REVIEW / DEVELOPMENT

Dilip Kumar nominated to the Rajya Sabha

Celebrated thespian Yusuf Sarwar Khan alias Dilip Kumar has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha for his outstanding contribution to the film industry. Dilip Kumar took oath on April 20, 2000.

(22 April 2000)

"Split Wide Open" wins award at Singapore

"Split Wide Open", an English feature film by Dev Benegal has won the Special Jury prize at the 13^th Singapore International Film Festival held in the month of April, 2000 .

The film has also won the best actor award for its lead artiste, Rahul Bose.

The film has been cited for "being adventurous in subject and style".

Anuradha Parikh has produced the film.

The Deccan Herald

(22 April 2000)

The 5^th International Film Festival of Kerala was held at Calicut (Kozhikode) from March 31-April 7, 2000. It was organised by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy. Organised annually, the festival has been recognised as ‘Competitive’ by the

FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers Association). The festival was inaugurated by the Minister of Culture Shri T.K. Ramkrishnan at the Kairali theatre in the presence of Indian and foreign delegates.

The theme of the festival was ‘ humanism’.

The festival was organised into various section, the main being the competition in which 17 films from Afro-Asian countries and Latin America were screened. These were Yoon In-ho’s "Mayonnaise" (Korea); Shyam Benegal’s "Hari-Bhari" (India); Jayaraj’s "Karunam" (India); Kavitha Lankesh’s "Deveeri" (India); Murali Nair’s, "Marana Simhasana" (India); Shaj N. Karun’s, "Vanaprastham"; Marselli Sumarano’s, "Sri" (Indonesia); Ahmed Reza Motamedi’s, "The fair and the ugly" (Iran); Arik Kaplun’s, "Yana’s Friends" (Israel); Erma Fatima’s, "The last Malay Woman" (Malaysia); Somaratne Dissanayake’s, "Saroja" (Sri Lanka); sinan Cetin’s, "Propaganda" (Turkey), Canan Gerede’s, "The Split" (Turkey); Tata Amaral’s, "Through the window (Brazil) and Dariush Mehrjui’s, "Banoo" (Iran).

There was also an Information Section in which the best of current international cinema was screened Around 80 films were screened in this section.

A whole section was devoted to the documentaries and short films.

A host of Retrospectives were organised during the festival which included. A retrospective of the Italian film maker Pier Paolo Pasolini. Five representative works of the film-maker were screened in this section. A retrospective of Yu Hyum-Monk was also organised in which four of his films namely "An aimless bullet"; "Guest who came by the last train"; "Rainy days" and "Daughter of Pharmacist Kim" were screened. Oshimo’s retrospective had three films including "Death by hanging"; "The ceremony" and "Diary of a Shinjuka thief". The only Indian retrospective was devoted to the works of M. T. Vasudevan Nair. Four select films of this director were screened including "Oppol"; "Ente Janakikkuttikke"; "Kadavu": and "Nirmalayam".

films of the former and 2 films of the latter were screened. The Karasseri films included :- "Sanghanam"; "Chuvanna Vithukal" and "Ormakul Undayirikkanam" while "Angadi" and "Aalkkoottathil Thaniye" were the Pappu films.

films in Indian language. Five films were screened in this section.

The best films produced by Kerala’s respected directors were screened in the ‘Malayalam Cinema Now section’ Six recent films were screened in this section.

Another section was devoted to the Malayalam cinema which had some of the best known films of the century including "Chemmeen"; "Elippathayam"; "Piravi"; "Chidambaram" and "Nirmalayam".

Student films were screened in the Film School Films Section. Selected films of the Glasgow Film and Video Workshop’s Screen Works – 1999 were screened in this section.

A special section was devoted to the advertisement films, wherein best advertisement films from India and abroad were screened.

Seminars and Open Forum were also organised during the festival.

The festival came to a close with the awards presentation ceremony. The Suvarna Chakoram for the best film was won by the Korean film, "Mayonnaise". The film directed by Yoon In-Ho won the medallion and Rs. 10 lakh in cash. The jury also made a

special mention of some of the films including :- Jayaraj’s Malyalam film, "Karunam"; Tata Amaral’s Brazilan film, "Through the window" and "the Cup" a Bhutanese films directed by Khywnste Norbu. The FIPRESCI (International Film Critics’ Federation) prize was given to Kavitha Lankesh’s Kannada film, "Deveeri" and Mahamat Saleh’s "Bye Bye Africa" from Chad.

The winning entries were decided by an international jury headed by Marco Muller and had four other members including Abderrahmane Sissako; Tadao Sato; M. T. Vasudevan Nair and Bae Yong-Kyun. The FIPRESCI Jury was chaired by Derek Malcolm and had Gamini Wijetunge and Sudhir Vasudeo Nandgaonkar as it’s other members.

