Jagran Film Festival awakens us to some great cinema

Back after a three-year hiatus, prompted by the Coronavirus Covid 19, Jagran Film Festival (JFF) stuck to its base in Mumbai, the Cinépolis multiplex. It was held on four days, 12, 13, 14 and 15 October, 2023. JFF is one of the largest travelling film festivals in the world, and, probably, the only one of its kind in India. The International Film Festival of India, under the name Filmotsav, used to be held at different venues every alternate year. Slowly, it gyrated towards New Delhi, and then made a leap to Goa, which has been its home for the last 19 years.

In its 2023 edition, the Jagran Film Festival travelled to 18 cities, in 11 states of India, showcasing films, OTT web series and documentaries, and inviting filmmakers from various cities and countries to participate. This edition of the festival has six categories: are Shorts, an international competition section for short films; Indian Showcase, a competitive section for Indian feature films; World Panorama, a competitive section for international features and Jagran Docs (Documentary Films), a non-competitive section for documentary films. Apart from these, the festival has introduced a new category called OTT, which will contain feature films, documentaries and web series.

A part of the Dainik Jagran Prakashan (publishing) group, the Festival started on 03 August, in Delhi, and halted at Kanpur, Lucknow, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Bareilly, Dehradun, Hisar, Gurgaon, Ludhiana, Patna, Darbhanga Ranchi, Raipur, Indore, Siliguri, and culminated in Mumbai, on October 15, 2023. Finding Bareilly in the list brought a smile to my face, as I was born there. Sunayana Katta, who has moved from branding in the Jagran Group, to Programmer and Curator at JFF, told me that probably the best audience response they got was at Bareilly.

An initiative started in 2010, JFF is aimed at promoting the appreciation of the cinematic art to, and beyond, the major metro cities of India. Audiences get an opportunity to interact with national and international cast and crew, listen to their ‘in-conversation’ and participate in question and answer session. They receive over 7,000 entries every year, from 72 countries. All the eligible films are previewed by country’s best preview panelists (many of them chosen from the National Film Awards panel), and, through a selection process, some 500 films are screened in the festival, over 100 days, all venues combined. JFF travels across 11 states of India, which constitutes over 500 million people.

The inaugural ceremony was graced by renowned director, screenwriter, and producer, Anees Bazmi, along with Amit Rai, DK, and Raj. Jagran Film Festival 2023 awards, on 15 October, at the Sahara Star Hotel, brought together the glitterati of the Indian film industry in Mumbai, and was a technical extravaganza. Subhash Ghai was chosen the Icon of Indian cinema, which was no surprise. An award that took me by surprise was the Best Director Award, which went to Manish Mundra, for Siya, a below par film. Not having seen their films, I can only join the applause for Rani Mukherjee, for Mrs. Chatterjee Vs Norway and Jayaraj Kozhikod, who gave his acceptance speech in Malayalam, for Jananam: 1947 Pranayam Thudarunnnu, (shared). Best Actor OTT Male…any guesses? Manoj Vajpayee! Anupam Kher was the Actor of the Festival 2023, by popular choice, and Adil Hussain (who conducted a masterly Master Class) and Nathalia were bestowed with the Audience Choice award, for their film, Foot Prints on Water.

In the Achievers’ Talk section, I attended the one featuring Karisma Kapoor. She was excited when I told her that she was introduced to the audience at a Bombay 5-star hotel by me, as the compere/Master of Ceremonies, at the launch of her first film, Prem Qaidi.

In a mere four days, JFF encapsulated world cinema, and awakened us to the varying dreams of film-makers across the world.