Festival will cast lens eye on Asia

MUMBAI: Film-maker Mrinal Sen received the Asian Film Culture Award from chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde at the inauguration of The Third Eye—the second Asian Film Festival in Mumbai on Monday. The festival runs at the Chavan Centre and Tata Theatre from August 2-9.
Sen’s film Aamar Bhuvan kicked off the festival. “I wish my wife were here,’’ said the octogenarian.“In all these years, I have failed to convince her that I am an important person.’’ The festival will feature a retrospective of his honour, including Bhuvan Shome, Baishey Shrava n , Oka Oorie Katha , Ek Din Pratidin, Kharij and Ek Din Achanak . Mr Shinde said such festivals “provide access to a cross-cultural canvas’’. Veteran film-maker Yash Chopra was also felicitated.
The dignitaries included chairman of the Asian Film Foundation Kiran Shantaram, festival director Sudhir Nandgaonkar, NFDC chairman D. Mukhopadhyay, Indian Oil MD S.K. Swaminathan and actor Suhasini Mulay. The festival, which has a tieup with the Cinefan festival of New Delhi, will present 42 films from 12 Asian nations, and will close with Zhang Yimou’s Hero (China).
‘Aamar Bhuvan’ is about a remarried divorcee (Nandita Das) whose ex-husband resurfaces and how she handles the menage-a-trois. Hero explores the intrigues surrounding an ambitious king and an enigmatic sheriff who appears to have destroyed all his enemies. The film stars serious biggies Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi.
Spectrum Asia includes Nan Achnas’ The Flag (Indonesia), Rakshan Bani-Etemad’s The Blue Veiled (Iran), Lim Soon-rye’s The Waikiki Brothers (Korea), Boodee Keerthisena’s Buongiorno Italia (Sri Lanka), Pimpaka Towira’s One Night Husband (Thailand), Phyllis Katrapani’s Home (Turkey) and Lu Chuan’s The Missing Gun . The Indian entries include Kavitha Lankesh’s Bimba , Kumar Sohoni’s Reshamgaath and Gajendra Ahire’s Not Only Mrs Raut.
The festival offers a rare selection of Kazakh films, including Bolat Sharip’s Zamanai . Set during the Soviet rule of Kazakhstan in the ’30s,when millions of Kazakhs starved or migrated to China, it tells of a spirited grandmother in exile who wants to return to her homeland with her little grandson.
The Spotlight on Thailand includes Pen-eak Ratanareung’s Mon-Rak Transistor , about the adventures of a man who loves singing above all else. There’s also Thanit Jitnukul’s Crime Kings (about a Thai Robin Hood) and Jira Maligool’s Mekhong Full Moon Party. The Chinese films include Sun Zhou’s Breaking the Silence , a tearjerker on a single mother bringing up a deaf child.
The Japanese films include Takeshi Kitano’s Venice Grand Prize winner Hana Bi, and Kon Ichikawa’s classic Dora-Heita, co-scripted by Akira Kurosawa, about a shrewd magistrate who infiltrates the underworld.
The award winners’ section offers classics like Satyajit Ray’s Ashani Sanket and Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai .