Five Bimal Roy classics to be screened at KIFF

Five films of Bimal Roy will be screened in the 24th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) in the 'Great Masters Section' as a tribute to one of the greatest directors of Indian cinema.

Ranottama Sengupta, who has curated the five Bimal Roy films for the festival screening, told reporters on Monday that the movies were part of a group of classics digitally enhanced by the National Film Archive of India.

The films were Pehla Admi (1950), Maa (1952), Yahudi (1958), Do Bigha Zamin (1953) and Sujata (1959).

"This is a special section in the 24th KIFF aiming at paying tribute to the masters of cinema who had imparted their Bengali sensibilities to Bollywood films and set a new benchmark," Information and Cultural Affairs Principal Secretary Vivek Kumar said.

There are other special sections including Centenary Tribute to Ingmar Bergman, 100 Years of Bengali Cinema and Restored Classics, he said.

The Restored Classics Section comprises the Apu Trilogy - Pather Panchali (1955), Apur Sansar (1959) and Aparajito (1956) - by Satyajit Ray and Uday Sankar's Kalpana (1948).

Amarcord (1973) by Federico Fellini, Blow-Up (1966) by Michelangelo Antonioni, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) by Orson Welles, and Bicycle Thieves (1948) by Vittorio De Sica were the other films of the package.

The Restored Classics, in celluloid format, were curated by the Film Heritage Foundation, a Mumbai based non-profit organisation.