The 6th edition of Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival (HBFF) is all set to celebrate 100 glorious years of Bengali Cinema, right from the famed archives of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Rwitik Ghatak to contemporaries such as Rituporno Ghosh and Kaushik Ganguly.
The festival will kick off on July 18 at Annapurna Studios, and films will be screened at Prasad Lab Reviews Theatre. The festival will be inaugurated by the legendary film maker Buddhadeb Dasgupta and superstar Nagarjuna Akkineni, at Prasad Labs Preview Theatre in Hyderabad followed by the premier of Urojahaj directed by Dasgupta.
The Bengalis In Hyderabad society is also going to felicitate Faridur Reza Sagar, noted writer, and film producer from Bangladesh, along with Dasgupta and Nagarjuna during the inaugural ceremony of the festival for their achievements and contributions to the world of art, culture and cinema.
This year the Bengali Panorama segment is going to feature 13 Bengali films, out of which 2 films are going to have a World Premier; Manab Manabi directed by Subrata Sen and Shironam directed by Indranil Ghosh and 1 film is going to see an India Premier; Tokhon Kuasha Chhilo by Saibal Mitra. Apart from this, 9 films are going to be premiered in Hyderabad. Bollywood famed editor Dilip Deo is going to world premier his directorial debut, Unwanted, in this edition of HBFF.
This year HBFF are celebrating the century of Bengali Cinema with the screening of classics by Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha, Goutam Ghosh, Rituparno Ghosh. In this segment titled, “Revisit 100: Silent, Golden, Contemporary era of Bengali Cinema,” is purely intends to revisit the journey of Bengali films through different era, started way back in 1919, with the works of Hiralal Sen.
This segment will also inculcate with a panel discussion on the same topic to be presided by the noted film scholar Siladitya Sen. Like every year, the festival will be graced by eminent dignitaries from the world of cinema who will interact with the audience and preside as the jury for critic’s choice awards.
The audience opinion will be count for the viewer’s choice awards segment. Also on display will be a number of short films and documentaries from all over the world in the segment “Seed.” A grand lifestyle exhibition, “Indus Tale” comprising of stalls across multiple verticals, like art, handicraft, fashion, food, real estate, technology etc.
This exhibition will be inaugurated by ace actress Swastika Mukherjee, on July 19 at Prasad Labs. Open stage “Esprimiti” has been arranged for the audience to engage with the crowd. Fever FM is going to audition at the venue.
The festival will close with the screening of Shraboner Dhara directed by the director duo Sudeshna Roy and Abhijit Guha followed by the Closing and Award Ceremony to be held at Annapurna Studio. As HBFF aims to present a platform for culture exchange, they also invite other language films. This year guest Languages are Telugu, Kashmiri, Urdu and Hindi.
The festival, this year, boasts of over 15 unreleased films across different languages. Partha Mallik, Director of HBFF, says, “The response have been overwhelming. We have received films from countries like Iran and Iraq, and a Kurdish film as well. Keeping in mind the political situation of these countries, we understand how difficult filmmaking is for them. Therefore, entry fees for these filmmakers were waived off.”
Speaking about how digital media has blurred linguistic and logistic boundaries, actress Amala Akkineni said, “Watching and enjoying films from across countries and states has become much easier thanks to the concept of subtitles and online media platforms. There used to be a time when the elders in my family had to get Bengali scripts and literature translated and then they were read out to my father.”
The festival will also showcase six Bengali classics, wherein entry fee will not be charged, at Annapurna Studio.
However the film that is expected to steal the show will be one from the Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne series, ‘Hirok Rajar Deshe’ along with films of late Bengali superstars Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen.
This is the festival where audience can directly interact with cast and crew of the film.
(UNI)
