MUMBAI MIRROR (November 12, 2017)

Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, along with the Bachchan family -- including Amitabh, Jaya, Abhishek and Aishwarya - Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan, inaugurated the seven-day Kolkata International Film Festival at Netaji Indoor Stadium. Tracing the influences of regional music in Indian cinema, Big B gave examples from the works of Sahir Ludhianvi and Javed Akhtar and lauded the “continued inclusiveness” of the film industry “without sectarian barriers”. He stressed that “the most egalitarian and important aspect of Indian films is reflected in the fact that several Muslim composers have set to tune bhajans eulogising Hindu gods and goddesses”.He pointed out that Naushad’s “Madhuban mein Radhika nache re” from Kohinoor is one such glowing example

Like every year, Shah Rukh delivered his entire speech in Bengali and had the audience in splits. “Too much love and fun at KIFF. Love my Kolkata and as always the warmth of @MamtaOffcial, you are the sweetest,” he tweeted later.

Iranian filmmaker Mostafa Taghizadeh’s Yellow was the opening film of the 23rd edition of the festival which wil; screen 143 films, by 135 directors from 53 countries across 12 venues in Kolkata. This year, while Britain will be the “focus country”, the festival will pay homage to late cinematographer Ramananda Sengupta and actors Om Puri and Tom Alter.

One of the big draws is Jean-Luc Godard’s The Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company (Grandeur et Decadence d’un Petit Commerce de Cinema), made for French television in 1986 and released in a cinematic format in France in October. This will be the first time that the film will be screened outside France.

Another major attraction will be the exhibition of camera and other equipment used by directors like the Lumiere Brothers, Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak.

Eight films in Monpa, Konkani, Kodava, Boro, Dogri, Maithili, Khasi and Chakma languages will feature in the ‘Unheard India: Rare Indian Languages’ section. Saibal Mitra’s 2016 Bengali film Chitrakar and Indrasis Acharya’s Pupa (2017), which were never released commercially will be screened in the Asian Select section. There will also be a six-film retrospective of Brit director Michael Winterbottom.