Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Indian Panorama has lost its sheen ,don’t allow national awards to follow suit - Adoor Gopalakrishnan



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When the Toronto International Film Festival included films of Master film makers from India ,Adoor Gopalakrishnan  and Buddhadev Dasgupta  in the Masters Section, this year’s Indian Panorama selection Jury rejected both the films. IFFI had shamelessly avoided the films Pinneyum -Again and the Bait-Tope directed by  two auteurs  of Indian cinema . Adoor has written to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting urging him to ensure that the jury to select films for the National Awards this year is headed by a filmmaker of eminence who is familiar with modern trends in cinema, and the jury as a whole instil a feeling of fairness in the minds of the professionals involved .
It is learned that he has written to the Secretary , Information and Broadcasting, that “The national film awards were conceived as a means to select and award films for their thematic relevance, social commitment, original approach, technical excellence and above all aesthetic brilliance. Unfortunately, when the national awards for 2015 were announced all the major prizes including the best film and the best director went to outright commercial films undermining the very purpose for which it was instituted. Apparently the problem lay in the appointment of the jury. It was composed mostly of people who had little or nothing to do with meaningful cinema either as professional practitioners or as discerning critics and scholars. The appointment of the jury seemed to have been done casually not realizing how deeply it would demoralize the genuine and committed practitioners in the profession. The story was repeated this time when it came to the selection of films to the ‘Indian Panorama’ of the IFFI 2016. Everyone in the profession was shocked by the kind of selection that was made. Anything genuine, original and artistic was rejected with a vengeance. The naïve, gaudy and incongruous got in. If one finds a reasonably good film in the selection it should have got in by mistake. Critics attending the Mumbai, Kolkata and Kerala festivals were heard saying that the rejections in Goa would make a good festival of the best of Indian cinema in the year 2016. That goes for the standard and taste of the selectors. Soon there will be an occasion to choose members as well as a chairman to the National film awards jury. I am writing this to request you to treat this matter seriously and stop another incompetent jury from sitting to judge our work. We insist that the jury should be headed by a filmmaker of eminence who is familiar with modern trends in cinema and enjoys a national stature and he and other members on the jury would instill a feeling of fairness in the minds of the professionals involved.”Adoor  reminded the Ministry that “The national awards were instituted (following the recommendations of the S.K.Patil Committee in the 1950s) to help a new cinema break out of the encrusted commercial constraints of our film industry and express itself in a new voice that would be Indian in every sense and international in its artistic appeal.Similarly, the idea of showcasing an Indian Panorama at the IFFI meets a vital need to parade the best of our Cinema to the world outside. Ever since we started this section in 1978 festival directors and selectors have been arriving from around the world with the sole aim of watching original works of cinema produced here in a year. It appears like there is a definite lack of understanding of its purpose among the people in charge of the panorama. To go by this year’s experience, the festival selectors will now stop coming here because they take their job more seriously than we do. It was to appease the commercial industry that a special national award was instituted for ‘popular and wholesome entertainment’ to one of the ten blockbusters proposed by the Indian Motion Picture producers’ Association.  Over and above this, there are the five films directly proposed by the IMPPA to be included in the Indian Panorama representing the core of commercial cinema. We are at a loss to understand why there should be more concessions made to it at the cost of the struggling minority cinema of merit and integrity which alone are being seen as the real Indian cinema outside our country. It is very important that the names of nominees as well as their qualification to be on the jury are made public before they sit for selecting films. Keeping their names from public knowledge is a sure way to infiltrate wrong people into such bodies.”
Adoor appealed to Mr.Mittal,Secretary,I &B Ministry “not let the Governmental machinery discourage and destroy a cinema movement of purpose and integrity and that is already struggling against all odds and pressures”.





