Surge in visiting crowd

Actor-director Madhupal, actress Sheela and Andrea Jeremiah visited the Kochi Muziris Biennale (KMB) today, lauding the exhibits at the main venue in Fort Kochi.
With just three days left, the KMB saw a surge in its crowd of personalities from the world of cinema, even as the 108-day international film festival concluded yesterday night.
"The works evoke an incredible feeling," said award-winning director Madhupal.
"The film works are inspiring and motivating, and my mind has opened to new ideas of colour combinations and picture compositions for my projects," he said.
Sheela felt that "Malayalis are lucky to have an international standard art exhibition" in the state.

"I was left awestruck at the creativity of the local and international artists and left wondering at how they are able to think in such creative ways," said the yesteryear beauty queen.

Films have been an important part of the biennial, with the 100-day Artist Cinema concluding at the Aspinwall Pavilion yesterday, bringing to the audience a rich array of feature as well as documentary movies from across the world.
The final evening saw a nine-minute movie on a travel-crazy couple running a small hotel in their native Kochi-the very city that found highlight in the first show of 'Artist Cinema' which was inaugurated last December 14 with the screening of avant-garde 'Amma Ariyan' (1986) by late filmmaker John Abraham.

KMB'14 Director of Programmes Riyas Komu, curator Jitish Kallat and Programme Manager Bandhu Prasad addressed the gathering at Aspinwall House pavilion in Fort Kochi ahead of the screening of young Hari M Mohanan's 'Invisible Wings' that essays the aspirations of K R Vijayan and Mohana who run a lowly restaurant in bustling Ernakulam.
The festival, which packaged around 125 films, was inaugurated by actor-filmmaker Amol Palekar, who (along with his wife Sandhya Gokhale) was among a dozen curators of the 'Artist Cinema' series.
The films, curated by key film personalities like editor Bina Paul, critic C S Venkateswaran and artist Amar Kanwar, were taken from diverse topics ranging from social science to politics, art and history even as the aim of the festival was to showcase documentary and video art.