{"id":2998,"date":"2016-06-29T14:49:54","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T09:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=2998"},"modified":"2016-06-29T20:18:20","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T14:48:20","slug":"hyderabad-bengali-film-festival-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/hyderabad-bengali-film-festival-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Viewers to Decide Winners with Viewer’s Choice Award at HBFF 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hyderabad

Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival 2016<\/p><\/div>\n

In a unique initiative of its kind, the 3rd<\/sup> HBFF (Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival) being held from July 1 to 3 will give out five awards as per Viewer’s Choice. A Citation for the Best Debut Director at the festival will be given by the Film Critics Circle of India (FCCI), the Festival Partner at the HBFF 2016.<\/p>\n

The importance of the Viewer\u2019s Choice award lies in the fact that films are, first and foremost, made for viewing by an audience. Whereas most awards are given out by a body of initiated viewers, ie critics, or colleagues, ie film fraternity, this award will be marked by the viewers and finalised by members of FCCI. The Citation for the Best Debut Director will be decided by three FCCI members who would be present at the festival and given out on the final day.<\/p>\n

Four of the eight directors making their debut at HBFF 2016<\/h3>\n

Ratnottama Sengupta, <\/strong>Curator, HBFF, wrote in a note:<\/p>\n

I am extremely happy \u2013 nay, I am proud to be back with the 3rd HBFF. For, it shows that we have not grown complacent with the success of the first two experiences. In fact, we have grown further in the months since our last edition: This year we are introducing the Viewers\u2019 Choice Award in (no.) categories\u00a0 [ OR Viewers\u2019 Choice Award for the Best Film before you.<\/p>\n

Scaling up our efforts over the first two festivals, we bring you two films that have not yet opened to the paying public in Bengal. More importantly, as in the previous years, Content is the Star for HBFF \u2013 not the dazzle of blockbusters, nor the glitter of stars. So you will find that four of the eight directors are making their debut \u2013 and with such remarkable elan!<\/p>\n

The subjects range from the reality of our art forms to the education system, from grappling with death to same sex love. If there is one unifying factor in the selection that will unfold over these three days it is this: Human relationships always reveal facts about society, whether the equation is between mother and daughter, husband and wife, next-door neighbours, or between police and vagabond, teacher and student, guru and chela\u2026 And one mega truth that these films drive home is that the final test of Love in any form \u2013 be it an attachment with another human being, a passion for an art form, or dedication to one\u2019s livelihood – is the willingness to sacrifice your all.<\/p>\n

Cinemawala<\/em><\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n
\"Cinemawala

Cinemawala by Kaushik Ganguly<\/p><\/div>\n

Take Cinemawala<\/em> for example. The latest technology of digital cinema threatens the survival of a small town movie theatre in West Bengal. A tussle ensues between the owner Pranabendu and his son who sells pirated DVDs. Eventually they have to face the inevitable truth: total allegiance to any art often calls for the final sacrifice too. The film is director Kaushik Ganguly\u2019s Farewell to Celluloid at a time when projectors that breathed life into classics are gathering dust as people are busy celebrating digital technology. Change is inevitable, even necessary, but preservation of heritage?<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart beats for that medium with all its scratches, watermarks, film rolls, shaky projectors and human touches,\u201d says the director who has been a constant at HBFF through Apur Panchali<\/em> and Chotoder Chobi<\/em>. Small wonder Cinemawala<\/em> picked up the UNESCO Fellini Medal that recognises the film\u2019s \u201chuman contribution to the preservation of the seventh art\u201d by drawing attention to a universal problem through a small town family drama.<\/p>\n

Read the review of\u00a0Kaushik Ganguly\u2019s Chotoder Chobi: A Giant Leap for Cinema Lovers<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Read about Apur Panchali<\/em> in The Idea of Apu by Shubha Das Mollick<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Natoker Mato<\/em><\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n
\"A

A scene from Kheya\u2019s one of the several stage performances in Natoker Mato<\/p><\/div>\n

