Shimla’s Fourth Annual Date with International Cinema

Rajeev Khanna

The saying goes that the culture of a city can be gauged by the bookshops it has and the cinema it watches. Shimla had its date with some very good cinema from across the world over the weekend in the form of Fourth International Film Festival of India. The screenings at the historic Gaiety Theatre included a number of feature films, documentaries, short films and also music videos. The screenings included around 80 International as well as national films by acclaimed film makers from 28 countries.

Most interesting was the diversity of the subjects covered although women centric issues dominated the screenings. This became all the more relevant in the shadow of the #Metoo movement hitting Bollywood, media and even the NGO sector. There was the superb ‘Ima Sabitri’ by Bobo Khuraijam that intimately portrays Sabitri, a household name in the world of theatre.  The film explores the inspirations behind a vibrant and original theatre company and depicts its moments of celebrations, crisis and the yearning to continue.  The sequences of performances of  ‘Draupadi’ by Mahasweta Devi  interspersed in the film convey the message more profoundly.

Then there was ‘Womeniya’ that stole the thunder on the concluding day on Sunday. This film by Aakash Arun  traces the journey of Sargam Mahila Band in Dhibra village near Patna from a patriarchal and feudal set up towards becoming famous and being in demand across the country. The band is now a beacon of hope for millions of women struggling to break the shackles of social biases to become self dependent both economically as well socially.  

The film “In Thunder, Lightening and Rain’ shows the endurance of three women against their ostracization in the society. They are a footballer, a fisherwoman and a cremator.  They bring before the viewer their saga of woes and weal, resistance and endurance.  These three contemporary ‘Shakespearean witches’ are etched against the carnivalesque urban space of Fort Kochi.

‘Sinjar’ by Sandeep Pampally was another screening that left the viewers spell bound. It brought out the horrors that the women captured by ISIS had to undergo while being treated as sex slaves. This is perhaps the first movie to have been shot in Lakshadweep islands and that too in the local Jasari language that does no have a script.

Of late, no international film festival  is complete without films made by Iranian film makers and life in Iran being depicted. Here too there were a host of Iranian short films like ‘Leprosy’ by Alimohammad Eghbaldar and ‘Blows with the wind’ by Hazhir As’adi.  There was this film ‘Blindness’ by Navid Nikkah Azad that has a blind mother seeking help of a woman to know whether the girl who loves her son is beautiful or not. Then there was ‘A Gift for a Gloomy Day’ with the tagline of, “Kill yourself and get rid of this life.”

 But the movie that left its mark the most was ‘Nawal the Jewel’ by Renjilal Damodaran that talks about a victim of rape by an intelligence bureau official and also about the struggle of an Egyptian lady who hid her identity and lived like a male.

The other issues brought forth before the audience included the resistance in Burkina Faso through the film ‘Burkinabe Rising’ by Iara Lee,  the burning issue of sexuality through ‘The Opaque’ by Anish Kunnath and the falling in love as shown in ‘It’s also Love’ by Masao Konno.  The range included lots more.

Films by Himachali film makers also left a mark on the audience. ‘In the Twilight Zone’ by Mela Ram Sharma explored the travails of displacement facing the people whose centuries old habitats get submerged by building of big dams.  ‘Gharat’ by Happy Sharma depicted the joys that water mills brought to the people of the state. Then there were films like ‘The People’s Festival’ on Nalwadi fair of Bilaspur and ‘Kullu Dussehra’.

Faced with a paucity of theatres and good cinema failing to reach the audiences, Himachal definitely needs more such festivals. A state rich in natural beauty can also be used by more filmmakers to shoot their films.