PIFF – Pune International Film Festival 2005.

PIFF – Pune International Film Festival 2005.
I first heard about it from the infamous Mr T***** (who I dare not name, out of the fear of being sued for using his name without due permissions et al) and then read about it on Akshay’s blog. The enthusiasm they both expressed more than did justice to it – a week-long orgy of movies, coffees, iced teas and sandwiches at ESquare later, I’m down with a cold from going in-n-out of A/C halls and have a husky voice from a sore throat (a la Phoebe of F.R.I.E.N.D.S) and a head that’s still buzzing with all those movies I saw and all that sudden input, some of which has made me curious about subjects and issues I didn’t think about earlier and of countries I didn’t give 2 peeps about…

The plan initially was to watch as many French films as I could, above all other films and catch a few interesting films in between. I ended up seeing 3-4 movies a day and almost lived at ESquare, except for the last 2 days when my brain and body started protesting and going on a strike – even when I was a couch-potato and television addict, I didn’t sit in front of the screen for like 7-8 hours a day. And this was a much bigger screen too ;-)

I had wanted and planned to put in a daily PIFF 2005 report, but I was returning home too tired to want to sit in front of a screen and type out my experiences – so here’s what I’m going to do (probably less winding and boring for you guys anyways!). Here’s the list of movies I saw and what hit me about them – be it the plot, photography, acting, concept, theme, treatment of subject; whether I liked it, disliked it, fell asleep while watching it, checked my watch every 15 minutes for how much longer I’d have to bear it…that kinda thing!

Day 1.
Ah Si J’etais Riche (If I was Rich) – France; Dir. Michel Munz
A light-hearted silly movie about a loser who hits the jackpot one fine day and how he first goes about blowing up his money all by himself, till conscience knocks on his door and the charm of being rich in isolation flies out of the door. Then begin the Samaritan acts and his life turns into prosperity and happiness lane. Nothing great. But not bad either. Funny. Enjoyable. OK I’m biased towards French films. So kill me, ok?

Day 2.
A La Petite Semaine (Nickel and Dime) – France; Dir. Sam Karmann.
A dark movie about some a bunch of guys, who hang out at a Parisian café called Chez Roger (one of the guys) and who have always walked the wrong side of the road – some have suffered the consequences and hopped over the divider, some are yet to learn the lesson. What I liked about it was the portrayal of relationships – between friends, between mother and a grown up son, between husband and wife… very real.

Love Stories – Poland; Dir Jerzy Stuhr
An interesting movie. For starters the director is in the movie, not a la Subash Ghai in a “special performance” but as the main lead, in 4 roles! The film revolves around 4 stories which are all about when love and the practicalities of everyday life become impossible to reconcile. A teacher finds out that one of his pupils is hopelessly infatuated with him; a priest learns that he is has a love-child who desperately needs his help, a colonel in the Polish army is torn between loyalty to his country and his passionate feelings for his Russian lover; and a convict finds he is unable to dampen the fiery feelings in his heart for the woman who put him in jail for seven years. Stuhr's message is simple: whatever the cost we may have to pay for it, we should love. If we cannot, we are damned.
The way he’s portrayed God and St.Peter is really cool – infact the whole concept.

Ring of Fire – Lebanon; dir Bahj Hojeij
Mr T***** chose this movie. *clears throat* I didn’t quite get the essence of the movie. It shows a professor in civil-war torn Beirut and how hi life hits rock-bottom after a scintillating incident with a female student, as they all take shelter in a dark room during shelling. What follows in a series of mindless incidents, that show how everything goes crazy and nothing makes sense at such times – innumerable cups of coffee and cigarettes later he breaks down. I, too, felt the same.

Day 3.
Jardin de Papa (Father’s Garden) - French ; Dir. Zeka Laplaine
A French couple goes to Africa for their honeymoon – an Africa that is taut with tension on the eve of the next Presidential elections. A series of unfortunate incidents follows suit – the movie is a wonderful metaphor for the oppressor-oppressed relationship, whether colonizer v/s colonized or man v/s woman. A disturbing movie, it ends on a positive note, as the two leading women, one black, one white, emerge as beacons of hope of equality and a better tomorrow.
P.S The guy was a total jerk in this movie – itched to reach into to screen and slap him quite a few times!

The Rose Seller – Columbia; Dir Victor Garcia.
Very disturbing. It portrayed the life of street children, in particular Monica – these kids who run away from home survive on the streets selling roses, sniffing glue, hanging out with dopes who peddle drugs to bigger dopes and sometimes end up prostituting themselves, all to buy new clothes and go dancing. It got too disturbing for us and we ended up leaving before the movie ended.

The Wind Bird – Sri Lanka; Dir. Inoka Satyangini
A story of a young Sinhalese woman who has come to the city to work – she finds herself pregnant, only to discover that her Tamil tiger boyfriend is already married and wants her to abort the child. A film that deals with issues such as female emancipation, life of single young women in cities, abortion and single motherhood, it was pretty clichéd and extremely depressing – what I liked about it was the photography. The most aesthetically pleasing scene has to be the one where she opens the window of her shack to find a cobweb hanging there. Gossamer fine, delicately spun by the spider it had trapped in its network a hapless insect – beautiful metaphor of her own position at that time.

