The Film Bazaar in IFFI has more often than not been a laclustre affair, where a lot of talk is generated without much visible result - at least people don’t come to know about how and whether the Bazaar has helped development / finance / production of any film project. If officials are asked about it, the answer is: the Bazaar provides a platform for film industry people to connect, and since the follow ups happen at a one-on-one level, it is difficult to give a count of how many projects actually fructified thanks to the Bazaar.

This is the first time that a 15 minute short film made by Satyajit Ray titled Two is being shown to the public. The last time it was shown was in 1974. Till now, there has been no print available with the archives here and hence a copy of the film was not available, forget downloading from the Net. It is still in the celluloid format and there is no near possibility of it being converted to the digital format.

Come November and Kolkata comes together at the cultural hub of the city to feel the warmth of global cinema. Having been the cultural capital of the nation, Kolkata may regret loosing out on the widely publicized nano project, but, any time, it may boast of its circle of intelligentsia. In terms of selection of films, exhibition pattern, discussions, seminars, one may well compare KFF with other biggies like International Film Festival-Goa, Osian’s Cinefan-Delhi and Kerala International Film Festival, but when it comes to participation by enlightened viewers Kolkata film festival stands apart.

Three directors stole the show today. Theo Angelopoulus, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Sam Wood. Angelopoulus marvelled us with his The suspended step of the stork, a film based on the refugees in a border town of Greece. The script was an original idea of the director and it deals with a film-maker’s travails to find out a famous politician who had taken refuge in the camps. This is surely one of the best films to be shown at the festival and the viewers are now very keen to see the rest of his films.

If the morning belonged to Kim Ki-duk, the evening was won over by Nandita Das. Removing all confusions over the fact whether she is a Bong or not (as her surname is Bengali), she told the wide-eyed audience seated in the Nandan-I auditorium that she does not hail from Bengal.

From 8.30 in the morning, there was only one buzz at the Nandan complex - “Aren’t you watching The Bow?” Every other person was seen rushing to occupy the seats at Nandan-I leaving the other four theatres almost empty. And what a revelation it was! Kim floored everyone once again with breath-taking cinematography…

The first day at the 14th KFF has not been up to the mark as it was marred by several organizational lapses. Nandan-I is the place where most people throng because it is the best theatre among the five. After the customary inauguration, the film started. But it turned out to be a dampener because there were no subtitles. Herzog’s film did not garner much applause from the viewers because the print was bad.

The 11.15 am show at Rabindra Sadan was supposed to be The General by Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton. This was one film most of us had not seen. But we were shocked when we heard that it would not be shown.

Renowned filmmaker Mrinal Sen inaugurated the 4th Kolkata Film Festival on Monday. The eight-day event, will showcase 276 films from 62 countries across 11 auditoria in the city. Screenings will also be held at Siliguri, Barasat and Burdwan.

Actor-filmmaker Nandita Das was also present in the inauguration ceremony. As announced earlier Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan didn’t add to the glamour of the ceremony.

The wait is finally over. For film-buffs in the City of Joy, the 14th Kolkata International Film Festival (KFF) is about to kick-off in another six hours. There will be eager eyes at the Nandan-I auditorium at 6 pm waiting for the inaugural ceremony to get over, the lights to go off and the opening film ‘Red like the sky’, a film in the Italian language by Cristiano Bortone, to begin.