Celebrated Indian writer and social activist Arundhati Roy has been nominated on the jury of the 53^rd Cannes International Film Festival. The jury headed by the French writer director Luc Besson includes French actress Nicole Garcia; Spanish actress Aitana Sanchez-Gijon; British actor Jeremy Irons; Italian director Mario Martone and US director Jonathan Demme.

The official selection in the Competition Section includes eight Asian; four American; four French and five other European films including Merchant Ivory’s 44^th production, "The Golden Bowl".

(20 April 2000)

(20 April 2000)

( 23 April 2000)

‘Hindi Film Week’ in Israel

The first ever festival of Hindi films is being held in Israel. The Hindi Film Week being organised between May 3-10, 2000 is coinciding with the First Trade Fair there Some of the popular Hindi Films would be screened during the festival including "Khamoshi". "Virasat"; "Mr. India"; "Dil to Pagal Hai" and "Massey Saheb". All the films would be subtitled in Hebrew. The first ever exposure of Hindi films in Israel is being organised by the Indian embassy in collaboration with the Indian Council of Cultural Relations and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

(17 April 2000)

(17 April 2000)

(17 April 2000)

This year the Fribourg Film Festival (Switzerland) had a special focus on ‘Partition of Bengal’. The section had six films, five of which were from India and one from Bangladesh. Besides, Ritwik Ghatak’s, "Komal Gandhar" and "Subarnarekha", Fribourg screened Nemai Ghosh’s landmark film on the partition, "Chinnamul"; Rajen Tarafdar’s; "Palanka" and "Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s, "Tahader Katha"; "Chitra Nadir Pare" directed by Tanvir Mohammed was the sole entry from Bangladesh.

(7April 2000)

A festival of short films was held in Chennai on April 17 and 18, 2000. Commissioned by the Film 4 International at the Russian Cultural Centre, the festival was organised by the British Council.

Several award winning films were showcased among the 20 films screened on the occasion. They were all eleven minute shorts, ranging from science fiction to fantasy and sheer surrealism. Some of the films screened during the festival included: -

"Arcadia"; "Work experience"; "Syrup"; "The child-eater"; "Father, Sons and unholy ghosts"; "The hangover"; "A nice arrangement"; "The Spy who caught cold"; "Tomorrow calling"; "The universe of Dermot Finn" and "The Zip".

(20 April 2000)

Renowned music – director Naushad Ali was honoured with the Master Dinanath Mangeshkar award on April 24, 2000. He was honoured for his life time achievement in the field of music. The award was presented by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh and Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley.

(16 April 2000)

Pearl Padamsee is no more

Well-known theatre personality and film actress Pearl Padamsee passed away in Mumabi on April 23, 2000. She was 68.

Pearl was associated with the theatre right from her college days. Apart from being a versatile actress, Pearl had also produced and directed some very notable plays. Some of her popular plays were "Taming of the shrew"; "The rise and fall of Arturo Ui"; "Godspell"; "Princes"; "Palki" and "Oh Dad poor Dad, "Mama’s hung you in the closet" and I’m feeling so sad". Humour came naturally to her and she had enacted some very popular roles both in theatre and films with a lot of wit and humour. "Khatta –Meetha"; "Baaton Baaton Mein"; "Such a long journey" and "Hungama Bombay Ishtyle" were some of her notable films.

(25 April 2000)

(25 April 2000)

30 April 2000)

(25 April 2000)

(28 April 2000; 1)

‘Karmana’ passes away

Janardharan Nair alias ‘Karmana’ passed away in Thiruvanathapuram on April 24, 2000. He was 64.

Karmana started his career as a threatre artiste after graduating from the National School of Drama. He soon became a drama teacher Karmana later opted for a career in films making his debut in a documentary, "Myth". Basically a character artiste, Karmana had enacted a variety of roles. He was closely associated with the noted director Adoor Goplakrishnan and had acted in all his films including the award – winning, "Elipathayam".

(25 April 2000)

Well-known Marathi film producer Vishwas Sarpotdar passed away in Pune on April 13, 2000. He was 68.

  Son of the pioneer film maker Nanasaheb Sarpotdar, Vishwas had been interested in films right from his young days and had familiarised himself with production, distribution and exhibition wings before entering the film business; In 1958, he distributed Anant Mane’s Marathi film "Don Ghadicha Daav" in Maharashtra. He also distributed several Hindi films in Maharashtra. He produced his first film, "Paahuni" in 1976 and followed it up with other successful films like "Lakhsmi"; "Heech Khari Doulat" and "Kulaswamini Ambabai". He was also known for his acting stints in Marathi films. His last screen appearance was in "Tu Tithe Me". He was also the President of the Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal.

(21 April 2000; 1)