Melbourne calling for Bengali films

Marathi film Chumbak’s making a splash for being included in this year’s Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM). Presented by Akshay Kumar and directed by Sandeep Modi, the film stars lyricist Swanand Kirkire as one of the leads. About the friendship between a young waiter and a mentally disturbed man, it’s been talked about for its out-of-the-box content and fresh cast.But seems like Chumbak is not the only Indian film to have made it to the festival. Pratim D Gupta’s Ahare Mon and Aneek Chaudhuri’s White, a silent film on rape, are the two other films from Bengal to have made the cut so far.
Said Pratim about the selection, “With Maacher Jhol and Ahare Mon, I had to finish the films and immediately release them theatrically. I didn’t really get a chance to send them to festivals. But that Ahare Mon has been selected at Indian Film Festival Melbourne, the biggest Indian film festival abroad, is a great feeling. It’s the first film of mine to ever have a screening in Australia. I’m really excited and would love to be there for the screening.” Ahare Mon, which released recently in Bengal, deals with the single emotion of love in the lives of many through four inter-connected love stories. Starring Anjan Dutt, Mamata Shankar, Paoli, Adil Hussain, Parno Mittra, Ritwick Chakraborty and Chintrangada Chakraborty, the film has been appreciated by everyone alike.
Aneek too is a happy man. His White was earlier screened in the market section of Festival de Cannes on May 11 and included in the Indian Film Festival in Vienna before heading to Melbourne. About its selection in IFFM, he said, “Rape is an issue that is universal; no verbal language is enough to decode the pain and suffering. Moreover, I wanted global approach and I believe that a silent film would take away any kind of language barrier from the film; this, in turn, would make it approachable by a wider spectrum of audiences throughout the globe.”
The ninth edition of IFFM, to be held between August 10 and August 22, will begin with Love Sonia, which also stars Adil, along with Freida Pinto, Demi Moore, Anupam Kher and others.