Mumbai film festival offers impressive line-up

mumbai: all eyes this week will be on the fourth international film festival of mumbai (iffm) that opens on wednesday and runs through november 21-28. it promises a great deal that we can look forward to. consider the impressive line-up. mira nair's monsoon wedding (golden lion, venice), ismail merchant's the mystic masseur, gurinder chadha's acclaimed hit what's cooking, zhang yimou's exquisite the road home (silver bear, berlin), huo jianqi's heart-warming postmen in the mountains (people's choice award, montreal), taiwanese lin cheng-sheng's betelnut beauty (silver bear, berlin), wang xiaoshuai's beijing bicycle (silver bear, berlin), jonathan glazer's sexy beast (with ben kingsley), oscar-winning czech films kolya and the shop on main street and a fabulous section on iranian films.and that's only part of the story, of course. there will be 150 films in 11 sections. last year the festival staged a coup, opening with a big-buzz film like crouching tiger, hidden dragon even ahead of its release in western nations. this year, it opens with the much tamer bandits, starring bruce willis and billy bob thornton as a pair of bank robbers in love with cate blanchett - mostly, we suspect, because the film is co-produced by ashok amritraj's hyde park entertainment, and he's expected here. shrewd move, even if the film doesn't exactly leave festival goers in a swoon. the festival has been organised by the mumbai academy of the moving image (mami). the imax adlabs multiplex (with four theatres) is the main festival venue, screening films for delegates and the media. it will also host events such as the open forum and presentations by kodak, prasad laboratories and dolby. the films will be repeated at the tata theatre and y.b. chavan centre. gossip (part of the gaiety-galaxy complex, bandra) will screen fest films for the public, while plaza (dadar) will screen the indian panorama films. the fipresci (international federation of film critics) jury for the festival consists of angel comas (spain), jun-ichi tomonari (japan) and ranjita biswas (india). union information and broadcasting minister sushma swaraj will inaugurate the festival at the nehru centre on wednesday. chief minister vilasrao deshmukh will preside, as dilip kumar will be honoured with a lifetime achievement award. mira nair's monsoon wedding will be the closing film at the nehru centre on november 28. sunil dutt will preside, while rekha will be honoured for her significant contribution to hindi cinema, and cinematographer v.k. murthy will receive the kodak award for technical excellence. the world cinema section has 53 films from 31 nations. these include (apart from those mentioned above) kieron walsh's when brendan met trudy (uk), zhong qiang's metamorphosis (china), veit helmer's tuvalu (germany), masaru konuma's nagisa (japan), tsering rhitar sherpa's mask of desire (nepal), alexei balabanov's brother ii (russia) and somaratne dissanayake's saroja (sri lanka). surprisingly, there are no major american directors in this section. the lone us entry is a pocketful of dreams by vishal bhandari\kuldip kasuri. says amit khanna, mami trustee and president of the all india film producers' council, "major us releases are scheduled around christmas, and there were no major american films already released which were available. even bandits is scheduled for release in india only next year." the focus on iran section includes two women, directed by tahmineh milani, who may be executed for her latest film the hidden half if convicted in a state trial. there's also abbas kiarostami's and life goes on, dariush mehrjui's the pear tree and leila, abolfazl jalili's dance of the dust, majid majidi's father and the last village, rakhshan bani-etemad's the may lady and mohammad ali talebi's willow and wind. the indian cinema now section includes ek je aache kanya, saree, tiladaanam, fiza, bhopal express and daughters of the century. there will be retrospectives of two masters, ritwik ghatak and hungarian director peter bacso (who is expected here). the focus on film-makers includes french director alain corneau (france societe anonyme, police python, la menace, serie noire, le mome and le cousin) and japanese director jinji sakamoto (checkmate, face, knockout, scarred angels and tokarev). the film india worldwide includes the mystic masseur, gurinder chadha's what's cooking?, murali nair's a dog's day, asif kapadia's the warrior, nalin pan's ayurveda: the art of being and piyush pandya's american desi. there will be special screenings of khyentse norbu's bhutanese film the cup, eric rohmer's an autumn's tale, and two oscar-winning czech films kolya by jan sverak and the shop on main street by jan kadar and elmar klos. the indian panorama includes govind nihalani's deham, goutam ghose's dekha, nabyendu chatterjee's mansur mian-ar ghoda, buddhadeb dasgupta's uttara, rituparno ghosh's bariwali, b. lenin's ooruku nooruper, fareeda mehta's kali salwaar, jagmohan mundhra's bawandar, gul bahar singh's the goal, amol palekar's dhyaas parva, jayaraj's shantham and t.s. nagabharana's neela.