The Bangalore International Film Festival 2011 presents a host of thought-provoking films, including the first film ever made in the Byari dialect.
The Bengaluru International Film Festival 2011, set to be held in the city from December 15 to December 22, looks promising to cinema lovers for several reasons. One major incentive is the film screening of Byari, the feature film named after the dialect used in the movie.
The dialect, also known as “Beary”, which will make its debut at the festival this year, belongs to the Beary community, one of the earliest Muslim inhabitants in the country. The dialect is spoken in the region between Kasargod in north Kerala and Mangalore in coastal Karnataka.
Byari is about young Nadira, who is married to a man three times her age, and the troubles she faces when her husband divorces her. The central theme of the movie, in essence, is the misuse of iddath, meaning marriage and talaq, that is divorce.
The film has been directed by Suveeran who is well-known in the Malayalam cinema world. The role of Nadira is enacted by popular Tamil and Malayalam actress Mallika. The movie has already been screened at the 6th International Film Festival of Thrissur (TIFFT) and gained great appreciation from film critics.
Cinema lovers in the city were disappointed when after three successful editions in 2006, 2008 and 2009, sponsors deserted the festival. The global economic slowdown of 2008 dealt a body blow to the festival as a result of which, the sponsors of the event were unable to generate funds for the same.
Now, with the state government stepping in, the festival has returned to the city. Though it had initially promised nearly twice the sum, the government has granted Rs 2.5 crore as the first tranche with a promise to release more if required.
While the festival was held at a single venue till 2009, this time around, the festival has been spread out across seven locations in the city, to cater to all movie buffs.
The Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy (KCA), which is organising the festival, has announced a list of films encompassing different genres, which will be screened over the week. However, prints of some of the movies may not bereach the venue as scheduled, informed a person familiar with the situation.
With the motto ‘Education in Cinema and Cinema in Education’, the KCA was formed by the Government of Karnataka in 2009 to promote film culture in Karnataka. The academy, under the chairmanship of T S Nagabharana, has taken up several projects to develop a “healthy film culture” in the state. H N Narahari Rao, the Artistic Director of the film festival says that a total of 179 films will be screened.
Tthe films have been slotted in to various categories such as Indian Cinema, World Cinema and Asian films, among others. “A special category titled ‘Political Cinema’ will be the highlight of the festival,” added Rao. The movies, which are being hailed as “thought-provoking” will include the French movie The Battle of Algiers along with Z and The Whistleblower. Another movie, Air India 182 follows the 16-hour journey of the bomb-rigged suitcase that resulted in the deadliest terrorist attack prior to 9/11 and the largest mass murder in Canadian history. As many as nine political movies have been lined up for the event.
Retrospective cinema is also a new category of films being explored as a part of the film festival. The films being screened under this category are The Trojan Women, The Cherry Orchard, The Weeping Meadow along with films directed by Hsiao-hsien Hou of Taiwan, Dariush Mehrjui of Iran and G Aravindan from India. Other activities being planned for the week-long festival will include four masterclasses and seminars for the people attending the events. The festival committee is also considering to pay a tribute to Dev Anand, who died last week, during the course of the film festival. Actors Om Puri and Anant Nag will be present as guests of honour on the occasion.
Other acclaimed directors attending the festival include Danish Mehrjui, the Iranian film director. Mehrjui was a founding member of the Iranian New Wave movement of the early 1970s — his second film Gaav is considered to be the pioneer in the segment of films depicting the movement. Most of his films are inspired by literature and adapted from Iranian and foreign novels and plays. He has been among the best known film directors in post-revolution Iran.
