The Hindu Business Line : On a trot

The seventh edition of Osian's Cinefan, which concluded recently in New Delhi, continues to bust a couple of long-standing myths: that Asian cinema will always play second fiddle to the cinema of the West, and that there aren't enough people in philistine Delhi who will queue up to watch this kind of 10-day line-up.

Cinefan's growing ambit and popularity also serve a warning to the bureaucracy-ridden International Film Festival of India (IFFI), that it is in danger of being permanently dislodged as the country's premier film festival. IFFI, which had been travelling between New Delhi and other state capitals, anchored in Goa last year. But such is the uncertainty about all things `sarkari' (there's been a change of government at the Centre since last December), that five months to the second round in Goa, everything concerning this year's IFFI is still up in the air.

Either way, Cinefan is doing fine because it comes in July, which means it can grab the winners at Berlin, Cannes and Venice a clean six months ahead of IFFI. The people running the Capital will be fine either way, too. The Delhi Government, which has been an enthusiastic supporter of Cinefan all along, won't have to divide its loyalties if IFFI does stay in Goa. And, if it does come back to New Delhi, it will be able to boast of two international film events in the calendar year.

This year has been bigger and better than the last. Neville Tuli, the man behind the success of both Osian the auction house and Osian's film festival, says that it's only going to get bigger and better. In a conversation last year, when he was busy learning the ropes (everything from the organisation and planning) of the festival from Cinemaya's Aruna Vasudev, the lady at the helm of affairs before Tuli joined her, he was clear about his intent: to have a world-class film festival in the Capital, as well as to grow the human resources and infrastructure which would help make the Indian film industry, as a whole, a force to reckon with.

This year, some of that was already in evidence. There was a sizeable selection of surprisingly good movies from the Arab countries, a part of the world that has always been on the sidelines in Indian film festivals.

This writer has sifted through mountains of poor quality Arab material as part of the selection committee for foreign movies for IFFI, which only goes to show that Osian's strength lies in being able to curate a festival on the basis of knowing what to pick.

Which also means that you not only know what's the newest and the best on offer, you also have the financial muscle to get it in. Sometimes a new film can cost upwards of 500 euros to import. Tuli's presence on board has meant that Cinefan is not looking for outside `corporate' funds, which come with strings attached. It has also resulted in being able to present some really exciting, cutting-edge movies from our part of the world.

There was a lot of cinema on offer, not all of it superlative, but enough little gems to make your time worthwhile. There were films lining up the Asian competition, as also in the Indian competition, the annual clutch of heart-warmers from Iran, tributes to Taiwan's celebrated auteur Hou Hsiao-Hsien, and the unmatched brilliance of Satyajit Ray (the crowds waiting for what Cinefan called its centrepiece, Pather Panchali, were so massive that compere Rajit Kapur warned those inside the auditorium for the previous movie to get out of the way if they didn't want to get trampled!). There were also films in one of the festival's most interesting sections called `cross-cultural encounters', which assimilate, as the name suggests, talents from around the globe.

The inaugural film, Shanghai Dreams, Wang Xiao Shuai's achingly lovely tribute to the times that he grew up in, and a Cannes winner, is the kind of movie any festival would be proud to open with. Buddhadeb Dasgupta's Kaalpurush, the closing film, may not have been his best, but Dasgupta, even at his worst, consistently gives you something to look at.

Apart from the Asian delights, like in the past couple of years, the knockout section at Cinefan was the one showcasing new New-Age Indian cinema, a sort of IFFI-like Panorama. The difference is that there is none of the pressures that a selection committee for the Panorama faces, so you get an interesting cross-section of films from first-time directors trying to plough the lonely furrow which marks the best of independent cinema.

Among the most rewarding films at Cinefan was Saurabh Shukla's Aye Mere Dil (The Heart Goes Sha-la-la-la), all about the travails of a bald, 40-plus man suffering from creative and emotional angst in big, bad Mumbai. The one trouble, in Cinefan's eagerness to boast of `world premiers', is that it can, and did, end up with some execrable movies. Ruchi Narain's much hyped Kal, Yesterday and Tomorrow, turned out to be a crashing disappointment, and former actor Kamal Sadanah's Karkash was horrifyingly regressive.

But these are minor quibbles. Cinefan is pushing steadily ahead with its agenda: showcasing movies which we otherwise would be deprived of, as well as getting together likeminded individuals involved in films and filmmaking on a platform to take it all forward. We look forward to next July.

Response can be sent to life@thehindu.co.in

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