Ambedkar's biopic to be screened at cine centenary fest

Jabbar Patel's National Award-winning biopic 'Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar' will be screened tomorrow at a centenary film festival in JNU, marking the birth anniversary of the iconic Dalit leader on April 14.
The 2000 English film saw its actor Mammootty lift the National Award for Best Actor for essaying the title role of Ambedkar.
"Patel's tribute to Babasaheb will be screened tomorrow as one of three film closing the festival on April 14," said Ira Bhaskar, professor of cinema studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
Meanwhile, much lauded documentary 'Celluloid Man' was the opening film at the festival that began yesterday.

The documentary is a salute to the efforts of National Film Archives of India or NFAI founder P K Nair.
"I feel proud to be his daughter. And, though we initially used to think that he would neglect us for his passion for cinema, our relationship has only grown stronger," Beena told PTI.

Beena accompanied octogenarian Nair, who was present for the screening and for an interaction with the audience.
The 150-minute long film is produced and directed by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, who graduated from FTII (Film and Television Institute of India), Pune.
It will release in theatres on May 3, 2013 to coincide with the completion of the 100 years of Indian cinema. The first Indian film 'Raja Harischandra' by Dada Saheb Phalke was screened on May 3, 1913.

The festival today saw Shaji N Karun's award-winning Malayalam film 'Vanaprastham' being screened in the morning.
Followed by 'Byari', made in Beary language for the first time, and National Award winner in Punjabi 'Anhey Ghorey da Daan', the day will close with Bappaditya Bandopadhyay's Bengali drama 'Elar Char Adhyay'.
The festival concludes tomorrow with the screening of Priyadarshan's National Award-winning Tamil film 'Kanchivaram' and Nitin Kakkar's emotion and humour-laced 'Filmistan' on India-Pakistan relations.