The end is left for the audience to interpret. The interconnections between lust & religion that Manoj wants to show get depicted in the hallucinations. Also these hallucinations are a sense of guilt that the priest goes through. But, religion cannot deny the drive of desires. But, it is a complex matter that is best left to the intellect, perception & insight of the viewer.
10.Blue is the warmest colour
"Blue Is The Warmest Color" lies not so much in the fact that it tells the story of a same-sex first love than in that it tells this story in what some would consider epic detail. The cockeyed open-heartedness of Kechiche's conception yields a girl-meets-girl-and-so-on story of three hours.
First Kechiche throws the viewer into the world of Adèle, a wide-eyed high-school beauty who should, by the standards of her classmates, be wowing the boys, but instead almost breaks the heart of the one fellow she experimentally dates. Feeling no spark with him, or any other guys, she fixates on a blue-haired older girl she sees on the streets of her provincial French town. And once Adèle really finds Emma, in a lesbian bar, it's not long before the student and the soon-to-be artiste begin having intense, soul-searching conversations on a soon-to-be-iconic (for Adele) park bench.
Soon after that they're discovering each other's keys to sensual ecstasy, in the movie's already much-talked-about sex scenes. Kechiche has a sense of rapture that extends to all the human senses; Adèle and Emma, in the first throes of romance, eat as much, and as ravenously, as they make love, and there's particular attention given to Emma teaching Adèle how to appreciate oysters.
The movie's transportive quality lies almost entirely with its lead actresses. They are committed to their roles to a degree that could be called exuberant. Neither gives off the slightest hint of working to achieve or inhabit an emotional effect. As the two lovers go, inevitably, out of the state of white-hot attraction and voraciousness and into a domesticity that presents the typical, and typically ugly, problems that an acolyte arrangement presents, Adèle seems to grow up before the viewer's eyes in a way that makes Emma's self-possessed confidence look kind of complacent.
