HFF DIARY: 2019

I could only watch twelve movies at the 14^th edition of the Habitat Film Festival (HFF). In the three editions since I started attending the festival, I have seen a total of forty-five movies. I had written about the 2017 experience here. I couldn’t write any post in 2018, but it was truly special, as I got a chance to meet Gulzar Saab and also got an autograph on his novel Do Log.

Anyway, here are the films I watched this year at HFF—ranked in the order of least to most favourite.

12. K Shivarudraiah’s Ramana Savari (Kannada)

The most excruciatingly boring movie at the festival for me. A simple story with an outdated treatment, weak performances and poorly shot.

11. Arup Manna’s Aamritayu – The Quest (Assamese)

Made on the budget of just INR 2 Lakhs, this film didn’t engage me much except in the last fifteen minutes.

10. Kamakhya Narayan Singh’s Bhor (Hindi)

Bhor highlights the problems of patriarchy and open defecation (an issue which was also shown in the films like Toilet-Ek Prem Katha, Halkaa, and more recently Mere Pyare Prime Minister), which a Musahar (a scheduled caste community) woman from Nalanda (Bihar) has to deal with. The engaging characters and some strong performances made it watchable. It is the debut feature film of the director and the lead actress, Saveree Gaur.

9. Sanjoy Nag’s Yours Truly (Hindi)

Based on the story The One That Was Announced by Annie Zaidi, this lovely film is the tale of a lonely woman (played by Soni Razdan) in her late fifties who finds herself in love with the voice of the railway announcer.

8. Praveen Morchhale’s Widow of Silence (Urdu)

Like the director’s last feature Walking with the Wind (2017), this film is also set in Kashmir, has mostly non-professional actors (except the lead which was played by the superb Shilpi Marwaha), natural sound and no background score/songs. This film portrays the life of a Muslim half-widow who is attempting to get her missing husband’s death certificate from the government.

7. Sanal Kumar Shashidharan’s Unmadiyude Maranam (Death of Insane) (Malayalam)

Sanal’s latest film opens with the disclaimers like “No God or religion will be hurt by this film” and “This film does not intend to promote any kind of dreams”. This experimental film comes from the traumatic experience he had with the CBFC and the government with his last feature S Durga. Unmadiyude Maranam is set in the dystopian future where seeing the dreams is illegal and anti-national.

6. Kabir Chowdhry’s Mehsampur (Punjabi/Hindi)

Its story is about a filmmaker Devrath who wants to make a film about the lives and assassination of the controversial Punjabi singing duo Chamkila and Amarjot. The treatment is quite surreal and audaciously original.

5. Jeeva’s Richter Scale 7.6 (Malayalam)

A beautiful film centered on the father-son characters.

4. Dar Gai’s Namdev Bhau: In Search of Silence (Marathi/Hindi)

This spectacular film tells the story of a chauffeur in his sixties, who is tired of the noises in the city life of Mumbai, and decides to leave everything in the search for Silent Valley.

3. Shareef Easa’s Kanthan — The Lover of Colour (Ravula)

This film focuses on the lives of the Adiya community—a group of tribal people living at Thirunelli Colony in Wayanad, Kerala (the place from where Rahul Gandhi has been elected as a Member of Parliament, recently). Titled after the central character, this film is a tonic for the eyes.

2. Ashvin Kumar’s No Fathers in Kashmir (English)

The version played at the festival was the one director had originally intended for. (The theatrical version was heavily censored. Glad I didn’t see it then.) Set in the conflict-ridden Kashmir, this film tells the story from the point of view of a teenage British Kashmiri girl Noor, who along with a local Kashmiri boy Majid, tries to unravel the mystery of their disappeared fathers.

1. Madhu C. Narayanan’s Kumbalangi Nights (Malayalam)

A super entertaining film about a dysfunctional family of four brothers, who live in the island of Kumbalangi, near Kochi. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I missed out on many acclaimed movies such as Bulbul Can Sing, Naal, Dithee, Nagarkirtan and Bhonsle. Hope I’ll get a chance to catch these films somewhere soon.

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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