On the lookout for a freebie film

On the lookout for a freebie film
KAVEREE BAMZAI

NEW DELHI, JAN 19: This was its second screening at the International Film Festival but that didn't stop Delhi's freebie-loving film buffs from crowding the aisles and sitting on the floor to watch Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam at the Siri Fort auditorium. So much for film appreciation, which Aparna Sen had said on Sunday should be a compulsory part of the school curriculum.

But then the late-night Pedro Almodovar screenings are packed too, so there is an audience for good cinema if there are good films. Unfortunately, the good films are not necessarily in the hands of good or shall we say efficient people. Of the Indian Panorama films, Shyam Benegal's Samar was backed by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, as was Jabbar Patel's Rs 9-crore opus, Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar. Amol Palekar's Kairee was funded by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar got its certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification in December 1998. It has yet to find adistributor either in India or elsewhere.

Mammootty, its lead actor, insisted at a press conference that its distribution should be done by ``professionals''. When the National Film Development Corporation (which calls itself ``the central agency to promote good cinema in more ways than one'') is headed by an Indian Administrative Service officer, that term can mean anything.

She's not an antique
There's nothing like a star to make a festival come alive. Bibi Andersson may not be very young, but a mega-wattage star she definitely is. And one who speaks her mind. She ticked off MGM for not releasing the print of Ingmar Bergman's classic Persona (``They said they couldn't send it because the Directorate of Film Festivals, DFF, owes them money. MGM is so rich. Why would it need the money?'') She admonished the moderator at her press conference for saying she had overshot her time (``I did not. Mr Solanas Fernando Solanas, the Argentinian director whose film, The Cloud, closes IFFI 2000 did.'')She even lightly rapped DFF on the knuckles for choosing such an old film of hers for a tribute (``I feel like an antique.'') How much was Ingmar Bergman responsible for her growth as an actress (``He's a pussycat, but I was entirely responsible for my growth.'')

The actress who cut her teeth on Ingmar Bergman movies has retired from the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Sweden and has since then written a book, A Moment, which is not quite a memoir. ``It is about my life, which is as opposed to my career,'' she said. She's also acted in an ensemble piece she's particularly fond of, Nothing Is Ever As You Thought. She's also directed twice, ``though it's hard, very hard''. And she occasionally spends time with Bergman. In fact, she spent New Year's Eve with him: ``We just shared a bottle of water, because he doesn't drink. We are not like a married couple but we are very close. We spoke about his wife who is dead. He's a wonderful old man,'' she said.

But clearly, DFF hasn't learnt its lessons. On Monday,Andersson had insisted before the screening of The Face that she was not the director of the film (though she had been listed as such). It was Bergman. But the moderator of the press conference managed to do it again introducing her as the director. ``I am proud of the film, but please, please, I am not the director.''