Kolkata: ‘Tova', a Croatian sports movie on Yugoslavian table tennis champion Antun Tova Stipancic that captures his rise to prominence from the 30th World Table Tennis Championship held at Netaji Indoor Stadium in 1975, where he finished as runner-up, will be among 36 films in 15 languages from 17 countries that will be screened at the 4th International Sports Film Festival of India. The festival will start on Wednesday at Nandan 3. Incidentally, the Netaji Indoor Stadium was constructed to host the WTTC.
Over five days, the festival will showcase films on 19 different sports. Football will feature in 11 movies, and there will be two films each on athletics, boxing, table tennis, gymnastics, fencing, motor sports and mountain climbing. There will be none on cricket. Among the movies is Dhananjoy Mandal's Bengali documentary ‘Folk Games of Bengal', which chronicles games like ikir mikir cham chikir, danguli, kit kit, and others that have become extinct.
This is the fourth edition of the festival, which was launched in 2023 by Social Sports Foundation (SSF) in association with the Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI).
"The International Film Festival of India began in India 74 years ago. The Kolkata International Film Festival began 31 years ago. But for a country and city that is crazy about sports, there was no festival on sports movies. Incidentally, the first three Indian sports movies were in Bengali: ‘Dhanni Meye' in 1971, ‘Mohon Baganer Meye' in 1976 and ‘Saheb' in 1985," said sports administrator Rongon Majumder, who is the festival organising secretary.
Movies will be screened under fiction, non-fiction and extreme sports categories. Of the 36 movies, 29 are in the competitive segment.
"The festival celebrates the powerful intersection of sports, cinema, and the human spirit, featuring screenings, interactions, awards, and discussions with film-makers, sportspersons, and cultural personalities from India and abroad. The response to the festival was very encouraging, both from participants and audiences," said FFSI vice-president Premendra Mazumder, also the sports festival adviser.
Some of the movies that will be screened include ‘The Documentary of the 10', which takes an original look at the life of Diego Maradona, told through art, music, literature, poetry and much more; Akshay Kumar-starrer ‘Gold', which chronicles the Indian hockey team's journey from the 1936 Berlin Olympics to their first gold medal win at the 1948 London Olympics; and Arnab Riingo Banerjee's ‘Messi', a movie on street soccer where every kid dreams to be Messi. The festival will also screen Mira Nair's ‘Queen of Katwe', which is about a 10-year-old from a slum in Uganda whose daily struggles change when she meets coach Robert Katende, who introduces her to chess, and she ends up representing Uganda at the Chess Olympiad in Russia.
Subhro Niyogi is a Senior Assistant Editor at The Times of India,...
Read MoreSubhro Niyogi is a Senior Assistant Editor at The Times of India, and his job responsibilities include reporting, editing and coordination of news and news features. His hobbies include photography, driving and reading.
Read Less
Start a Conversation
Post comment