Mumbai Film Festival: Day 6

Officials from Meghalaya are taking advantage of the Mumbai Festival for pitching to get Bollywood to shoot in their beautiful state

Mumbai Film Festival: Day 6

Officials from Meghalaya are taking advantage of the Mumbai Festival for pitching to get Bollywood to shoot in their beautiful state. Producers are wary of shooting without proper infrastructure and security Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal have also tried with limited or no success to get big banners to shoot there; they'd rather shoot abroad. Still, Meghalaya intends to set up a task force, where the Chairman would be Chief minister DD Lapang himself, and want to work on accommodation, taxes, subsides etc, to attract Bollywood. Meanwhile, bright green bags with Meghalaya brochures were being grabbed by Festival delegates.

Patricia Gruben is leading a bunch of her students from Vancouver a multi-racial group of Arts students, who are travelling through India to experience the country's culture firsthand. They are watching plays, concerts, films and meeting people in Mumbai (they have been to Delhi already). The festival is a rich ground for them to watch films from other parts of the country and interact with filmmakers. Gruben says that one thing her students are remarking on, is that women in real life are dressed very differently from women on Bollywood film posters.u00a0 They obviously haven't been to a Bollywood party yet!

The package of 25 films in the Dimensions Mumbai package was a disappointment. Even considering that the short films have been made mostly by students and young people under 25, the lack of imagination and ideas is painfully apparent. And if the idea is good (like The End, about the last few minutes of life in the city before it is submerged by a tidal wave, had wit but very poor execution). The hall was packed to capacity by cheering friends and team members of the filmmakers. But for the unconnected viewer, it was depressing to see such poor quality work u2014 maybe they need more exposure to good cinema, theatre and art.

Undoubtedly one of the most entertaining films of the Festival is James Marsh's documentary Man On Wire. A French boy Philippe Petit is crazy about wire-walking, and even before the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre are built, he dreams of walking across them. He and his team of friends and collaborators help him in his escapades of illegally walking across the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. All this is in his pursuit of his Twin Towers dream that involved years of planning, practice and recruiting insider help.

The film has old footage, interviews with the gang and dramatic reconstruction of the events. Petit accomplished his feat in 1974, and over 35 years later all of them recall the event with absolute clarity and intensity of emotion. The film is not only about a man's passion, but about friendship, love and adventure. Without even mentioning it, the film reminds us that the Twin Towers no longer exist, and with that cataclysmic event of 9/11, ended an era of innocence and trust which gives the film an added layer of poignancy. The audience frequently broke into applause, and came out smiling.

A real festival fanatic declares that if misses a single film, he gets depressed suicidal even. Such devotion makes it all worthwhile for festival organisers.