The Indian Panorama Film Festival from March 3-6 promises to be a feast for the eyes and fodder for the mind, says Keshav Pariat
THROUGHOUT HUMAN history stories have been told through different media – orally from generation to generation, cave paintings, plays and books. Film continues this long tradition and at the very heart of cinema is the desire to tell a story and share that experience with an audience.
The Indian Panorama Film Festival comes to Shillong from March 3-6, bringing with it a slice of cinema from around the country. But not only is the festival’s aim to bring a selection of film for a wide audience, the organisers also want to inspire and encourage the culture of filmmaking in Meghalaya.
More than a dozen films will be screened over the four-day event and added to that are invaluable workshops for those interested in the many facets of filmmaking, from cinematography to direction.
A special seminar will also be held on March 4, inaugurated by Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, on the promotion of the state as a filming destination. In addition, there will be an exhibition on 100 Years of Indian Cinema, to be held at the State Convention Centre, which will also be the venue for the seminar and workshops.
U Soso Tham Auditorium will play host to the movie screenings, some of which will include the 2013 Bengali film Ajana Batas and Baandhon, a film from Assam directed by multiple award-winner Jahnu Barua. The first film to be screened on March 4 comes from closer to home, Ka Lad, a short by Dondor Lyngdoh and Gautam Syiem. Dekh Indian Circus, a Hindi film from 2011, will open the festival on March 3 after the inaugural ceremony, where Meghalaya Governor KK Paul will be the chief guest.
The festival has been brought to the state through the collaboration of the Meghalaya Department of Information and Public Relations and the central government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting through the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF). Indian Panorama is a section of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), the largest such festival in the country.
“The films selected represent the best of Indian cinema and are examples of cinematic and aesthetic excellence,” DFF director Rajeev Kumar Jain said in Shillong on February 19 while announcing the upcoming cinematic celebration.
The workshops are an equally important part of the festival, providing an opportunity for those in attendance to interact with leading members of the Indian film community. The workshops are open to the general public, with school and college students a particular target audience.
One such workshop will focus on direction and will be led by filmmaker Hardik Mehta. Entitled “Stepping into the Big Bad World of Bollywood”, it promises to be an insightful, entertaining romp through directing by Mehta, who has worked on such films as Mausam and Lootera.
Like Mehta, Syiem and Lyngdoh are also graduates of the Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, one of the leading film schools in the country.
Their film, Ka Lad, is a 26-minute movie on how people deal with change, focusing on an architect, contractor, barber and a tea stall owner, whose lives are all interconnected.
“We always wanted to make films,” Syiem said. “Dondor and I go a long way back, to kindergarten, in fact. The film took some time to get going as we needed to find people willing to help out and getting funding is also a challenge here. But we want to tell stories from where we’re from and, on the subject of change there is a lot of that in a city like Shillong.”
Ka Lad was included in a special North East section of cinema at IFFI last year, so it was natural for it to also play as part of Indian Panorama in Shillong.
Syiem described the reaction he got when the film was shown at IFFI as a positive one.
“People were curious about Shillong, especially the way it was projected. That goes for the other North East films, too. People aren’t used to that vision of the Northeast as it doesn’t reflect what they think of the region when they hear about it on the news.”
IFFI, held in Goa, was “quite an awesome experience,” the 31-year-old said. “I’ve been to other festivals, but it was great to be at IFFI interacting with people who breathe cinema.”
Syiem and Lyngdoh have collaborated on a number of other projects through their company Purple House Productions, including a documentary on mining in Jaintia Hills.
Speaking about Indian Panorama, Syiem said, “Four days of films and workshops will be great. Is this the spark that will help film to be taken more seriously here? With a little more thought and control, local cinema can be a great thing.
“We have the infrastructure, the locations. If all the creative people came together, I believe we’d be able to tell our stories in a great way,” he added.