Kolkata Film Festival 2010 – on a low note

Yesterday I was at Nandan for the tea function which is a run up to the forthcoming 16th Kolkata Film Festival to be held next month. The tea party is held every year prior to the main event and is attended by many industrialists. Though the Chief Minister has announced that the Film Festival would be a low-key affair this year, I was taken aback by the amazingly low turnout at the tea party.

In stark contrast to the past years, this year, apart from Mahendra K Jalan, no other industrialists attended the tea party. I found it hard to believe that this was happening in Kolkata – the cultural capital of India and one of the foremost film-loving cities of India. At the tea party, hosted by the chief secretary, all leading members from the corporate world and industry, who patronise the film festival, were invited. It is during this tea party the outline plan of the film festival in announced.

I met Tarun Majumdar, Nilanjan Chatterjee of Nandan and Niloy Ghosh, Special Secretary, Cultural Affairs, at the function. I was not supposed to be there at that time as I was scheduled to go to London and catch the 8:30pm flight to the Emirates. But due to numerous factors on the work front, I had to call off the trip around 4 pm. This year the number of films to be screened during the festival has been reduced drastically. But it was announced that the focus has been on the quality of films. Mr Nilanjan Chatterjee also announced that there would be no extravagant expenses during the Film Festival.

I really miss the film festival evening parties that I have been closely associated with for quite some time now. I recall that a couple of years back I had organised and hosted the farewell party for the Kolkata Film Festival which is still remembered as a sort of record for being one of the largest and most attended parties in Kolkata.

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