Natoker Mato<\/em> arrives at the same truth by following the life of an actor, Kheya Chakravarty. In 1977, while shooting in Sankrail a 34-year-woman drowns in the river. Was it an accident, suicide or murder? Whatever it was, it snuffed out the life of a dedicated theatre actress. For Kheya could sell her jewellery, give up her job, even leave her husband if it was in the interest of theatre. The Calcutta Port Police\u2019s investigation remains inconclusive but cinema, theatre and life come together to help director Debesh Chatterjee and actor Paoli Dam resolutely establish the bitter truth that \u201cEvery suicide is a murder too!\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the review of Natoker Moto<\/em>\u00a0by Nishi Pulugurtha<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Anubrato Bhalo Achho<\/em><\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n
\"Anubrato

Anubrato Bhalo Aachho<\/p><\/div>\n

Madrid, Hanoi and Queensland have all hailed Anubrato Bhalo Achho<\/em>? It\u2019s the story of a man jousting with death all by himself, at every corner of his everyday life. His wife is terminally ill. His neighbour\u2019s favourite pastime is listening to his dog\u2019s barking. The sole person who exchanged pleasantries with him succumbs to his heart. And the lady he strikes a friendship with while they wait outside the hospital for their respective spouse? Will she answer his need for solace? Or will he lose her to her children, family, society at large?<\/p>\n

\u201cThose resigned to death also have a right to love,\u201d director Partha Sen establishes through the two lost souls. Indeed, the protagonists come to symbolise the truth that life and death are not independent of each other, and without love you are all but lifeless.<\/p>\n

Read the review of\u00a0Anubrato Bhalo Aachho by Shoma A Chatterji<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Bridge<\/em><\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n
\"Mamata

Mamata Shankar in Bridge<\/p><\/div>\n

Through two strangers who meet under strange circumstances, Bridge reiterates that purposeless existence can turn meaningful when love enters. Both, the elderly man and the pretty young lady have the same thought on their mind: Suicide. For, he has lost his wife and daughter to illness; she is hunted by a trauma that has rendered her speechless. Will the meeting heal their hearts or hurt them further? How would it impact their lives at the physical, emotional and societal level? Belonging, trust, hope on one side; ostracism, calumny, usurpation on another: Can these be bridged? Yes, director Amit Ranjan Biswas asserts, \u201cthrough love, compassion, selflessness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aasha Jaoar Majhe<\/em><\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n
\"Asa

Aasha Jaoar Majhe<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018Labour of Love\u2019 is the tagline of Aasha Jaoar Majhe<\/em> – and not because the young couple live in the times of recession. She washes the clothes. He dries them. She gives him a missed call so that he\u2019s in time for his night shift in a printing press. He wakes her in the morning for her job at an industrial unit. It\u2019s a visual celebration of complementarity that makes for a marriage. But would you call a marriage \u2018happy\u2019 if, day after day, the man and wife have to be at their respective jobs at hours that make it impossible to be home together? Or is happiness a state of mind that fills in the lonely hours in bed and lends a glow to chores like chopping and cooking? Is happiness the outcome of love? Or is love a state of being that overcomes so many things people complain about?<\/p>\n

Read the review of\u00a0Aasha Jaoar Majhe <\/em>by Amitava Nag<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Onyo Opala<\/em><\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n
\"Rupa

Rupa Ganguly in Onyo Opala<\/p><\/div>\n

If love in the times of recession thrives on a trust that makes precious the few minutes of togetherness, Onyo Opalaa<\/em> underscores the camaraderie that sustains a marriage even when trust is belied. Director Satarupa Sanyal shines the torch on a wife\u2019s bonding with a husband whose failings she is willing to forgive. In fact, when she overlooks the assault on her identity she comes to empathise with her husband who, she realises is a woman trapped in a man\u2019s body. Where will this leave her own personal happiness? Her own identity as a wife and mother?<\/p>\n

Read the review of Onyo Opala by Shoma A Chatterji<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Babar Naam Gandhiji<\/em><\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n
\"Babar

Scenes from Babar Naam Gandhiji<\/p><\/div>\n

Babar Naam Gandhiji<\/em> raises the basic question we as a society need to answer: What do we mean when we address MK Gandhi as the Father of the Nation? And this the 26-year-debutant director poses through Kencho, a street kid picked up from a dustbin and raised by beggars. Currency notes with his image, a major artery of the metropolis named after him: But who is Gandhi to street kids like Kencho? Can they claim to be children of the prophet of Non-Violence, the architect of our Independence, the man who experimented with \u2018Truth\u2019? If they did claim so, would they be speaking the truth or blatantly lying?<\/p>\n

