Film Fest Fever-MAMI 09-1
The fever of thirsting cine buffs rose to a pitch as the eagerly anticipated festival opened on 29 October. To rub shoulders with powerful personalities like Anurag Kashyap, Amol Palekar and such surcharges the air with an extra delicious tang. Then you are brought down to earth by the clamouring for printed schedules (which arrive late and get snapped up in an hour), loud complaints about how there was no one to guide first timers to the correct Screen, how Imax was better than this, how Ghatkopar’s timings are more sensible, how delegates at Metro Cinema were told to get their passes from Fun Cinemas 15 kms away at Andheri and so on. Some predicted problems of over crowding during weekends as opposed to no-show on the first two days. And then… the first show of the festival starts 30 minutes late. Well never mind, we have a veritable feast before us.
RAGE- Director Sally Potter
The opening film of the Festival was Sally Potter’s ‘Rage’. A galaxy of actors like Judi Dench, Jude Law, Steve Buscemi, Simon Abkarian, a surreal Lily Cole and newcomer Riz Ahmed fire up the screen with their presence and monologues. This is what is thinking out of the box means. And you need guts to make it. To reveal the film’s unique treatment and concept is to tell all. A spoiler for sure. This film epitomizes the power of cinema and its strength falls squarely on the excellent cameos by the actors. The extreme close-ups against a monochromatic screen, minimal but extremely effective sound design all there is. A motley group of global citizens recount their reactions over seven days to an event in the Fashion industry to Michel Angelo. Unwittingly Michael Angelo becomes the catalyst for events to take a horrific turn during that period. The persons involved are different in colour and culture but their rationale and presence is just human. The film captures your attention from the first shot and leaves you puzzling to make sense of what is unfolding. The monologues are clever, witty and touch upon problems that plague our life. It is not just the language but every detail of costume and mannerisms have been painstakingly worked on. The script, it is said, took ten years of work to achieve perfection. Remember there is no help from graphics, props or jazzy sound effects. Don’t miss the unrecognisable Jude Law who with his eyes, diction and body language almost gives you a sneak peek into the psyche of a man who cross dresses for a designer. Steve Buscemi as the photographer has the ‘I –know-all swagger’ at the beginning and ends with an ‘omigod- never –expected this’ horrified look. Ahmed as the pizza delivery boy-turned model is convincingly raw. The highlight of the film for me was the astonishing display of emotion by Judi Dench at the end. In the background you can hear a riot slowly rising to a crescendo. Women scream, babies bawl, police sirens rent the air, glass breaks, guns are fired, doors are pounded and the throb of a helicopter reverberates overhead. Dench translates this scenario by increasing the intensity of emotion in her eyes sound for sound. Amazing. The film is deserves a watch just for this one. And who is Michael Angelo? To know this you must see the film!
The film scores another first by being the first to debut on mobile phones shown in seven episodes.
The Indian Frames section of the MAMI Fest opened with ‘Rita’, a Marathi film by debut director Renuka Shahane. Rita is an adaptation of the book ‘Rita Welingkar’ authored by her mother Shanta Gokhale. After a considerable delay the inaugural function began with Chief Guest Amol Palekar congratulating the film’s team. In his speech Palekar said that the eternal debate about whether the film could capture the original literary source must be put to an end. The two mediums are different and a film must be judged by cinematic standards.
RITA
Renuka Shahane the actor who dazzled on the small and large screen has proved that she has in her the talent to wield the megaphone. With Pallavi Joshi and Jackie Shroff in the lead Shahane has pulled of a creditable debut which promises a renewed resuscitation of Marathi cinema.
The theme of extra-marital affairs is done to death by cinema worldwide. Here too the story is of a young girl who falls in love with her much older, married boss. The end is also predictable and concurs with accepted societal norms. The story falls into the inevitable whirlpool of lies, shame and rejection that is expected in such situations. The man is always loyal to his wife and children. Her demand that she be publicly acknowledged as his lover is denied. While Rita needs psychiatric treatment to overcome her situation, one wonders what is else is new?
The film as a whole is refreshing in its treatment. There is a uniform dark and shadowy overtones which perhaps is not deliberately planned but somehow adds to its visual beauty. Flashbacks to the girls’ childhood and the over-the –top parents establishes an interesting foundation to the personality of the sisters. Where the director scores a ten on ten is the tender treatment of the crucial emotional moments. Brilliantly underplayed by Pallavi Joshi (Rita) and Shahane (Saraswati) their friendship seems genuine and sincere. The moment when the friends meet after almost two decades is an unforgettable one. No words are needed when tears, smiles and a hug speak a thousand words about their closeness. The musical input by Taufiq Qureshi enhanced the emotional experience.The film could benefit by crisper editing, deleting some unnecessary tracks and repetitive scenes where Rita meets her lover. Suggestive dialogues could have helped eliminate spots of boredom that tends to creep in.
We definitely hope Shahane continues to be inspired to create similar meaningful films which are mainstream and not entirely art house genre. That is the need of the hour.
Tags: 11 Mumbai Film Festival, film festival, MAMI, MAMI 2009, Rage, Renuka Shahane, Rita, Sally Potter
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Rage was so boring, that i felt watching grass over lawn was more entertaining,sure it had stars, but if i wanted to watch monologue i would have watched drama.
Rage Was blah bah