One whole week Trivandrum was in a festive mood. Everyone
used to wake up with the hope of seeing more and more beautiful films, meeting new
people, having film chats over a cup of tea etc. Now everything has gone missing
as IFFK 16 (International Film Festival of Kerala) came to an end yesterday. Even
though the festival was full of controversies and troubles, I really enjoyed as
it was my first one. But compared to last years, the movies weren’t of that
quality and the organizing was also weak. Fortunately I got the chance to watch
some of the better movies in the festival. Among them I was very much impressed
by the Syrian film ‘Damascus with Love’.
That was a film which really amused me, I was too happy after watching it. Should say
it’s one of the best movies I watched in recent times. Thanks to my friend Anu
Mohan for choosing that movie. The other films which I liked were The Painting
Lesson, The Cat Vanishes, A Seperation, Lucky, Together etc. My opinion was
that ‘The Painting Lesson’ (which got the audience award) should have been
awarded the ‘Suvarna Chakoram’. It doesn’t mean
that ‘The Colors of the Mountains’ was bad, but I found the other movie better.
Among the Indian movies, I got the chance to see ‘Delhi in a Day’ and ‘Akam’ (the
only Malayalam movie I saw). Meeting Prashant Nair (director of Delhi) was one
of the best experiences of film festival. I really got proud when he said he’s
waiting to watch ‘Adaminte Makan Abu’ as he was getting rave reviews about this
movie from everyone. Please do understand that people from other parts of the
world value Malayalam films a lot, whereas what about our own audience? ‘Akam’ based
on Malayattoor’s ‘Yakshi’ was a good attempt from Shalini Usha Nair. But the audiences
were showing their class by making all sorts of noises and comments. I still
wonder why these people discourage Malayalam movies while they sit with pin
drop silence for an offbeat movie from any other language.
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| Damascus with Love |
I should thank my friends Vishnu Raghav, Anu Mohan, Jyotish
etc for making this IFFK a memorable one. It was really a stage for me to meet
new people from different sectors. Not to forget meeting a beautiful gal after
watching Akam movie. The way she waved me a ‘hi’ will remain as one of the unforgettable
moments of IFFK. And if you people say to pick a movie, I would definitely go
with ‘Damascus with Love’. I can’t explain how beautiful that movie is, you
have to watch it and get the visual delight. Do try to watch it soon! I may
have missed some of the best movies this time, but I don’t regret as whatever I
saw didn’t let me down. Everyday there was protests and fights at the main venue which really made me remember about my college. Hope next year the film festival will be better in
every way than this time, being free from all controversies and issues. And we
can sincerely hope that the venue won’t be shifted to Calicut, which will
definitely create chaos.
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| The Painting Lesson |
2 comments:
Nice post bro! :)
and I agree to what you said regarding keralite's attitude towards films. The standard of an average malayali viewer is declining at an alarming rate,and that is carried on by the media. Santosh pandit featuring in many interviews(more than,say salim ahamed) and almost all chit-chats is a grave testimony to the hypocrisy of the malayalees.
Aniya, Kidillan...Nee Ezhuthadaa..I don't know Why I am waiting for your new blogs to come..Definitely a spark is there..Be a Writer than a Orator. It suits you..I am concluding with a promise, I will watch the movie "Damascus with Love" very soon.
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