Yes, Ola is how the Argentines say Hello! We are all greeting each other here at the iffi by Ola nowadays, its fun! So Ola guys! I learned this in the Film "one star and two coffees". Meeting people from different parts of the world and different parts of India itself, has been the 2nd best thing that has happened to me at the iffi, the first being the ensemble of movies that are shown at the festival. The last time I felt like this was when I was at Atlanta olympics. The whole multitude of cultures coming together and celebrating an event is such an awesome idea. I am all for Alexander the great, who wanted all peoples to live together under one kingdom, where anybody can go and live anywhere he wants. Reality is bitter though, we can't do that. I saw 'Before the rain' last night, directed by Milcho Manchevski. Its about how Christians and Muslims in Macedonia killed each other, they would rather kill their own kith and kin than forgive, for the sake of their war. They knew just one thing, hatred. It is one of the most beautifully shot Films I have ever seen in my life and the music was sensational. It was Manchevsky's first feature after the tonnes of music videos he made and it was shown in the retrospective section. ‘Pre Kise' was made in 1996.

Moved back to Panjim again from Calangute. Driving 12km at midnight isn't funny even though you are on lovely Goan cashew feni. Watching anywhere between 3 to 5 movies a day aint easy. Trying to have fun nevertheless in the short time spans that we could find in between the shows. Thanx to beer, it is keeping us upto it. Myself primarily and Ramesh to some extent were bugging Anju(an ad filmmaker from Chennai) so much that she started calling us rats and in a splurge of inspiration she announced that 'Two rats and a sleepless night' is going to be the title of her first feature. Good luck to her! but I wondered what rats she had in mind. I asked her the same and she burst into splits of laughter again. Aah women! they dont need guns or knives my friend, they can kill ya with a laugh.

Natasha has flown to Russia I guess, dont see her anymore. Too bad. 80% of the films shown at iffi are really world class. We all made oaths that we would show our films in the next iffi. Some desperate measures need to be taken when we fly back to Hyderabad. Met Bert, a Film lobbyist from UK who is connecting me to an agent and a contact who is in charge of a fund for world cinema. Lets see!

And yes, it is fun to see all the Telugu film fraternity hanging out together. The Paruchuri brothers have left, I didnt see them today. Many films in this festival are using the voice over narration technique. I know some people believe that it is an easy way out for the director to tell what he wants to but it is a pretty good technique to move the story forward quickly other than being an interesting style in itself. Talking of technique and style, CRAZY the film by Jean Marc Vallee is very stylish. The 60s and then the 70s attitude was nicely reflected in the film's look. It must be fantastic to work in such sets and styles. Crazy is a film of how a gay guy tries to hide his sexuality from his father and how hard he actually tries to change his sexual preferences so that it would please his father. The film was tremendous in its look and narrative style and we were blown away in the first few minutes itself. Another Film which took a wonderful way of getting us into its world was Joni's Promise. The voice over describes ten types of film watching audiences. One is the 'spoil it for others by telling what is to come' type. The 2nd are the dumb type who ask their partner to explain every silly thing, the third are piracy guys, the fourth are smooching types who come to the theater to make out, the fifth are the critics who are busy taking notes and acting high and classy(i never trust what they write anyway, the voice over clarifies), the sixth are the perfectionists who fight with everybody just to make sure that the film is shown in the best possible manner to its audience, etc. etc.

Joni's promise is an Indonesian film and at one point, the voice over narration says, "Indian movies? with due respect to them I better not talk about them". That is a pretty silly comment but also largely worth thinking about. Why is Indian cinema so different from the world cinema? Why is the idea of entertainment seen so differently from story telling processes? Should the filmmakers' search be to find ways of entertaining people or should it be about 'how good can we write and execute what we wrote with respect to the idea of the film"?

I think love of cinema is what is making the difference. Yesteryears' Indian Film makers had great respect for cinema and for what it can do to the souls of its people. When commerce takes precedence and calculations of table profits take center stage, art suffers and the culture deteriorates. I am not saying that we should make art house Films. Filmmakers have a responsibility towards their audiences. The responsibility is to entertain them yet make them think, make them revisit their pasts, take a peek at their futures, make them better human beings today by showing the beauty of life as well as its ugliness through Film. Cinema is the next best thing to God. Lets understand that first and then respect Her!

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