Friday, December 16, 2016

21st IFFK- Turkish film 'Clash' directed by Mohamed Diabwon bagged the Golden Crow Pheasant award for best film and Yesim Ustaoglu the best director for her film 'Clair Obscur'





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Twenty first edition of international film festival of Kerala(IFFK)  concluded this evening at  Thiruvananthapuram with the declaration and presentation of awards to the winners including Suvarna Chakoram and Rajatha Chakoram. Chief Minister of Kerala ,Pinarayi Vijayan presented the Suvarna Chakoram  award to Turkish film Clash. This film directed  'by Mohamed Diab bagged the Golden Crow Pheasant award for best film. The film, received a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh and a certificate,the Silver Crow Pheasant award for the best director went to Yesim Ustaoglu for her film Clair Obscur. Minister  for Cultural Affairs A.K. Balan ,Minister for Power  Kadakampally Surendran ,Secretary Cultural Affairs Rani George,Chairperson of the Chalachitra Academy Kamal,Vice Chairperson Bina Paul, Secretary Mahesh Panchu etc participated in the inaugural function and award presentation function. The award winning film ‘Clash ‘was screened. other awardees:
CLASH (Eshtebak) | Director: Mohamed Diab
Displaying image.pngWAREHOUSED (Almacenados) | Director: Jack Zagha For the way in which it challenges the conventional form, content and language of cinema in terms of use of space, narration that reaches beyond cultural, linguistic and time barriers.
MANHOLE | Director: Vidhu Vincent For the raw reality with which the film sheds light on the persistent inhumanity of manual scavengers in India, despite its being legally banned, in a cinematically eloquent manner.
kammattipadam എന്നതിനുള്ള ചിത്രംKAMMATIPAADAM| Director: Rajeev Ravi for giving an epic dimension to the issues of  friendship, violence and illicit profiteering inherent to gangster films and for masterfully animating genre conventions with social, political urgency.
   


NETPAC BEST ASIAN FILM : COLD OF KALANDARInline images 6
COLD OF KALANDAR | Director: Mustafa Kara for the purity of its cinematic brilliance in bringing out the universality of the struggle between Man and Nature, beauty and danger, love and hope….
CLAIR OBSCUR (Tereddüt) | Director: Yesim Ustaoglu For its subtle, but effective cinematic treatment of a global dimension across social classes from the perspective of psychological wounds affecting women.
clair obscur movie എന്നതിനുള്ള ചിത്രം
CLASH (Eshtebak) | Director: Mohamed Diab The Jury unanimously underlines and applauds the excellent cinematographic work, that so aptly explains the historical shock of his country and sketches a living portrait of all the socio-political currents represented by real, authentic and truly human characters.


Friday, December 9, 2016

21st IFFK-Jayan Cherian's ‘Ka Bodyscapes’ is finally becoming the part of the International Film Festival of Kerala



Ka Bodyscapes PosterTrailer
  


‘Ka Bodyscapes’ directed by Jayan Cheriyan is finally becoming the part  of the 21st edition of International Film Festival of Kerala 2016 .It was not exempted from censorship by CBFC (central board of film certification).The film is scheduled on December 14th @11.30 in Tagore Theatre,15th in Kalabhavan @8.45 P.M16th @3.30 P.M IN Nila. 
‘Ka Bodyscapes’ is the story of Three youth Haris,a ffree –spirited gay painter,Vishnu ,a rural kabaddi player and Haris’ object of desire and their friend Sia,an activist who refuses to conform to dominant norms of femininity,struggle to find space and happiness.Ace cinematographer M.J.Radhakrishnan is the DOP. Jayan Cheriyan, is a New York-based independent film maker. A revising committee headed by the CBFC  Chief Pankaj Nihlani had earlier refused certification for the public screening of Ka Bodyscapes on the ground that it contained “sensitive gay scenes, use of derogatory words against women, and vulgar dialogues ”.But many a films screened in the recently concluded IFFI had the scenes containing intimate scenes of gay, lesbian,transgender  relationship ,so also the IFFK. A movie without CBFC’s certification requires an exemption letter from the film certifying body in order to screen at the IFFK. However Jayan managed to obtain permission from the Court  to screen the film in the festival. The legal battle between Jayan and the CBFC is going on.