Day 4.
Un Homme Vrai (A Real Man) – France; Dir Jean-Marie Larrieu
A satire on the concept of a real man (macho and indifferent, or sensitive and mushy) and on the concept of love and relationships – this was a very interesting, beautiful and aesthetically pleasing movie. The film explores several issues of a modern relationship between two people, yet retains a light-heartedness that makes you smile and laugh with each new turn the character’s lives take. The scene in the Pyrenees where they’ve captured the mating dance of the mysterious black grouse is breathtakingly beautiful!

White Noise – India, Dir.Vinta Nanda
Scheduled for release in March’05, this film starring Rahul Bose (deliciously talented) and Koel Purie (funky as it gets) deals with the life is young upcoming professionals in our crazy television world – as the synopsis said, the movie is a comment on love, marriage, family and Mumbai itself as the city of dreams – where expression and talent are often replaced by Ego and Judgement. (Ibid)

Rahul Bose is brilliant as always – I’m finally beginning to accept that there is more to Koel Purie than funky clothes that scream “Look at me” – she did a pretty good job at portraying a hysterical woman at the edge of sanity in some of those scenes. Question – why, at the end, when she finally finds peace within herself and realizes her dream, does she take to wearing everyday, boringly regular jeans and tee-shirt?

Le Coeur des Hommes (French Men) – France; Dir. Marc Esposito.
A story about four guys who’ve been friends since the time they played on the same football team in a Paris suburb – it tracks their lives – their work-lives and love-lives.A light-hearted cute film about friendships and love in general…

Bored in Bruno – Czech; Dir. Vladimir Moraveck
A crazy film about sex – I’m not kidding. It starts with the story of two young, mentally challenged lovers who are about to spend the night together and goes onto involve other stories in its ever expanding frame – a crash course on sex and sexual perversions! I was almost sure it was semi-porn – still can’t get over it. Outrageous to a limit, it’s an incredibly hilarious movie!

Day 5.
17 fois Cecile Cassard (17 times Cecile Cassard) – France; Dir. Jean- Marie Larrieu and Arnaud Larrieu
A movie that deals with the life of a young widow – how she can’t get a grip on life after the sudden death of her husband and goes away temporarily to Toulouse, leaving her son behind – it explores her raher numb life initially and how she goes onto to form new relationships...a rather disturbing film, which I couldn’t quite sit through for two reasons – one, I coudn’t figure out where it was going and two, Mr T***** messaged saying that if I didn’t get my butt to screen 5 ASAP he wouldn’t be able to save my seat for the next movie...so I abandoned and ran for...

Page 3 – India, Dir. Madhur Bhandarkar
We all know what the movie is about – the ubiquitous Page 3 socialities – an expose on the dirt beneath the glam of the high and glittering lifestyles of the rich and famous, it’s a comment on the life of those in power and how they (mis) use it, on the difference between life and lifestyle, on the invincible spirit of good ol’ Bombay – and yes, also a salute to the invincible spirit of the young journalist played by the extremely talented Konkona Sen Sharma.
Un peu clichéd if you ask me, but a good movie to watch – could be an eye-opener for some, though if you ask me, it kinda plays to the galleries.

Amu – India; Dir. Shonali Bose
It was a true test of Konkona’s talent to see her transform from a young journalist with your everyday aam-junta accent to an Amrika-returned Bangali young girl with a very real American accent in just 15 minutes! (And I’m remembering her very authentic portrayal of a Southie in Mr. and Mrs. Iyer) A story of a young girl who comes back to India from L.A to learn more about her roots, it takes a dark turn as she stumbles onto secrets buried long ago and starts to ask some very uncomfortable questions – uncomfortable for her adoptive family who doesn’t want her to know the truth, uncomfortable for the parents of her friend Kabir (Ankur Khanna – sexy as hell!)who don’t want to face their role in the gruesome past. The film raises some very uncomfortable questions about our passive role in the history of our nation, and of the lack of justice for the victims of the 1984 riots, or any other riots for that matter.
MUST WATCH

Day 6.
Black Friday – India; Dir. Anurag Kashyap
It was a no-show because of some confusions – so I sat for Amu again, till Mr T***** decreed that I must not see it again and ‘rescued’ me for coffee at Savera.

Day 7.
Black Friday – India; Dir. Anurag Kashyap
They did screen it this time – I wonder now if the movie will come to cinemas, (Read more) and I’m glad I went for it, even though my body was protesting and a day away from the A/C hall would have done the trick of stopping this nasty cold in its tracks…yet I went, just to see this one movie on the last day of the festival. Based on the book ‘Black Friday’ the movie traces the story of the Bombay blasts, the conspiracy and planning behind the execution of the blasts, the investigations after the blasts and how the ploice tracked down those involved – it is above all a strong comment on the cyclical nature of violence and a powerful indictment on our passive roles.
Stark. Harsh. Brutally realistic in it’s portrayals of the gruesome aftermath scenes of the blasts and the riots – the movie shakes you to the core. If it does get released – it’s a MUST WATCH!

Today evening, I almost asked my brother to get a DVD ’coz I was feeling like I’ve not seen a movie in ages – then I stopped myself. Needless to say an outburst of giggles followed suit…gotten quite accustomed to seeing movies! Never seen so many movies at a shot – hell I probably don’t see so many movies in a year. And I actually went for some movies alone…am quite amazed. Of course it’s no great feat for I bumped into some people at the Festival who sit through all 5 shows daily for all 7 days of the festival – that’s movie-buffs for you people! :-)