'PIFF'..BECOMING MONOTONOUS!

Czech movie `Lost in Munich'..satire or fun!

Kirill Serebrennikov's contemporary Russian film 'The Student'!

 '15th Pune International Film Festival' is over with monotony! It's 'Prabhat Best International Film Award' surprisingly won by the Czech movie `Lost in Munich'..cinematic satire (or fun) on the political history! And 'Best Film Director Award' won by Kirill Serebrennikov for Russian film 'The Student'! Indian film 'Lady of the Lake' got Special Jury Award!
'Sant Tukaram Best Marathi Film Award' won by `Lathe Joshi'! 'Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal's 'Best Director' award won by Sandeep Patil for 'Dashakriya' & for this film Child artist Arya Adhav got 'Best Actor' award! And Tannishtha Chatarjee won 'Best Actress' award for Marathi film 'Doctor Rakhmabai'! With this Sandeep Sawant's 'Nadi Vahate' got 'Special Jury award' & 'Ghuma' won 'Audience award'!
Again this year there was no change in the selection of films for world competition! As usual some films in this section were not up to that standard & disappointed!..Even jury member mentioned it! (like previous years few films were with superstitious elements!) Organisers should seriously think about the selection of films & who (creative heads) mainly select it!

Lovable Swiss film 'The Little Mountain Boy'.

'Ishti'..social  Sanskrit Film!

Same thing about Retrospectives & Tributes! Pioneering film of social realism on Indian screen..Chetan Anand's 'Neecha Nagar' (1946) completed 70 years; but it was not focused! Some part was not logical in this festival like 'Spanish dance form in film'! They did not think about homage to renowned Soviet-born ballet dancer & choreographer Maya Plisetskaya who is no more! There were no Homage sections of 'French New Wave' stalwarts..filmmaker Jacques Rivette & cinematographer Raul Coutard who are no more!

Avoiding this festival included section 'Today's talent from France' in which showed some old styled & fancy work! Besides there were also no homages for actresses (mother-daughter) 'Singing in the rain's Debbie Reynolds & 'Star Wars' fame Carrie Fisher who passed away!..And they forgot the homage to late P. K. Nair..world cinema historian & founder of 'NFAI', Pune! Very sad!!

Sensitive issue based French-Polish film 'The Innocents'.

There was mainly focus on the women & children issues..and very few good films were in this festival like our Indian 'Ishti' (Sanskrit), 'Bokul' (Assamese), 'Harikatha Prasanga' (Kannada), Swiss 'The Little Mountain Boy', Iranian Asghar Farhadi's 'The Salesman', Israel's 'In Between' & French-Polish film 'The Innocents' for which Agata Buzek got 'Best Artist' award! Polish film 'Playground' was on true events but climax was horrible! Participation of Marathi cinema was average; but some covered contemporary subjects!

Israel's film 'In Between'..Women Empowerment!

Though the response for this 15th year less..'PIFF' is expanding like after Mumbai, Aurangabad..to Nagpur & Solapur! But qualitative growth is important! This time awarded veteran film personalities AVs were technically incorrect with projection! Some media commented on the flaws in presentations of the opening & concluding ceremonies! Seminars in 'PIFF Bazaar' (except one or two) were not topical! I was expecting seminar on 'Parallel cinema movement in India' because it's leading actor Om Puri passed away!
'PIFF' should seriously think about comprehensive development in it's structure..from selection of films with right content & international festival standard..to screenings management & 'PIFF' bulletin content!
Best wishes for the future of 'PIFF'!!

- Manoj Kulkarni

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 AGAIN FARHADI'S IRANIAN FILM IN 'OSCAR' COMPETITION!

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi.

News that '89th Academy Awards' nominations announced and Asghar Farhadi's Iranian film 'The Salesman' is in the competition of 'Foreign Language Film' category! Before this Farhadi's film 'A Separation' (2012) won 'Oscar's Best Foreign Language Film' award!

Shahab Hosseini & Taraneh Alidoosti in film 'The Salesman'.

'The Salesman' already won 'Best Screenplay' award to Asghar Farhadi & 'Best Actor' award to Shahab Hosseini in last '69th Cannes Film Festival'!--[But in recently over '15th PIFF' this film was not in the competition..They just included in general 'Global cinema' section!..I surprised!]--
'The Salesman' is a story of a couple whose relationship begins to turn sour during their performance of Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman'! Artists Taraneh Alidoosti & Shahab Hosseini acted superbly in it!
I remember Farhadi's film 'Beautiful City' (2004) won 'Golden Peacok' award in our '35th International Film Festival of India' held at Goa! It was nice meeting him that time in 'IFFI's cruise party which he enjoyed a lot!
Best wishes to Farhadi & his film for 'Oscar'!!

- Manoj Kulkarni