Thiruvananthapuram: Chalachithra Academy chairman Kamal and vice chairperson Bina Paul were subjected to an inquisition of sorts by delegates at the concluding ‘Open Forum’ at the IFFK here on Thursday. Questions were posed about film selection, delegate selection, images of signature film, and also the organisers’ perceived failure to honour national-award winner Surabhi. To their credit, both emerged unscathed.
Here was Kamal’s quip to the poser about not honouring Surabhi. “Shyam Pushkaran, too, had won the national award. But I have not heard anyone demanding that he be invited to IFFK and honoured.” Earlier, when another delegate wanted to know why Minnaminungu, which won Surabhi the national award, was not screened at the fest, Kamal said: “Mohanlal had won a special mention award, which carried a fatter cash prize than the best actor prize, for Pulimurugan. Why is not anyone clamouring for Pulimurugan to be screened?”
Another delegate ridiculed the organisers for the selection of Maravi and Nayinte Hridayam. Bina Paul invoked the subjectivity argument. “What is bad for you may not be for me. Even if 100 people say a film is bad does not mean it is,” she said.
An independent filmmaker said that he had been denied a delegate pass for no reason. “I am told that it is still being processed,” he said and added: “When are you going to process it, the festival is almost over.” Ms Paul apologised. But Kamal asked him whether he had updated his biodata, to which the delegate had no answer. “We need some proof to verify your claims or else anyone could claim to be a filmmaker and secure a pass,” Kamal said.
However, the signature film had the organisers on the back foot. T K Rajeev Kumar’s one-minute film captures the history of Malayalam cinema. The question was: ‘Why was Vigathakumaran left out?” Kamal said that Kumar chose Balan as the starting point because it was the film that started the poster culture in Malayalam cinema. “It was with Balan that posters were glued on tea shop windows for the first time. When Vigathakumaran was released, a poster was hung, and not pasted, and that too only in front of the theatre,” Kamal said. This prompted a provocative response. “Are you trying to condense the history of Malayalam cinema into a gum that pasted a poster on a tea shop wall?”
