Until a year ago, there existed no method of seat reservation at the Mumbai Film Festival, referred to as MAMI (since it is organised by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images). I remember attending the festival in 2010 and standing in queue for nearly two hours to watch Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Biutiful. I succeeded, but those who stood in line for an hour weren't as lucky. For eagerly-awaited films, long lines and bitter fights at the entrances of the screens were inevitable.
The online seat reservation system, introduced last year, has improved things to a large extent. Every day, at midnight, bookings for the day after the next are accepted, as per a unique ID and password printed on every attendee's pass. Once you confirm a seat, it's yours and can only be given away if you don't show up, thereby ensuring that everybody has a fair shot at watching the movies they want to watch.
Yesterday, however, I threw my carefully booked schedule out of the window and didn't regret it one bit.
At 3 pm, I was booked to watch the Iranian film What's The Time In Your World?, which won the FIPRESCI (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique) award at the Busan International Film Festival just a week ago. However, the buzz for Marathi film Killa - directed by first-timer Avinash Arun - was so positive that I abandoned my booked show to stand in a line for it, unsure of whether I would get in.
Fifteen minutes later, I was in by the skin of my teeth and, as it turned out, extremely grateful. Killa is a wonderfully crafted and acted film set in picturesque Konkan that is fast becoming one of the most beloved films at the festival. A coming-of-age tale about a young boy, Chinmay (Archit Deodhar), who lives in the coastal town of Guhagar with his mother (Amruta Subhash), it is already being hailed as 'India's very own Boyhood'. Watch out for a scene-stealing performance by Parth Bhalerao - who was last seen eating Amitabh Bachchan for breakfast in this year's Bhootnath Returns - as his friend Bandya. Bhalerao is an absolute find and might just end up being counted amongst 2014's top actors.
Similarly, I skipped the French dramedy In The Courtyard in favour of Czech film Clownwise, a beautifully shot film that tells the story of three ageing clowns, former associates who have now parted ways, dealing with life's travails and their own fractured relationships. While not without its flaws, Clownwise hits all the right bittersweet notes with sublime confidence, always staying real and never allowing itself to preach. Quite a rare thing, that.
Glitch factory
By day 2, it seems to be obvious that the projectionists at the venues are pretty much doing their own thing. At the Catherine Denueve Master Class yesterday, Anupama Chopra's opening statement was rudely interrupted by a loud promo that suddenly started playing without any warning. The same thing happened at the Killa screening, where writer and comedian Varun Grover's introduction of the cast and crew was interrupted by the MAMI promo. After waiting patiently for it to end, a somewhat embarrassed Grover said, "Well, that was awkward," only to be interrupted again, this time by the national anthem.
Meanwhile, the screening of Bandit Queen later in the evening, introduced passionately by Dibakar Banerjee, turned out to be a damp squib. The print had several problems and the sound went off at several points during the film, leading to the film being cancelled eventually.
Movie fatigue is a real thing
I started my day with the fantastic Spanish film Schimbare, a slow-burn drama-thriller that saunters along for about an hour before going into overdrive in its bone-chilling final act. This, followed by two other films, had already drained me out by the time I watched my final film of the day, Beloved Sisters. A German costume drama set in the 18th century, it tells the story of the menage a trois between real-life poet/writer Friedrich Schiller and two sisters, Caroline and Charlotte von Lengefeld.
A number of people, I suspect, might have come to watch this film in the pursuit of uncensored, steamy scenes (after all, it's quite well known that a number of people register at MAMI every year for the sole purpose of being able to watch sex scenes on the big screen), but Beloved Sisters is less concerned with nudity and more with character development and plot. While it was quite briskly edited for a period drama, I felt my attention flagging by the one-hour mark and I couldn't quite tell whether it was because I was tired or because I was bored. Nevertheless, I powered through all of its 170 minutes and left the theatre vowing never to book a long, heavy film for the 8 pm slot again.
Pick of the day
Killa (Marathi), directed by Avinash Arun.
Quote of the day
"Well, I got diagnosed with rectal cancer today, so it's literally all up my ass." -- Clownwise, directed by Viktor Taus
Suprateek Chatterjee is a guest writer. You can follow him on Twitter.
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