Films First, Stars Later

Bollywood went missing this time, and it worked to the festival’s advantage. Stampedes of camerapersons chasing filmstars for sound-bytes are all very well, but only when they don’t take away from the proceedings. Right from the sober opening ceremony — no shirtless Salman, no Bipasha and her ‘bidi’, no tasteless gyrations — the signs were evident that this was going to be Films First, Stars Later event. Star-spotting is serious business in such festivals as Cannes, which Goa is hoping to turn into, but the former is clear about its priorities: it gets the best movies in its line-up; the red carpet is just a massive spin-off.

That last assumes significance in Goa. Rows of booths at the INOX complex, the festival’s main venue, are happy to sell you a glass of red wine, or a pint of beer. If you want, you can get can gently sloshed by the end of the day. Legally. And productively.

Equally importantly, there were far few organisational snafus. A ticketing system (borrowed from film festivals abroad), which required all delegates and mediapersons to block their seats in advance, was experimented with. And on the whole, despite a few glitches, it worked. The serpentine queues and being turned away after long, fractious hours of standing in line, are a thing of the past.

Some of the films were outstanding. The opening film, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a somber, stunning document on the difficulties of getting an abortion in Communist Romania, was a coup. So was the South African Tsotsi, about a feral hood who turns away from casual violence after a baby enters his life. From China came The Postmodern Life Of My Aunt, a marvellous look at what it is like to be a 60-something woman in present-day Shanghai. Thailand’s Me Myself was a darkly funny love story. And from Pakistan, the long but very brave Khuda Ke Liye, about the contemporary, frightening face of fundamentalism and prejudice, was a highlight.

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