Back to Kochi from IFFK. Wasnt a completely pleasing experience altogether. The sheer incompetency in organizing the event; the long, meaningless queues where 500 people would wait to get into a 200-seat theater; the charting of immensely popular films in smaller screens while all the big screens are empty; the irritation all of this causes in each of the delegates and their extreme reactions and much more made it a very tiring experience. And of course there were some competition films which (for me) seemed anything but cinema. But still, saw some very nice films also in between, out of which the Buster Keaton retrospective and films called Flights of Fancy and The Longest Distance stood out. Also, watching the beautiful Tamil film Pannaiyaarum Padminiyum the second time (I hadnt seen it in theater the first time), in between all these so-called arthouse films, was quite a revelation. People were overjoyed at all the emotions that simple sweet film about a Premier Padmini car brought about in them. There was some wonderful background score, a starry introduction, lovely songs and some truly Indian emotions and storytelling. Usually after every screening, people clap just for the sake of it, for each of those arthouse films. But for Pannnaiyaarum Padminiyum, the applause started from scene 1 and kept coming every five minutes and people coming out and discussing why this film didnt release in Kerala or do that well in Tamil Nadu. Its amazing when a film made in the mainstream, popular format can win the hearts of an audience who are prepared to watch the so-called festival films. I hope the organizers get all the issues the next time around and do something about reservation of seats to make it an enjoyable experience rather than a tiring one where one doesnt even get time to talk about the movie just watched among friends.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:30:59 +0000
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