MAMI Fete gains momentum

MAMI Fete gains momentum
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NOVEMBER 27: Three more days left to bring down the curtain on the 3rd International Film Festival. The fete gained momentum in the last five days with more and more delegates thronging to Chavan Centre, TATA Theatre and Little Theatre in the complex of the National Centre For Performing Arts (NCPA).

It was impossible for delegates to get a seat at the Little Theatre where Retrospectives of Luis Bunuel films were shown since 300 people rushed to get a seat in a hall of 100 seaters. TATA theatre and Chavan Auditorium were crowded whenever Jiri Menzel's films were shown in the Focus section and when Aparna Sen's Paromitar Ek Din, Shaji Karun's Vanaprasthanam and Jagmohan Mundra's Bhavander were shown.

At Chauraha, a forum for interacting with delegates, many film makers like Aparna Sen, Rituparna Ghosh, Isreali film maker Yitzhak Rubin interacted with the press and other delegates.

Both Shaji Karunand and M T Vasudevan Nair spoke about the difficulties of finding finance and release outlet for small budget films in Kerala.

Shaji Karun said that since his earlier films were widely shown in France (Piravi was shown in 100 theatres in France), he could get a French producer to back his second film, Vanaprasthashram. The same French producers are going back his next film too. Shaji said that financing 500,000 dollars for Asian films is not a big thing for French film producers which is why they are funding not only his films but also film makers from Korea and Vietnam.

Speaking about his film, Vanaprasthasham which won the Best National Film Award, Shaji said the film had many layers though on the surface it dealt with a Kathakali artiste torn between the decaying art form and living in penury on one side and the artiste being used and discarded by the niece of a royal family after begetting a son.

Answering a question, Shaji Karun said that there was no interaction between different language film makers where one regional language film is shown in another regional centre. Even the government-owned Doordarshan doesn't want this kind of interaction which is why it had recently decided not to show regional films on its national network but later changed its mind when there were lot of protests from regional cinemas.

M T Vasudevan Nair expressed concern over the growing intolerance between Hindus and Muslim. "Earlier Muslims used to take part in Hindu festivals and vise-versa. Today there is competition between the two communities. "They hold a festival so we will also hold a festival of our religion," seems to be the apporach.

His latest film, Oru Cehru Punchiri was shown to a crowded audiance. Vasudevan himself a well-known writer selected a Telugu short story for this film. "One thing I lack in my writing is the humour. This I found in the Telugu story which I expanded into a screenplay with the permission of the origional author. I changed the area of Andhra to a Kerala village because the origional story revolved around a Brahmin village. In my film it is a typical Kerala village.''

His film, Oru Cheru Punchiri could not be shown in the theatres because exhibitors refused to show a film which was already aired on a TV channel.

M T Vasudevan Nair said that it was only during the 1960s that films used to be based on literary works. "That phase is over. Now stories are written directly for the film. I am not getting many offers to write stories or scripts for mainstream Malayalam films because I do not compromise. It is only those who do not mind compromising with me a little and who expect that my stories in their films might get a place in the Indian panorama come to me," he added.