IFFLA 2008: Reflections
It has to be a really special occasion when it’s 80 degrees outside yet you feel chills going up and down your spine. And special it was, because an event like IFFLA only comes around once a year. But the 4-5 days spent there are like no other days in your life. For it’s when the PFC gang comes together and hangs out in two courtyards, namely, the Arclights and the PFC HQ (aka Oz’s pad) and gets to be a part of something much bigger than the established filmmakers themselves: quality cinema. The quote “nothing is bigger than cinema” comes to mind.
It’s tough to recollect favorite moments from the festival because quite simply there are so many. If last year I was shaking a leg with Uma da Cunha, this year I was having drinks with the likes of Sudhir Mishra, Sriram Raghavan, Sanjay Routray, and Shivajee Chandrabhushan, just to name a few.
The festival also marked the return of a young filmmaker who’s already making waves at IFFLA. Srinivas Sunderrajan showed up at the festival with his short film, Vaapsi, which unfortunately, most of us were unable to make it to. Srinivas, sincere apologies from us, and I guarantee we’ll be there at the next one. It was however, refreshing to watch his first short, Tea Break, in the comfort of Oz’s home, and you could see why he won the Jury prize for it the previous year.
A certain filmmaker, who will henceforth be known as N, was a treat to have around, simply for his expertise at making Dal Tadka in the wee hours of the night. Okay, so the fact that his first film had me breaking into tears in its climax, was another reason I have tremendous respect for this man, but little did I know he was a talker. If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was Indian, N would be known as the baby-faced assassin. His ability to keep you gazing into his eyes as he talks is deadly, and his firm grasp on cinema in what are still his forming years is commendable.
Sriram Raghavan makes you feel like he’s a member of your family – he has the affability of that uncle who would always secretly give you sweets and toffees when your parents snatched them away from you. His warm smile pulls you in to talking to him, and the electric energy sparking thru his eyes keeps you glued to every word he says. No wonder then, that even at 5am, he’d be one of the last people sticking around conversing with you while everyone else is ready to head to bed. Ditto for Sanjay Routray and Shivajee Chandrabhushan. The former, while quiet and reserved on the outside, really starts to open up as you talk to him. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, Shivajee is the friend you’d drink and throw wild parties with in college and just plain have fun. He’d be the guy playing pranks on people at the end of the night and as OM mentioned here, has the quirky ability to make you feel like you’ve known him for years. It’d be interesting to be a fly on the wall on his set to see how, and if, he changes.
At least twice now I’ve been mistaken for Sendhil Ramamurthy, so I must say it felt like full circle when I saw him strolling thru the Arclights restaurant and finding a seat at a table near ours. He was one of the jury members for picking the best narrative feature film, and had shown up to have the final debate with the rest of the jury members on making a very difficult final decision.
All in all, the all-day-and-night long beer and chai sessions were a terrific treat a second time around, but at the risk of sounding overconfident, the next time I’ll be partaking in those activities will only be when one of my own films plays at the festival. And here’s a toast to that…….
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
Hmmm…I did get a shock when I saw Sendhil…you are welcome to my sets…I have an alter ego you know…when are any of you guys coming to India? would love to see ya all…
Well put Striker! From a complete outsider’s POV, the festival was positively magical. Being surrounded by soooo many of the most brilliant filmmakers of Indian Cinema today… WOW! And, unlike other festivals, every single one of the films shown was something I wanted to see. Unfortunately, at times that just wasn’t possible. Will definitely be back for more next year!