Off the beaten track
SARAT CHANDRA
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From the underbelly of Mumbai to gunning for a lottery, the film festival had it all.
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TRICKY ISSUES A still from `Oridam.'
A Bhubaneswar-based film society, In Screen, had a three-day film festival at the Jayadev Bhavan. During the festival, a variety of movies were screened: full length features, short features, and experimental films. Though all the entries were not of outstanding quality, several deserve critical review.
A slice of life movie
The inaugural film was Urf Professor, directed by Pankaj Advani. Though technically well made, thematically it falls short. The central character in this cinema is not an academician but a professional `supari' killer, a man who not only eliminates but is also ruthless in acquiring whatever he wants. As the story progresses, we find the ugly-side of life in Mumbai: husbands who want to eliminate their wives, young men and women who assume false names to deceive and steal, blue-film makers making a fast buck, a professional with an expertise to hoodwink and more. Even the professor's car is stolen, and he loses the lottery ticket that won the jackpot of two crore rupees. The lure for getting two crore rupees induces several persons to act wickedly, including a doctor. But the two crore eludes all and even the asthmatic professor dies a painful death.
The director has also penned the story of this crime-thriller. But Advani's story line lacks the quality of a good story. Many scenes are hilarious though.
Also screened at the festival was a Bengali film directed by Shyamal Sengupta titled Count Down. This movie of 94-minute duration mirrors the plight of an IPS police officer, highly reputed for integrity and ability. Even the minister is impressed and entrusts him the task of tracing a political absconder. While the middle-aged cop is going about in his task, we find several irritating factors like the police intruding into people's privacy, the inhuman nature of police work and the "human face" they are expected to maintain, the tight-rope walking while balancing professional and family life, etc. One is reminded of Govind Nihalani's Ardha Satya, but Shyamal Sengupta's film is also a truthful exploration of the Indian cop's life.
A Malayalam film Oridam (An Abode) also deserves to be mentioned. It explores the whole gamut of problems faced by sex-workers, from economic factors to unwanted motherhood to the atrocities of pimps. The film could have been more carefully constructed.
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