When the holy city of Vrindavan hosted an international film festival

NEW DELHI: The holy city of Vrindavan witnessed its first-ever international

film festival

when Indus Valley International Film Festival was organised last December where several films from South and Southeast Asian countries were screened.


Inaugurated by UP minister for MSME, Chaudhary

Udaybhan Singh

, on December 18 last year, the film festival was graced by Bollywood stalwarts like actor Vinay Pathak and filmmaker

Vishal Bharadwaj

.

Out of over 500 films that were submitted for the screening, the festival showcased 21 of the most acclaimed films. To name a few — Josef-Born in Grace by Susant Misra, Bulbul, Sarita, (Nepal), Chintu Ka Birthday, Jibon Khatar Proti Patay, Parey Hut Love (Pakistan), Bishwosundri (Bangladesh), Bare Trees in the Mist, The Eve-Italy, Laal Maati, Silmohor among others were screened at the festival.

Vinay Pathak, who attended the festival, said, “Art and culture is not something that can compete with machinery and computers. This kind of the film festival piques the inquisitiveness among the youth and that is where the heart of culture and heritage lies. Creativity and art don't come overnight and, in my understanding, creating a platform such as this film festival is a big step. I am also excited to see Vrindavan develop as a creative hub.”
Echoing his thoughts, Bollywood filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj said, “Vrindavan is the land of leela, and Lord Krishna is the embodiment of music and dance, and our films are nothing but leela. I believe the film festival here is a great initiative and it is important to go beyond the cities of Mumbai and Delhi to nurture and develop talent. Just establishing a film city at Greater Noida will not be sufficient. There is a need to develop talent and creativity locally who can extract and tell stories of the land.”

The filmmaker further said, “We need to build film schools away from the mainstream cities like Delhi, so we can build creative talent from deep within the state to tell stories on the screen, and Vrindavan is most suited for it.”

Harsh Narayan, who established NGO South Asia Forum for Art and Creative Heritage (SAFACH), the organiser of the film, said, “Vrindavan, as a city, is entrenched deeply into culture and art. As the city of Lord Krishna, there is a lot of historic and creative importance associated with it. We wanted to take this beyond just historic context and develop it as a creative hub, hence bringing the travelling film festival to Vrindavan.”

He further said, “We want to develop Vrindavan as a ‘talent acquisition hub’ for the film city being developed at Greater Noida. Considering the proximity of the two cities, we expect a huge requirement of trained professionals once the film city becomes operational. We envision Vrindavan to fulfill that need. We hope to come back soon for another bigger and better edition.”

The festival also hosted sufi music concert by

Ustad Kamal Sabri

, who sang a beautiful composition composed by his father Us. Sabri Khan, “Tore bina mohe chain nahi braj ke Nandlal.” It was followed by workshops on acting and aspects of filmmaking by theatre director

Vineet Chopra

. The film festival attracted a lot of youngsters, especially college goers, and people from many walks of life.