11th Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) embraces Regional Movies on 1st November

MFF extends itself to regional borders, screens Marathi film ‘Gandha’, ‘Natarang’
and Bengali film ‘Abohomaan’

Canadian students between the age group of 20 yrs to 68 yrs get a gilmse of Indian flavors at Mami

Mumbai, November 1, 2009: After a stupendous World Cinema showcase on October 31, the mood for today, November 1 at the Mumbai Film Festival has shifted to the Indian shores.

Apart from the varied film screenings at the 11th Mumbai Film Festival, regional films from Maharashtra and Bengal also took centre stage on November 1. Marathi films Gandha and Natarag and Bengali film Abohomaan were screened through the day. While Gandha and Abohomaan are screening as a part of the Indian Frame section, Natarang is screening in Above The Cut section.

Indian Frame showcases the best 15 Indian films made during last one year. Above The Cut presents 14 first feature films of extra ordinary cinematic merit.

Gandha is a directed by Sachin Kundalkar and stars Milind Soman, Sonali Kulkarni, Neena Kulkarni and Amrut Subhash. The film is an ensemble of three independent stories bound together by characters who are going through experiences involving the sense of smell. The stories depict he complexity of relationships and their varied emotional landscape. Gandha's screening and press conference was attended b y director Sachin Kundalkar, Sonali Kulkarni and Amrita Subhash. 

Natarang is directed and scripted by Ravi Jadhav and stars Atul Kulkarni and Sonalee. It’s a story of a creative mind that dares to think different. A young artist’s journey of overcoming hurdles in the form of family, friends, the society and to finally realize one unthinkable dream. Set in the 1970’s, in the backdrop of a village of Maharashtra in India, Natarang highlights the emotions related to gender bias through the episodes in the life of an artist. Star Atul Kulkarni in lead role who plays a wrestler and on stage eunuch, he lost and gained 15 KG to get into the skin of the character.

Abohomaan is directed by Rituparno Ghosh and stars Dipankar De, Jishu Sengupta, Riya Sen, Ananya Chatterjee and Mamta Shankar. The film brings to the screen a sensational relationship between a film-director, a young actress and a wife who swears to ruin her husband's life and career and a son who gets caught in the cross-fire in this extravagant drama. Present at the conference were director Rituparno Ghosh and actress Riya Sen.
Apart from this, Reliance MediaWorks has also organized a seminar on Digital Cinema which will see Rohan Sippy, Rajen Kothari and Subbiah Kuttapa as speakers. Traditionally movies are shot on film and projected with film. In the future this will be done with digital cameras and digital projectors. The workshop aims to educate and inform the Indian entertainment industry about digital motion picture production, post, distribution and exhibition.   

The festival was also attended by Canadian students, and what’s surprising is their age group which ranged from 20 yrs to 68 yrs. They are students of not just films but also visual art, music, theater and dance. These students have seen Bollywood classics of wide range, like Aparajito, Bimal Roy's Devdas, Pyaasa,  Mother India, Maniratnam's Guru, and clips from 90's Bollywood romances in a political analysis of diasporic film and are totally mesmerized by the culture ,these films depict .

About MAMI:

Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) is a body comprised of Indian film industry stalwarts which was founded in 1997 by late filmmaker Shri Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Noted filmmaker Shri Shyam Benegal heads the body that consists of film directors including: Yash Chopra, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Karan Johar, renowned actresses Shabana Azmi and Jaya Bachchan, actor-director Amol Palekar and Farhan Akhtar and the chairman of Reliance Big Entertainment Amit Khanna as Trustees.