10^th Jagran Film Festival, Mumbai-I: Sweet and sour, like the candy of the sponsor

Accreditation as a media-person was not a problem, this year, probably due to the intervention of the Principal Correspondent of Jagran, Ms. Smita Srivastava. Jagran is a media major, and this was the tenth Jagran Film Festival (JFF) they held across India, culminating at Mumbai. It was a short festival, lasting just four days, with screenings and sessions at the four auditoria of Cinépolis (once known as the Fun Republic), in north Mumbai. It was sponsored by the makers of Rajnigandha, a top-of-the-line range of mouth fresheners and candy.

Notable film personalities, like Rahul Bose, Suchitra Krishnamoorthi, Divyendu Sharma, Radhika Apte and Kalki Koechlin, graced the event on the first day, 26 September, a day when film critics and personalities discussed The Future of Cinema, at the Cinema Summit sessions. The first session began with writer-director Anees Bazmee sharing his views, followed by the second session, with fellow film-makers Rahul Dholakia and Ritesh Sadhwani airing their thoughts, and lastly, the third session featured Nitesh Tiwari and Sajid Nadiadwala. All the panel discussions were moderated by TV critic Rajeev Masand.

Ghare Baire Aaj, directed by Aparna Sen, was screened as the Opening Film, marking its world première. The festival showcased several World and India première, feature films, short films/documentaries on the first day. These included

• 4 World/India première movies & Documentary: Ghare Baire Aaj (World Premier), Shit One Carries (Indian Première), Breast and House (India Première), T for Taj Mahal (India Première) and Jhalki (India Première)
• Feature films: Mr. India (Indian Retrospective of actor Anil Kapoor)
• Short films/documentaries: Widows of Vrindavan and Hasina
• Marathi movies: Zollywood and Mardaani Mavla
• Other regional movies: Rise of Banda Singh Bahadur (Punjabi), Virus (Malayalam), Bultir Result (Bengali)

The Jagran Film Festival kick-started in Delhi on 18th July and travelled through Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Agra, Meerut, Dehradun, Hissar, Ludhiana, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Gorakhpur, Raipur, Indore and Bhopal.

Technical glitches plagued the screenings of several films, including Jhalki, which was screened again on the next day, in a late night screening, with the audio issues sorted. Glitches meant delays and shifting of venues within the multiplex complex, which was the sour part of the festival. But eventually, every film got a fair screening and the free candy and mouth freshener on offer made the proceedings sweeter. Media-persons had a small, make shift press-room on the sixth-floor of the seven-floor complex, which was shared with the PR and volunteer/event management teams. This was discovered by me only on the last day, on a reference, since nobody informed me about the same. No formal invitations were received for any of the events, including the opening film and the closing film, though press releases reached me regularly.

As an obvious consequence of the economic slowdown in the country, no catalogues or brochures were printed, neither were bags distributed. There was no formal ceremony before the closing film and the JFF trophies were conspicuous by their absence. None of the shows I attended had a full house, and getting entry was easy, whether you had pre-booked a seat, or were a walk-in candidate. Air-conditioning fluctuated between 18 degrees and 32 degrees Celsius, but was adjusted to tolerable limits when reported. Screenings began around 11 am each day and ended between 11 p.m. and 12 midnight. 

This is the first and last instalment of my coverage. As a token of protest, no further coverage will be given to the festival. They did not think it worthwhile to invite this writer to the awards function, and that was not a nice thing to do. Readers can refer to the JFF Facebook page to get the names of the winners.