KIFF Day 4

REMEMBERING SATYAJIT RAY
Celebrated cinema tographer-director Govind Nihalani delivered the annual Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture on Friday . Before that, Satyajit Ray's Oscar moment was shown on the big screen. Since the footage was hazy , many raised a hue and cry , though the festival committee members insisted that the fault was not theirs.

Talking about Ray , Govind said the first time he came across the master filmmaker was when he was working as a cinematographer on Shyam Benegal's documentary on Ray .
Govind added that he was inspired to see Ray at work. While making Ghare Baire, the director would decide on where the flower vase would be kept to how many drops of blood should trickle down Jennifer's forehead. “He was an expert in every department of filmmaking,“ said Govind, who added that Ray continues to be a driving force in his life.

Hala Lotfy's Coming forth by Day was screened on Thursday. Despite low light, problems with sync sound and subtitles that did the vanishing act post-interval, the director from Egypt was overwhelmed by the audience response. During a press meet on Friday, that is what Hala insisted. A story revolving around a daughter and her parents, Hala said it was inspired by her own life. “In Egypt, it is difficult for a woman to make films and there were odds in plenty . I'm happy to bring my film to KIFF. Anywhere else, the absence of subtitles would have been a huge issue. I'm very grateful that Kolkata loved my film," she said.

On Friday afternoon, superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee and director Indranil Roychowdhury came together to speak on children's films churned out of Bengal.Prosenjit, whose latest screen outing, Force, is about a father's relationship with his autistic son, said though a lot of new subjects are being dealt with in Tollywood, nothing much has been done about children's films. “When I was young, there were various sources of entertainment. Now, kids are dependent on either computer or movies. So a new wave of thought in children's movies is required, so they can get to learn more,“ he said.Prosenjit, who started out as a child actor, said he had learnt a lot from Robi Ghosh and Anup Kumar. “They were institutions in themselves. Though things were different then, we do need to come up with new subjects," he added.

Sourav Chakraborty was in for a surprise when the screening of his short film, Batik O Biggyapan, was stalled on Friday afternoon. Even more surprising was the fact that the actor-director came to know about it just 20 minutes before the screening. Sourav was accompanied by director duo Sudeshna Roy and Abhijit Guha among others for the 3 pm show.“The festival committee members had confirmed bers had confirmed me on Thursday about co the date and time of the screening at Bangla Aca demy . Obviously then, I was very excited. But it was only while I was parking my car outside the venue that I came to know that the short film will not be screened at the festival," said Sourav. Batik O Biggyapan was replaced with the repeat show of a film.
(From Left: Sudeshna Roy, Madhumita, Sourav, Joydeep, Koushik, Abhijit Guha & Deboparna)

Though his team and Sourav tried their best to figure out what the reason could be, they were silenced with a wry “unavoidable ns“ line. Later, Sourav took to a social networking site to vent his anger. “Mojar bya par holo show time er 20 min age amra jante pari je anibarjo karon boshoto chhobiti dekhano hobe na... karon kintu ani barjo tobe baron korlo ke (The fun part was that we were told just 20 minutes before the show that the film will not be screened for unavoidable reasons. If it was unavoidable, who was behind it?)"Sudeshna added, “Getting to screen your film at KIFF is a matter of prestige. We were looking forward to it. What happened is really sad."