HFF DIARY: 2017

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 :)

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