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MIFF 2016: Indian women pack a punch
Ameesha Joshi, born in Canada to immigrant Indian parents, and Anna Sarkissian, of Egyptian/Armenian-Irish parentage, could not have imagined that their documentary on Mary Kom, Sarita Devi and Chhoto Loura, famed women boxers of India, would take 10 years to complete. But, like resolute boxers, they never let circumstances knock them out, and, to their delight, their ambitious 87-minute film, With This Ring (not be confused with the 2015 American TV film ...
MIFF 2016: Harshal Wadkar: Cyclic emotions
Pune-based amateur film-maker Harshal Wadkar, whose film 30-minute short fiction film Cycle was screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) in the national competition section, met the press at the Media Centre, Films Division, on the 31st of January, and followed it with a Q and A session. To begin with, some clips of his film were shown, to set the tone, after which he made his opening remarks.
Wadkar said he and a group of his fri...
MIFF 2016: FD’s North-East outreach
Films Division (FD) has initiated an outreach programme to inculcate the fine art of film-making in the far-flung areas of India’s North-East. Six young, first-time film-makers were taught the intricacies of the craft at a prolonged mentoring effort. It was literally ‘a dream come true’ for Pi Lallianpuii (Deputy Director, Information and Public Relations, Mizoram), Aldrin Losanghina (Mizoram), Anungla (Nagaland), Tiakumzuk Ao (Nagal...
MIFF 2016: Mike Pandey: “We need many more documentary makers”
In 1994, Mike Pandey won the Wildscreen Panda Award, better known as the Green Oscar, for his film on the capture of wild elephants, The Last Migration: Wild Elephant Capture in Surguja. Till he made the film, nobody believed they existed off the Indian coast! He won the award twice again, in 2000 for Shores of Silence: Whale Sharks in India, and another Panda came for Vanishing Giants (2004), making it a total o...
MIFF 2016: Daredevil Naresh Bedi and his stunning documentaries
World-renowned wildlife filmmaker Naresh Bedi was honoured with the V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award at the opening ceremony of the Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Animation and Short Films, MIFF 2016 on Thursday, 29 January. The next day, Bedi shared his wildlife film making experiences with media persons at the MIFF Media Centre.
Love of n...
MIFF 2016: Master Class by Festival Director Mukesh Sharma
Varied experience and a long, eventful career, make Mukesh Sharma just the person to speak on ‘How not to make films’. And he speaks so fast that he can compress so much in an hour-and-a-half! On 30 January 2016, a packed and refurbished RRIII theatre, on the 10th floor, of the Phase I building, at the Films Division headquarters in Mumbai, heard him talk about his acclaimed film children’s feature film Anokha Aspata...
MIFF 2016: Open Forum V: Embedding documentaries in film studies
Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF)’s fifth and last Open Forum was held on 02 February. It was organised by the Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA) every day, for five days, in the step-garden of the Films Division (FD) Complex. For this adieu session, topic chosen was ‘Building awareness of documentary and non-feature films in the younger generation: Is the documentary genre getting suffici...
MIFF 2016: Open Forum IV—Pointing inwards, pointing outwards
Mathieu Roy, Canadian film-maker and member of the jury at MIFF, a former personal assistant to Martin Scorsese whose films include Ecclestone’s Formula (1) and Surviving Progress, and the feature; Ziba Bhagwagar, ad film maker and former journalist, who has moved on to make all kinds of non-feature films with partner Roohi Dixit, known for her films Freaky Chakra, Spaces between and Scattered Windows, Connected Doors; K...
MIFF: Open Forum III--Real documentaries, and faking it!
On the 31st of January, four passionate speakers and one moderator discussed another complex issue at the Mumbai International Film Festival’s Open Forum. Bina Paul, film editor and former Artistic Director of the International Film Festival of Kerala, had Miriam Chandy Menacherry and Audrius Stonys seated to her right, and Mamta Murthy and Sophy Sivaraman to her left. Facing the panel was an audience composed of Indian Documentar...
MIFF 2016: Open Forum II--The travails of docu-makers
‘The challenge of filming documentaries in public places—legitimate documentary film-makers need to be distinguished from the feature film industry, press and media, and the passing tourist. What can be done to better establish documentaries as a separate genre of film and liberate its spirit from unnecessary obstruction; what incentives need to be provided for its growth?’ The second day’s Open Forum at the Mum...
MIFF 2016: Open Forum, I--Balancing Act
Open Forum, a platform for discussing and debating ideas related to several aspects of documentary, short and animation films, is a permanent feature of Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF). It is organised by the Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA). The first of these forums was held on 29th January 2016, in the open space outside J.B. Hall, Films Division Complex, the main venue of the festival.
‘Ethical and moral dilemmas...
Love of nature and wild-life was inculcated in Naresh Bedi by his father, Dr. Ramesh Bedi, an international expert in plant medicine and a consultant to the government of India.
Born and raised Haridwar, close to forests and animal habitats, Naresh Bedi recalled the days when his father carried him on his shoulders into the forests. He also remembered the day when he, all of eight years old, was returning from a trek, and suddenly spotted an elephant waking up from slumber. Terrified, he had ...
Astérix and Obélix-The Mansions of the Gods, Review: Caesar’s seizure
Adventures of French cartoon characters Asterix and Obelix, created by René Goscinny (stories) and Albert Uderzo (illustrations), were originally serialised in the magazine Pilote, in 1971, and translated into English in 1973. They have been made into films too. This is the first Asterix film animated in 3D, and was released in France on November 26, 2014, with DVD, VOD and Blu-ray versions ...
