Film festivals losing their charm?

As the year comes to an end, the film festival season in India begins — MAMI Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI), International Film Festival of India, Goa (IFFI), Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), and the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) among others. In comparison to festivals of yore, film festivals today are witnessing a lot of changes.

Explaining this change, eminent filmmaker Goutam Ghose recalled his early days in the industry. “Parallel and off beat cinema was the main focus in film festivals back then. Now the concept has received a wider spectrum with well-made films from mainstream cinema finding place in the festivals.”

Goutam Ghose who was the chairman of jury at last year’s IFFK was all praise for popular Malayalam cinema. Supporting his statement Madhur Bhandarkar adds, “Film festivals in India are now a true platform for all cross sections of cinema. Although we don’t have a Satyajit Ray, a Mrinal Sen or a Guru Dutt now, films by many contemporary directors like Kaushik Ganguly or Shoojit Sircar are worth watching.”

IFFI will honour Michael Douglas with a Lifetime Achievement Award this year, but in all fairness, Michael Douglas is no comparison to his legendary father, the late Kirk Douglas. There are certainly many more deserving names like Michael Caine, Al Pacino or Meryl Streep. Even stalwarts like Steven Spielberg or Christopher Nolan are ideal choices.

In 1966, when Satyajit Ray and Raj Kapoor were discussing cinema at IFFI, Raj Kapoor spoke about how his performance in ‘Teesri Kasam’ — a brilliant film that flopped miserably — did not receive much acclaim. Ray consoled him saying his films too did not fare well at the box office. Viewers then and now cater mainly to populist ingredients in movies.

The prevailing undercurrents of political bias in festivals these days is another important aspect. KIFF has been inviting the same guests like Amitabh Bachhan, Jaya Bachhan and Shah Rukh Khan for more than a decade. Why are filmmakers discussing real issues in films never invited here? The theme at KIFF this year is Spain and Spanish cinema — a good effort but doubtful if modern Spanish cinema matches the class of contemporary French, Italian or German movies.

The Indian Panorama selections were announced recently, the selection has been questioned over a period of time but there is a lack of criticism on it.

The current day film critics according to many veteran film scholars and makers have lesser credibility — the reason being their lack of study in cinema and its academics. Filmmaker Sandip Ray says, “during my father’s (Satyajit Ray) tenure there were stalwarts like Bikram Singh and Iqbal Masood who were thoroughly versed in cinema. Sadly there are almost none to match those standards today.”

The death of film society movements has dealt a severe blow to film festivals. The first film society was started in Kolkata in the late ’40s by Chidannanda Das Gupta, Kamal Kumar Majumdar and Satyajit Ray. Ray was of the opinion that film society movements enlightens the purpose of meaningful cinema. Film societies carried out cultural movements to uplift the cause of true cinema which is missing today. The merger of the Children’s Film Society with NFDC was seriously debated because of this very reason.