Madras Cafe special screening
August 25, 2013: Yesterday evening, and few hours ago, I organized a second-day special screening of Shoojit Sirkar’s political action thriller Madras Cafe at the Fame South City Mall on Saturday.
The director, who came to the limelight with his earlier films Yahaan and Vicky Donor, was present at the special screening along with the who’s who of Tollywood and other eminent Kolkatans. This time, with Madras Cafe, Shoojit has further raised the bar and I must congratulate him for his sterling effort.
At the end of the show, the guests lavished praised on the film and lauded the director for his awe-some work. I heard many of them saying that it was a “must see” and an exceptional film of international standard that would make the Indian film world proud.
The fact that the movie dealt with the subject of terrorism set against the backdrop of Sri Lankan civil war evinced the interest of quite a number of senior Kolkata police officials who came to see the movie and appreciate it.
Another trivia about the film is that my good friend Shantanu Moitra, who has made a name for rendering immensely popular music for film songs, has once again done a brilliant work with the background music score in this songless film. The use of real bullets in sync sounds has had a realistic impact. No wonder the film has also notched up an excellent 8.1 rating on the popular IMDb listing. In fact the film has also generated its share of controversy with at least two political parties taking stand against its portrayal of Indian Tamils in the film. A few days ago one of the shows in a Mumbai mall was disrupted by workers of a national political party on the same issue.
Among those who came to see the film were Arindam Sil, Anik Dutta, Toni, Arijit (Dadul), Jeet, Raima Sen, Moon Moon Sen, Bharat Dev Varma, Gargi, Tanusree, Sohini, Kaushik Sen, Sashwata, Pritimoy and others from the Tollywood fraternity, few fashion designers, journalists and corporate friends and others were there too.
The special screenings also give the directors of films a first hand feel of public view about their work and I think Shoojit must gear up to hear more as the word of his excellent work spreads further. Thanks Shoojit for a great show.
In the afternoon went to the newly-launched restaurant, Jhaal Farezi, to have lunch with Madhu and Harsh Neotia. They invited Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Paresh Maity and his wife. It was a sit-down lunch and it was good that I could make it since I missed the event at The Taj Bengal today where Javed and Shabana were involved. Also Paresh da’s paintings would be auctioned at that event which clashed with the timing of my event – the special screening of Madras Cafe.
After the screening of the film, we, a group of around 15, went to The Oberoi Grand for dinner where Parambrato and Paoli joined us. Now it is almost midnight and I have a busy Sunday tomorrow.
In fact, the last week was so hectic for me with trips to Jaipur and Delhi and an edition of the Write Circle, Author’s Afternoon series of events, visit to the President’s house, Shoojit’s film screening besides six dinners and seven other functions to attend. I could not keep track of time and day of the week and even forgot to send article to my weekly Sunday column in Hindustan Times for which I am really embarrassed. ess bee