Curtains go up on Bangalore literature festival today

BANGALORE: It is an indication of how far mainstream Hindi cinema has come that it is now kosher to talk about film writing at high-brow literature festivals. Keeping with this tradition, the Bangalore Literature Festival, which kicks off at Electronics City on Friday, has roped in creative stars of one of the year’s break-out hits, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, to talk about the art of writing a biopic.
Adman Prasoon Joshi, whose script for the film has won acclaim, will talk about how the life of a legendary, living sportsman was dramatized to create a riveting sports film – and will, it can be hoped, hold forth on how he managed to do so without alienating the subject of the film, as has happened with many biopics (a recent example being Julian Assange’s denouncement of the Wikileaks movie, The Fifth Estate ). Joining him will be the film’s star, the versatile Farhan Akhtar, and director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. On Saturday, writing on Indian cinema will get more attention during a session between critics and film writers Baradwaj Rangan, Sidharth Bhatia, MK Raghavendra and Nasreen Munni Kabir.
There’ll be some devout moments too, with Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravishankar talking about the nuances of writing about spirituality, while veteran Kannada author Chandrashekhara Kambara will be in conversation with C Naganna. Later in the day, William Dalrymple will discuss princes and painters in Mughal Delhi.
At last year’s fest, poet Gulzar was a huge draw for those who have grown up humming his songs from films like Ghar, Ijaazat, Aandhi and, more recently, Bunty Aur Babli, Omkara, and Ishqiya. The charismatic poet is attending the fest this year too and will be in conversation on the second day with Prasoon Joshi, who is also a lyricist.
Saturday’s session with veteran bhasha writers GovindMishra, UR Ananthamurthy, Ashoka Mitran and Nabaneeta Dev Sen is likely to draw full houses, as is a talk later by
Ramachandra Guha on the connections between history, literature and social science.
Sessions to watch out for on the last day of the fest (Sunday ) are Celebrating Kannada poetry by K Nisar Ahmed, HS Venkatesh Murthy and Siddalingaiah, and a discussion between critic Sunil Sethi and Ian Jack, former editor of Granta magazine and co-founder of the Independent,who has a vast experience on writing about the subcontinent.