6th Jagran Film Festival

Rajkumar Hirani, Imtiaz Ali, Kalki Kochelin, Kundan Shah, Nilesh Maniyar grace Jagran Film Festival Day 3

Much awaited Jagran Shorts unfold the ultimate shot of short films. 

Screening of ‘Birdman’ brings 

Country focus on US

by Suman Gupta

Mumbai, September 30, 2015: After two mesmerizing days, the 6^th Jagran Film Festival continues to grow on Mumbai cine buffs. From film screenings to fun workshops and master classes, Day 3 stood out for its engaging lineup of experiences. Present at the festival today were Rajkumar Hirani, Imtiaz Ali, Kalki Kochelin, Kundan Shah, Nilesh Maniyar and many more grace Jagran Film Festival Day 3.

Mandarin film ‘The Golden Era’ directed by Ann Hui, Andrei Konchalovsky’s peculiar Russian drama ‘Postman';s White Nights’, Clément Cogitore’s 2015 award-winning French war film ‘The Wakhan Front’ and Andreas Prochaska 2014 Austrian-German Western film ‘The Dark Valley’ presented a vibrant rainbow of international cinema.  

Indian regional cinema buffs thronged to watch Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s 2015 Bengali film ‘Asha Jaoar Majhe (Labour Of Love)’ and the village based 1987 Bengali film ‘Antarjali Jatra (The Voyage Beyond)’. Also, Rajkumar Hirani’s satirical science fiction comedy film ‘PK’, Shonali Bose and Nilesh Maniyar’s 2015 film tracing cerebral palsy ‘Margarita With A Straw’, Pushpendra Singh’s debut feature film ‘Lajwanti’ under the Indian Showcase, and 2015 Bodo film ‘Dau Huduni Methai (Song of the Horned Owl)’, Chandra Prakash Dwivedi’s 2014 Bollywood drama ‘Zed Plus’ and Kundan Shah’s 2015 modern day political satire ‘P Se PM Tak’ under the Special showcase proved to be an eyeful treat.

It was the 2014 satirical black comedy-drama film ‘Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance’) that brought a special spotlight on to American films under the Country Focus category. The day also showcased Hiren Nag’s 1980 classic family drama ‘Geet Gaata Chal’, Gulzar’s 1982 comedy of errors ‘Angoor’ and Aki Kaurismaki’s 1987 Finnish comedy film‘Hamlet Goes Business’.

For those who were secretly wishing for a flavor of short films, the Mumbai edition said ‘granted’ and presented an exceptional fare of short movies such as Oriole Cardus’s Spanish film ‘$600’, Kartik Singh’s Hindi film ‘Briefcase’, Sivaraj Parameswaran’s Tamil fims flm ‘Ahinsa’, Sameh Salem’s Arabic film ‘Ailia’, Bengali director Som’s ‘Ebby Tunes (Ujantali)’ and Abhimanyu Kanodia’s Hindi-Bhojpuri film ‘Kathakaar’, under the Jagran Shorts category.

Besides film screenings, learning and takeaways remain at the heart of each day and Day 3 was no exception. Conversation with Raju Hirani, Session on ‘Content Is King, Distribution Is Queen’ with entertainment world stalwarts such as Utpal Acharya, Former CEO, Reliance Entertainment and Vivek Krishnani, Sr. VP – Revenue & Marketing at Sony MSM; and film making with Imtiaz Ali and a panel discussion on “Problems faced by regional cinema” with film makers Shiboprasad Mukhopadhyay, Kundan Shah and Manju Borah”.  

The signature movie marathon by Jagran will enter its 4^th day tomorrow. Promising to present some of the finest works of cinematic geniuses, India’s only travelling film festival, ‘Jagran’, features a delectable mix of movies, master-classes and memorable experiences for avid cinema lovers based in and around Mumbai. Showcasing more than 160 feature and short films this year, Jagran Film Festival in its 6^th edition is slated to be an eyeful treat for one and all.

The 2015 edition of Jagran Film Festival will traverse from Delhi to the Indian hinterlands of Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Agra, Meerut, Dehradun, Hisar, Ludhiana, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Raipur, Indore, and Bhopal before culminating in Mumbai.  In close collaboration with festival partners such as Whistling Woods International (WWI), Film Federation of India (FFI) and Motion Picture Association (MPA) Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), the 2015 edition is all set to surpass its own last benchmarks of presenting over 16 cinema appreciation workshops, 400 screenings in 17 cities, that were witnessed by a direct audience of more than 50000 film aficionados and a media reach-out to nearly 50 million people in India in 2014.

The 6^th edition of the Jagran Film Festival, Mumbai 2015 is scheduled from 28^th September – 4^h October, 2015 at the Fun Cinemas, Mumbai.