IFFI 52, 029: Kalkokkho is a phantasmagorical movie Amidst the paranoia and dread inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, an apathetic but adept doctor is taken hostage by a young woman. Captive in an almost desolate house with three women – the paranoid young woman along with an amnesic old woman and a lonely young girl – the doctor discovers that forces beyond his comprehension are at play and he might be trapped not only in space but also in time. The film explores the sense of dre...

IFFI 50: 15 firsts at the 2019 festival 1.      International Film Festival of India, IFFI 2019, will witness 90 India Premieres, 6 World Premieres and 11 Asia Premieres of Films. 2.      In a first for IFFI, a special award named Icon of Golden Jubilee of IFFI has been constituted, by the Government of India. This award will be bestowed to superstar Rajinikanth, during Inaugural Ceremony. 3.      IFFI 2019 will see ...

Shoplifters, Review: Only those cannot study at home need to go to school Through many decades, albeit once in a while, a Japanese film comes up in the rich tradition of Frank Capra, Vittorio De Sica, Satyajit Ray, Ritwick Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, and the better films of Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Back in the 30s, 40s and 50s, in the days of Yasujirō Ozu and Mikio Naruse, it was called neo-realistic cinema. Most of these films were made with non-star casts, on shoe-string budgets, had realistic styles...

Ahaa Re (The Two Lovers/Oh, Look at You), Review: Castle of love on bedrock of food When you want to make a film about love, lost and found, romance, sublime and selfless, it is a good idea not to include components like villains, fights, item songs, crude comedy, sexual overtones and foul language. So what do you fill your screenplay with? How about conflicts and disparities, of many hues and various proportions? And food? Yes, food. Well if you are a foodie, and a romantic foodie, then why ...

Exclusive interview with Aneek Chaudhuri, director of off-beat films Streer Potro and White *Tell us about the themes/central ideas of your two feature films, The Wife’s Letter (Streer Potro, in Bengali) and White (no dialogue). Aneek: The Wife's letter is based on an abstract theme where mathematics has been related to emotions, inspired by the surrealist form of Dali and simplistic form of Tagore. White is based on sexual assaults on women and has a universal relevance. *You hav...

MIFF 2018, XVIII: Open Forum No. 4 ...

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, VI: Life after Ghatak, and breaking mindsets Federation of Film Societies of India continues to champion the cause of film culture and appreciation by not only running film societies all over India, but organising the Open Forum at IFFI every year, in collaboration with DFF. At IFFI 2016, it got to share hosting of the six-day platform with the Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA), the first three days being allotted to FFSI. I missed the ...