Part of the charm is also to schmooze with the high rollers, for which the Film Bazaar is a good place. Shekhar Kapur, who had given Goa a miss for the past two years because he was shooting the sequel to Elizabeth, showed up to say how Hollywood has forgotten the art of making movies, that Bollywood needs to go global, and that he was back to, finally, make his long-pending Paani. He’s said it all before, but Kapur is always engaging, and sometimes insightful. Other usual suspects, such as Ketan Mehta and Sudhir Mishra were there too, with repeat manifestos — the importance of making independent movies, away from the evil studios. But hey, it’s fine. They are here to do the thing. And so are we.

The IFFI came to Goa seeking a permanent home with twin purposes. All those previous years when it shuttled every alternate year between New Delhi and various major state capitals, it had been held in January. With the move, the IFFI would stop being labelled derisively as a travelling circus. And that sunny Goa in end-November would be way better than freezing Delhi in January.

The hope was also that it would be the only truly international festival of films in India. There are now flourishing fests in Mumbai, Thiruvananthpuram, Kolkata, Pune, and New Delhi, which hosts the excellent Osian film festival.

The last three years have been a mess. This year the fest has moved to the next level. Cannes is still a distant dream, but IFFI ’07 was a firm step in that direction.

... contd.