Asian Film Festival

I was in Pune from 16th to 23rd October for 6th Asian Film Festival. It held in City Pride, Kothrud. I saw many foreign & Indian language films. Nearly 35 to 40 films were shown in Festival but I managed only 20 of them. The films I saw in the festival are listed below.

16/10/2008

Tied Hands
Director: Don Wolman(Israel)

17/10/2008

A Record of Youth
Director: Keisuke Kinoshita(Japan)

Foreign Sister
Director: Don Wolman(Israel)

Gulabi Talkies
Director: Girish Kasaravalli(India)

Brutus
(Philipines)

Dus Kahaniya
(India/Hindi)

Wednesday
Director: Neeraj Pandey(India/Hindi)

Men at Work
Director: Mani Haghighi(Iran)

18/10/2008

Those Three
Director: Naghi Nemati(Iran)

Welcome to Sajjanpur
Director: Shyam Benegal(India/Hindi)

Ben’s Biography
Director: Don Wolman(Israel)

Rammi
Director: Babak Shirisefat(Iran)

19/10/2008

Checkmate
Director: Sanjay Jadhav(India/Marathi)

20/10/2008

Crocodile
Director: Kim Ki Duck(South Korea)

R(evolution)
Director: Mustafa Zaveri(India/English)


Father
Director: Hou Kun(China)

21/10/2008

On the wings of Birds
Director: A.N.Prasanna(India)

Achanak
Director: Yogesh Soman(India/Marathi)

22/10/2008

Nishant
Director: Shyam Benegal(India/Hindi)

23/10/2008

Mahek
Director: Kranti Kanade(India/Hindi)

Festival started with ‘Tied Hands’ by Don Wolmar. It was beautiful film. It was about an ill dying son who wants to smoke & his mother whose journey to bring smoke for him. Don Wolmar himself was present for the inauguration ceremony.
Before this film, there was an award ceremony. The 6th Zenith Asian Award is given to Nasiruddin Shah. It was dream come true to listen him live. He said that people should not differentiate films like ‘Commercial’ & ‘Parallel’ or ‘Art Films’. We should make only one differentiation ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’. He is hopeful about new directors who are making realistic films(the films which deal about our daily life). He said “There should be some mad people to make this kind of films & some mad people to see them”
I saw ‘Foreign Sisters’ & ‘Ben’s Biography’ from the same director. ‘Ben’s Biography’ was hilarious. It was about one psycho person Ben. ‘Foreign Sister’ was very emotional film. It was about friendship between two ladies who are from totally different social background. I like Don Wolmar & his work.
There were some very fabulous foreign language movies like ‘Father’. The story was about man who collects garbage for living found one baby on the street. He takes that baby to his home & takes care of him. After some years mom of that baby returns & claim child’s custody. It was like ordinary bollywood film but it was very well scripted & beautifully directed.
Some movies like ‘Those Three’ & ‘Brutus’ had shown the great camera work & very very beautiful locations.
‘The Record of youth’ was boring. I slept while watching ‘Rammi’. I can’t comment on ‘Men at Work’ as I saw only the last 15 mins. ‘Crocodile’ was nice. I can’t belive that it was director’s first film. It was about gangster who falls in love.
Now something about Indian movies. I saw some hindi commercial movies like ‘Wednesday’,’Dus Kahaniya’ & ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’ for change. I saw ‘Wednesday’ & ‘Dus Kahaniya’ earlier also. They both are really good. ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’ is very very nice film. Shyam Benegal proved that he can make good commercial film as well. I saw ‘Nishant’ which is first film of Shyam Benegal. You can really notice the transition in his work.
From India ‘R(evolution)’ & ‘Mahek’ was nice. R(evolution) was entirely shot in Goa whereas ‘Mahek’ was shot in Pune. These films proved that budget is not at all matters. You can make good films in small budget. ‘On the wings of bird’ & ‘Gulabi Talkies’ were good but was bit lengthy so boring.
From Marathi ‘Checkmate’ was complicated to understand & ‘Achanak’ was bad. I was expecting some good work from Yogesh Soman but I disappointed.
Many of this are shot on handycam. it encouraged me. Now I decided that on next asian film festival, my film will be there.