Colourful start to Mumbai film fete

mumbai: chief minister vilasrao deshmukh kicked off the week-long seventh mumbai international film festival (miff) to a glittering start at a quiet but elegant ceremony at the national centre of performing arts (ncpa) on sunday evening.the festival, which takes place from february 3-9, will screen 58 films in the international section and 76 from the national section, chosen from a total of 652 entries from 36 nations.at the star-studded function attended by several luminaries from the entertainment world, mr deshmukh presented the v.shantaram lifetime achievement award for 2002 to vijaya mulay__a sprightly 81__,film-maker and educationist, renowned for her role in establishing the federation of film societies of india. actor tom alter, who compered the programme, aptly described her as ``the strongest pillar of the documentary film movement in india.''ms mulay, however, chose to focus on the shortcomings of contemporary documentary film-makers. ``documentaries are not made for academicians alone or for the urban elite,'' she said. ``they are tools of communicative education made for the masses. as long as documentaries do not succeed in striking a chord with the common man, they will not become popular and continue to struggle for finances.''``we must be able to communicate with the masses and find out what they want,'' she continued. ``we must involve rural non-governmental organisations in film-making. film networking and distribution channels must be professionally run in order to make them easily accessible to the masses.''emphasising the need for a countrywide database for all the documentaries produced in india to date, ms mulay donated the award amount of rs 1 lakh to the magic lantern foundation of india, a delhi-based organisation involved in this project.earlier, mr deshmukh too called upon film-makers to target the masses. ``the struggle of documentary film-makers for finances may soon be over with the advent of high-tech video equipment,'' he said. ``however, films must continue to spread awareness of social issues such as education, health, hygiene, environmental pollution and national integrity.''the chief minister also released a special stamp on miff in the presence of anju dasgupta, chief post master general, while vinod ganatra, president of the indian documentary producers association declared the institution of another lifetime achievement award for documentary film-makers.jatin sarkar, the newly-appointed director of miff, urged the government to promote documentary films. pawan chopra, secretary, union ministry information of broadcasting, urged film-makers to target tv in order to reach the maximum number of households. ``since finance is a major problem for documentaries, they remain confined to a select city audiences. but if the focus is shifted to tv as well, they can become popular,'' he said.a large number of film personalities, including kiran shantaram, govind nihalani, vijay anand, actress raveena tandon, delegates and jury from india and abroad attended the function, which was followed by a screening of the oscar-nominated film into the arms of strangers: stories of the kindertransport, by marck harris and deborah oppenheimer, on the rescue mission of jewish children during the nazi era.