A delight for movie buffs

A packed auditorium and scores of film-lovers marked the beginning of the fifth edition of the Bengaluru International Film Festival.

The festival was kickstarted with a grand cultural programme and many from the film fraternity were present to lend their support on the occasion.

The cultural programme started with a ceremonial inaugural dance, invoking Lord Ganesha. It was followed by an eclectic mix of various dance forms like jazz, mohiniyattam, bharatanatyam, kathak and the folk dance form of Karnataka, yakshagana.
This line-up reflected the mix and match of western and traditional values that the City represents.

Narahari Rao, the artistic director of the film festival, shared his thoughts about the festival.

“We came up with a presentation to hold a film festival in the City a few years ago. When other cities can have one, why should Bangalore lag behind? We have been supported by various embassies across the world like Taiwan, German, Italian and Japanese embassies. In fact, we even have some of the unseen films of Akira Kurosoawa as part of the festival this year. We have formed a good rapport with many of these foreign embassies, who have offered many of their good films to us,” he explains.

He adds that the theme of the film festival this year is ‘The world in Bangalore’. “It is a great opportunity for film buffs to savour the choicest movies from all across the globe, in the City. We want to raise the bar of this festival, so that people from different cities come here for the quality of the movies screened,” he notes.

The inauguration ceremony also saw the screening of Kannada Jeewaswaraa, an anthem dedicated to the state and its people.

Produced by the director of the Department of Information and conceptualised by Maya Chandra, the anthem showed the myriad hues of the state — from the beautiful hills in Coorg to the IT hubs of the City.

The visuals for the anthem had been shot all across the state, showing the rich culture and heritage of its people.