For us Gandhiji has ceased to exist beyond the currency notes. Unfortunate, for \u201che would have been the most relevant presence with his own brand of people\u2019s movement amidst the current political disorder obtaining in our society,\u201d Pavel proclaims.<\/p>\n

Kolkatar King<\/em><\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n
\"Kolkatar

Kolkatar King<\/p><\/div>\n

In Kolkatar King<\/em>, KK alias Krishna Kant is a force to reckon with in the underworld. Ruthless, ambitious, charismatic \u2013 he uses his gang to loot, murder, blackmail with gay abandon. His nexus with the police alerts him to any action against him. A policeman\u2019s daughter, an educationist\u2019s daughter, a bar singer \u2013 no one is spared his roving eyes. What is more, they imperil their families too in order to go to bed with KK who has no qualms in holding to ransom inmates of an oldage home. What can be the final end of such betrayals of love and trust? Will he get shelter when he\u2019s on the run? Or will popular demand turn him into a newage hero, an icon, a king?<\/p>\n

Questioning social ills through satire and using formula to turn stereotypes on their head, Judhajit Sircar even infuses his stylised narrative with a full-bodied item dance. The non-linear structure inspired by The Three Penny Opera<\/em> is actually a fresh look at Brecht\u2019s critique of the upper crust, because the medium is as different as the times we live in. \u201cWhen corruption is legitimised by the very institutions set up to fight it, nothing remains sacred \u2013 not stealing, infidelity, not even the sanctity of life.\u201d All the characters are, then, black though viewed as colourful lives.<\/p>\n

Enjoy the black comedy. Enjoy the human drama. Enjoy the platter. For you, the viewer, will then crown the King of HBFF.<\/p>\n

Panel Discussion at HBFF 2016<\/h3>\n

One of the highlights of HBFF 2016 is a panel discussion to be held on July 1 at the L V Prasad Preview Theatres – \u00a0What makes for Successful Cinema: Money, Talent or Networking?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The discussion will flow on the following lines:<\/p>\n

Money:<\/strong> We first read about 1 crore- club, then 30-crore clubs, now of hundreds of crores… It has become impossible to count the number of zeroes in the returns raked in at the BO for a film like PK or Piku or Bajirao Mastaani.<\/p>\n

Talent :<\/strong> When such huge amounts are being bandied around, the other side of the coin has perhaps as many indie filmmakers who put their life’s savings – which mostly stay put in lakhs – knowing pretty well that it has meagre chance of coming back to his bank. Yet, more often than not, these are the films that go around the world – as Aasha Jaoar Majhe did – picking up a Locarno lion here, a houseful run at Nandan, several co-production offers at Cannes…<\/p>\n

So, what accounts for the ‘success’<\/strong> of a film: money or talent? Or, like the X-factor in a chemical lab, is there an external factor that accounts for the runaway success of even a film whose title we might not be able to recall tomorrow much as we might scratch our heads? Or sometimes of a pathbreaking film like Prakton<\/em> that everybody queued up for even before its release, because of the hoardings that say, “Some loves don’t change even with Time,” as it shows Prosenjit and Rituparna with a certain brand of tea?<\/p>\n

\"Ratnottama

Ratnottama Sengupta speaking at the panel discussion at HBFF 2015.<\/p><\/div>\n

Dates: July 1 to 3, 2016
\nVenue: Prasad Preview Theatre, Road No. 2, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.
\nWebsite of HBFF 2016<\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

More to read<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nabendu Ghosh: The Master of Screen Writing<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ek Nodir Galpo: The Name of a River<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Teen Kahon \u2013 Three Dimensions Of The Obsessive Mind<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rajkahini \u2013 A Valiant Effort<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Raja Sen\u2019s Maya Mridanga is Set on a High Pitch<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shankhachil \u2013 Soppy, Syrupy, Sentimental and Sad<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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