Stars shine bright as Kolkata film festival gets off to a perfect start

KOLKATA: A performance by the music maestros of Bengal, a well-researched speech by Amitabh Bachchan and a near-perfect speech in Bengali by Shah Rukh Khan. For those present at the Netaji Indoor Stadium on Friday evening — and thousands more glued to TV sets — there couldn’t have been a better inauguration ceremony for the 23rd Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF).
The stargazers had their fill as well. Giving the legends company on the stage were KIFF chairperson Sabitri Chatterjee, Mahesh Bhatt, Kamal Haasan, Kajol, Kumar Sanu, Sandip Ray, Goutam Ghose, Madhabi Mukherjee, Ranjit Mullick, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Indrani Halder, Dev and Paoli, among others. Shining bright among the celebrities was British director Michael Winterbottom, a retrospective of whose films will be hosted at the ongoing festival.
If the dignitaries were moved by Kolkata’s passion for cinema, chief minister Mamata Banerjee went a step ahead to insist that KIFF is the only festival in India to have retained a truly international character with participation from 53 countries.
Once again, Bachchan’s knowledge of Indian cinema left everyone spell-bound. This year, he spoke about Bengal’s contribution to Indian film music and how history was created in 1935 at the New Theatres when director Nitin Bose introduced playback singing in the film ‘Dhoop Chhaon’ (1935). Rare pieces of information, steeped in nostalgia, left film scholars and fans in awe of Bengal’s famous son-in-law.
Even musicians who performed on Friday fell short of words. “I was overwhelmed by his knowledge of Indian classical music. It was a treat to hear him refer to the usage of raag Bhairavi in Salil Chowdhury’s ‘Itna na mujhe’ and Pancham’s use of madol in ‘Tere bina jiya’,” said Pt Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar.
“He is well-versed about this subject. Perhaps, that’s why he effortlessly mentioned the influence of Rabindrasangeet on film music referring to Suraiya’s ‘Rahi matwale’ (influenced by ‘Ore Grihabashi’) to Shantanu Moitra’s use of ‘Phule phule’ in ‘Parineeta’,” added Pt Subhankar Banerjee.
What was most poignant was Bachchan’s reference to Indian film music’s rich history of inclusiveness. He spoke about the genesis of the famous Krishna bhajan — ‘Madhuban mein Radhika nache re’ — and how composer Naushad had distributed prasad and sweets after the recording with Md Rafi. Said Pt Bickram Ghosh, who had composed the tune for ‘Maestros of Bengal’ show in Raag Jog, “This aspect of inclusiveness also resonates in the world of Indian classical music. Even on Friday’s inaugural show, we had Ustad Rashid Khan performing along with us to create a harmony.”
Once the ceremony was over, Mostafa Taqizadeh’s Iranian film ‘Yellow’ was screened as the inaugural film.