Osian's film fest back with rare, bold films

New Delhi, July 11 (IANS) From infamous Japanese movie "Emperor Tomato Ketchup" to "Karma" featuring Devika Rani-Himanshu Rai's lip-lock to crime thriller "Gangs Of Wasseypur" - the Osian's-Cinefan Film Festival, which returns after a two-year-hiatus, promises to be an eclectic platter for the capital's movie buffs.

It will showcase 175 films from 38 countries at the 10-day fest starting July 27.

The focus this time is on freedom of creative thought and expression and the curatorial team has brought together five landmark films from the history of world cinema made against prevailing censorship norms.

They will showcase Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Salo", Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh-Thi's "Baise-Moi", Shuji Terayama's "Emperor Tomato Ketchup", the Devika Rani-Himanshu Rai starrer "Karma" and Jafar Panahi's "This is Not a Film" -- most of which were banned in their respective countries.

Explaining the reason behind the idea, Osian chairman Neville Tuli said: "When cinematic culture is fragmented and isolated, it becomes very easy for intolerance and double standards to creep in and all those things lead to moral policing, and censorship."

"This intimidation (of censorship) not just happens out of nothing. There's no infrastructure that allows you to fight such narrowmindedness, which allows the mind to be free... so building a cinematic culture is pivotal. Film festivals are taking that forward," Tuli added here.

In totality, movies from countries like China, Estonia, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Morocco and Algeria are set to be screened at the festival.

Japanese film "Asura" will open the fest, while Rituparno Ghosh's Bengali movie "Chitrangada" will bring the curtains down on the fest.

The event, where 61 short films will be showcased, will host 15 world premieres, eight international premieres, 104 Indian premieres and 13 Asian premieres.

There will be a special focus on animation films from Estonia and environmental films too, while new-age Indian films like "Deool", "Vicky Donor", "Paan Singh Tomar" and "Shanghai" will be showcased under the "newstream" projects.

It will also provide a rare chance to watch both parts of Anurag Kashyap's "Gangs Of Wasseypur" at one go -- a five hour, 20 minute-long experience. The second part of the film is yet to release, but it will be showcased at the fest.

Other important highlights include a special, two-day festival summit on "Delhi as India's next cinema city", a tribute to late filmmaker Mani Kaul and an inaugural Mani Kaul Memorial lecture by Marco Mueller (director of Rome International Film Festival), tribute to Japanese revolutionary filmmakers Koji Wakamatrsu and Masao Adachi.

On the sidelines of the extravaganza, Osian's will host an exhibition from the Osianama archives honouring the divas of Indian Cinema marking the year-long celebrations for the 100 years of Indian cinema.

It will also host an auction of Indian cinema memorabilia July 31.