Sixteen movies in eight
days! Now that feels really awesome! I attended the 12th Habitat Film Festival
(HFF), 2017 for eight out of ten days, which was my third film festival in the
last two months. I had earlier attended the first Habitat International
Film Festival (HIFF) and the 64th National Film Festival, where I'd
managed to see a total of fourteen films in four days. I wonder why I
never attended film festivals before. It was such an extraordinary
experience. I spent my evenings after office and
Sundays, staring at the big screen, relishing movies from the various corners
of our country, and witnessing its diversity in the truest sense of the term.
The opening film of the
festival was A Death in the Gunj,
the directorial debut of Konkona Sen Sharma. Unfortunately, I missed it, but I
hope to watch its theatrical release, which is due on the 2nd June.
The first film I watched was
Karthick Naren’s Tamil thriller Dhruvangal
Pathinaru (2016), also known as D-16. It
was a fantastic whodunit with a superb casting. The pace was exceptional and it
kept me glued to the screen for its entire duration. It remained my favourite
film throughout the festival. It also amazed me that the
director Karthick Naren is just 22 years old. Undoubtedly, he is a
filmmaker to watch out for.
I started my second day at
the festival with a panel discussion on the acclaimed film director and
screenwriter Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, featuring historian Dr. Ravikant and
writer-journalist Jai Arjun Singh. The session began with Iffat Fatima's short
film on Abbas and ended with the screening of Chetan Anand's directorial debut Neecha Nagar (1946), based on Maxim
Gorky's Lower Depths, which was adapted for the screen by Abbas. However,
watching Neecha Nagar was a very bad
experience, since the print of this movie was not so good. Nevertheless,
watching old movies in 35mm is such a rare thing. Four other films were
also screened for Abbas’s retrospective titled ‘The City as a Metaphor’: Shree 420 (1955), Jagte Raho (1956), Char
Dil Char Rahein (1959) and Bambai Raat Ki Bahon Mein (1968). I only managed
to see Jagte Raho, which was a great
experience. I later found out that it was also produced in Bengali titled Ek Din Raatre. Raj Kapoor acted in
both the versions. The role of Motilal in Bengali version was played by
Chhabi Biswas. You can find this film [here] on YouTube.
Damien O'Donnell's British
dramedy East is East (1999) and
Satyajit Ray's TV film Sadgati (1981)
– based on the story of the same name by Munshi Premchand – were shown as a
part of Om Puri's retrospective. I liked the former and loved the latter. I
also wanted to see the other films shown in this retrospective: Aakrosh (1980), Ardh Satya (1983), Tamas
(1988) and Dev (2004), but couldn't.
Kannada film U Turn (2016) was another smart,
engaging thriller by Pawan Kumar. Like his previous film Lucia (2013), this one was also crowd-funded. However, the ending
didn’t really surprise me. It somehow became predictable in the second half,
but I was thoroughly entertained.
I saw four Malayalam films
at the festival: Manhole, Ottayar Paathe
(The Narrow Path), Pinneyum (Once Again) and Ayal Jeevichirippundu, and
liked all of them.
Debutant director Vidhu
Vincent's Manhole depicted
the life and struggles of manual scavengers in Kerala. Ottayar Paathe was a wonderful
drama about a father-son relationship. Veteran filmmaker Adoor
Gopalakrishnan's latest film Pinneyum
was about an unemployed man in his thirties, who turns out to be a criminal.
According to Wikipedia, the story was loosely adapted from the original
criminal incident that happened in Kerala during the '80s by Sukumara Kurup, a
wanted criminal. Such a shame that this was my first ever Adoor film and so
now, I feel the need to see all the films directed by him. Vyasan K. P.’s Ayal Jeevichirippundu was the film I enjoyed the most out of these four
Malayalam movies that I watched. Its story was about the friendship between a
Booker Prize-winning author John Matthew Mathan (Vijay Babu) and an illiterate
fisherman Murugan (Manikandan). The screening of Pinneyum and Ayal
Jeevichirippundu were followed by a Q&A session with their respective
directors.
Watching Kaasav (2016) was like a sort of
meditation. Directed by Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar, it was an impactful
social drama. We need more films like this, which deal with the subject of
depression. Incidentally, this movie had also won the National Award for the Best
Feature Film, earlier this year.
Bengali film Cholai (2016) was a dark comedy
with a very poignant ending. For some parts, it reminded me of Raam Reddy's
excellent Thithi (2016), which was
one of my top 5 favourite Indian films of last year.
Bobby Sarma Baruah's
Rajbongshi-language film Sonar Baran
Pakhi (The Golden Wing) was based on the life and times of Late
Pratima Barua Pandey, the legendary folk singer of Assam. She was such a
fascinating figure. It was a well-researched
movie. For authenticity, Baruah used the singer's original tracks in the
movie, which she sourced from the All India Radio archives. I particularly
loved its opening scene, which I thought was brilliant.
Amar Kaushik's
Apatani-language short Aaba (The
Grandfather) was one of the best films I have seen. Set in a remote
landscape of Ziro (Arunachal Pradesh), shot with locals from the Apatani tribe,
this film, for the most part, was narrated in silence. The location was so
beautiful and peaceful that someday I want to visit it.
I also watched a Sanskrit film
Ishti (2016), written and directed by
Dr. G. Prabha – the fourth ever Sanskrit film, but the first one with a social
theme. Set in the background of the mid-'20s of Kerala, it was a subtle take on
patriarchy and gender-biases in the name of traditions.
The closing film of the
festival was Shlok Sharma's Haraamkhor
(2017). Despite the absurd ending, it worked for me. Nawazuddin was once
again at the top of his game. Is there any role which he can't portray? Shweta
Tripathi (Shaalu of Masaan) was equally good and played the role of a
15-year-old girl so convincingly.
Wish I had more time and
could cover some more films. Sigh! Now I'm eagerly waiting for the 8th Jagran
Film Festival, which will be held in the first week of July. Hope to get lost
in the world of cinema and continue the journey for as long as movies are made
:)
~