24-year-old Joy (Brie Larson) and her five-year-old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) live in a squalid shed they call “Room”. They share a bed, toilet, bathtub, a rickety old television, and a rudimentary kitchen; the only window is a skylight. They are captives of a man they call ‘Old Nick’ (also an old Christian nickname for the Devil), Jack's father (Sean Bridgers), who abducted Joy seven years ago, and routinely rapes her, while Jack appears to be sleeping in the wardr...
MIFF starts tomorrow in Mumbai, screenings in 9 other cities too
The 14th edition of Mumbai International Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films, popularly known as MIFF, will be held between January 28 and February 03, 2016.
MIFF, which began as BIFF (Bombay International Film Festival), became MIFF when the city had a change of name. The biennial festival, restricted to Documentary, Short and Animation Films, with some rare or restored features thrown in, is organised by the F...
Bimal Roy Film Festival: Dharmendra, Helen, Ameen Sayani honoured
Cinemas in Mumbai usually play the country’s national anthem, ‘Jana gana mana’, written by Rabindranath Tagore, before the feature film, a practice mandated by the government. Two weeks ago, at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (BVB) in south Mumbai, which is not a regular cinema hall, the song was played as part of the Bengali film that had incorporated it in its credit titles. Udayer Pathe (on the way to enlightenm...
Joy, Review: Mop to the Top
Is it possible to watch a film based on a true story and feel that some of the scenes are unreal, artificial or contrived? It is. Probably more so, when the writer/director takes liberties galore with the original story and tries to universalise it, adding smart anecdotes and witticisms where honest narrative might have worked better. Joy is one such example. It’s a genre-defying tale, and that’s welcome. Half-baked plot points and half-hearted characte...
The 5th Wave, Review: Earthnic cleansing
Aliens want the earth, without the baggage of humans. Obviously, 6.5 bn humans are not going to commit mass suicide, to oblige the extra-terrestrials, so the aliens decide to exterminate them. But, for reasons unclear, they are unable to do so in one attempts; several ‘waves’ are launched, some of them literal and tidal, to carry out operation decimation. Nothing new, except plot structure. And the not entirely credible premise that childre...
The 33, Review: Deep, Down, Dark, and Die-hard
A Chilean-Colombian co-production, The 33 (Los 33 in Spanish) has a Mexican director, Puerto Rican and the son of Guatemalan immigrants as two of the writers, American, British, Irish, French, Brazilian and Filipino members in the cast, and even more nationalities in the production. This is what we can call an international ensemble film, in the real sense of the world. It is an almost true reproduction of a mining disaster that trapped 33 miner...
The Hateful Eight, Review: Bounty-hunters v/s cowboy gangs
Some things are characteristic Tarantino: Crime, betrayal and revenge; several guns going off at regular intervals; chapter-wise narrative; a central black character, repeatedly referred to as ‘nigger’; flash-backs or intertwined narrative; a large ensemble cast, with good footage to each actor; direct or indirect reference to the Bible or Jesus Christ. The Hateful Eight has all these elements, and even more QT traits. And...
Color Me Rich: Fact, Fiction or ‘Faction’
Mohan Deep Chandiramani, who never uses his last name, was in college during my time, only he was 3-4 years my senior. I do not recall meeting him then. We met some ten years after I had finished college, and both of us had become freelance journalists. I did not know even then that he was also a poet, short-story writer, novelist and playwright, both in Sindhi and English. Whereas I confined myself to writing mainly about the arts, he of...
Daddy’s Home, Review: The Ex factor
A sensitive, sentimental true story goes through Hollywood’s spin doctors and comes out with a load of slap-stick comedy, a few sharply contrasting stereo-types, and some above the PG-13 certification content. If you can detach yourself from identifying with a well-intentioned hubby who goes crazy when faced with the prospect of losing his nuclear family, you can enjoy several laugh-out-loud moments. If you stay with the plot, however, these lau...
Our Brand is Crisis, Review: Dirty politricks
On one hand, Our Brand is Crisis dispels all delusions anybody might still have about elections being the ultimate manifestation of democracy…and how! On the other, it makes mud-slinging look exceedingly simple to indulge in, with pictures and quotes being the only real weapons you need. Of course, there are the obligatory debates, baring of hearts on live television, and the dirty tricks department of state machinery, that play their parts...
Third Eye 14th Asian Film Festival, 2015, III: Bad features, good shorts
Two national awards, one for the best film in its language (Haryanvi, spoken in the north Indian state of Haryana, which shares its capital Chandigarh with Punjab) and another for best supporting actress do not contribute to a completely predictable story that drags for far too long. Pagadi (meaning turban), also titled Pagadi—The Honour, is about the heartless custom of killing young men and women who fall i...
Third Eye 14th Asian Film Festival, 2015, II: Features--Picks and pricks
AFF has a European connection too, and a competitive section that is restricted to short films. Sub-sections include Spectrum Asia, which had 18 features, Focus on Israel six, Indian Vista six, Japanese Masters two, Through the Women’s Eye six and there were four films in the European Connection, by the Turkish-German director, Fatih Akin.
The festival also celebrated 60 years of Satyajit Ray’s Pather Pancha...
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About Siraj Syed
 Syed Siraj
(Siraj Associates)
Siraj Syed is a film-critic since 1970 and a Former President of the Freelance Film Journalists' Combine of India.
He is the India Correspondent of FilmFestivals.com and a member of FIPRESCI, the international Federation of Film Critics, Munich, Germany
Siraj Syed has contributed over 1,015 articles on cinema, international film festivals, conventions, exhibitions, etc., most recently, at IFFI (Goa), MIFF (Mumbai), MFF/MAMI (Mumbai) and CommunicAsia (Singapore). He often edits film festival daily bulletins.
He is also an actor and a dubbing artiste. Further, he has been teaching media, acting and dubbing at over 30 institutes in India and Singapore, since 1984.
Bandra West, Mumbai India View my profileSend me a message
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