Getting reel

Smriti Kiran

I have not met anybody with the kind of unbridled and pure passion that Rashid [Irani] had for cinema," recalls Smriti Kiran, artistic director, MAMI and Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival about the veteran film critic and curator who passed away this year. As a tribute to him, The Young Critics Lab - set up in 2010 by Jio MAMI to foster young writing talent in the field of cinema - was renamed the Rashid Irani Young Critics Lab.

Rashid Irani

After going online in 2020, they are now accepting applications for the 2021 edition. Selected candidates will be mentored by film critic and author Baradwaj Rangan, and film and TV critic and author Mike McCahill. They'll attend sessions on various aspects of film criticism. "The lab is focused on opening up the way participants think about and process film. We believe that is the foundation to whichever path one may take. You may write about films, you may write films, or you may end up working on a film. But underlying it all is the ability to watch and understand cinema with a wider perspective which is truly one's own," Kiran reveals.

Last date for applications November 7
Log on to: mumbaifilmfestival.com/criticslab