C V Rappai (centre), P A Mubarak, Suman Sharma, K P Abdul Hameed and M Shamsudheen at the press briefing yesterday. PICTURE: Shemeer Rashid
By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter
The world premiere of the award winning Malayalam feature film Kaliyachan will mark the opening day’s programme at the 18th Indian film festival (Cinefest 2013) to be held at the Qatar National Theatre on June 2.
Representatives of Pravasi Doha, the socio-cultural forum that has been holding the festival uninterrupted for the last 18 years said as in previous years this year’s festival would also feature award-winning movies in five different languages.
The festival is jointly organised by Pravasi Doha in association with the Indian embassy, Directorate of Film Festivals of India (DFFI), National Film Development Coroporation (NFDC) of India.
Director of Kaliyachan, Farooq Abdul Rahman and senior official from India government’s Directorate of Film Festivals of India (DFFI) Sreenivasan Santhanam would attend the inaugural function.
Chairman of Pravasi Doha C V Rappai said yesterday that as representatives of a responsible organisation committed to showcase the glorious, rich artistic and cultural traditions of India in a foreign country, they felt duty-bound to screen quality Indian movies to film goers residing in Qatar. “We, as elders have a responsibility to bring quality Indian movies to the Indian and other communities in Qatar,” he said. The Pravasi Doha official felt the uninterrupted holding of the festival for the 18th successive year would go a long way in promoting Indian movies among audiences in Qatar.
Speaking later co-ordinator of the festival M Shamsudheen said even though the regular venue of the previous years’ festivals, Doha Cinema, has been closed for several months now, they have decided to hold this year’s event at a much better place - the Qatar National Theatre.
“Being the 100th anniversary of the Indian film industry, we have ensured the screening of five award winning movies at this year’s festival. Even though a number of acclaimed movies from India were screened at Festival in Cannes, which concluded a few days ago the NFDC was good enough to send us a package of five award winning movies,” said Shamsudheen.
All films to be screened would have English sub-titles and entrance is free.
Indian Embassy Second Secretary Suman Sharma and Pravasi Doha officials K P Abdul Hameed and P A Mubarak also spoke.
Screening schedule (Screening starts daily at 7 30 pm): June 2: Kaliyachan (Malayalam): Director: Farooq Abdul Rahman: Cast: Manoj K Jayan, Vaiga, Kalamandalam Sivan Namboodhiri, Babu Namboodiri, and Manju Pillai, Music: Bijibal. The film won the Kerala State award for director debutant and National award for music, State Award for Supporting actor
June 3: Deool (Marathi): Director: Umesh Kulkarni, Cast: Nana Patekar, Dilip Prabhawalkar, Girish Kulkarni, Sonali Kulkarni, Music: Mangesh Pandey. The film won the National Award for Best actor, Best feature film, best screenplay etc.
June 4: Gangoobai (Hindi): Director: Priya Krishnaswamy, Story: Raymond J Patel, Priya Krishnaswamy, Cast: Sarita Joshi, Purab Kohli, Mita VAsisht, Music: Ved Nair, Cinematography: Sandeep Patil, Anil Chandel.
June 5: Kurmavatara (Kannada): Director: Girish Kasaravalli, Story: Veerabhadrappa, Cast: Shikaripura Krishnamoorthy, Jayanti Apoorva Kasaravalli, Cinematography: G S Bhaskar, Music: Issac Thomas Kottukapally. The film won the award for best Kannada feature film.
June 6: Byari (Byari language); Director: Suveeran. Music: Viswajit, Cinematography: Muralikrishnan, Cast: Manoj K Jayayan, Manju Pillai, Mani Pattambi.