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Love beckons

In line with the historically close Indo-French ties, a special screening of the thought provoking film Penguins, A Love Story directed by Luc Jacquet was held at a special function at the French Embassy recently, to coincide with the conferring of the highest French honour on Amitabh Bachchan by the French Ambassador Dominique Girard.

Speaking about the film, Christophe Lioud and Yves Darondeau of Bonne Pioche, the production company behind the Oscar-winning film, confessed to being bowled over by the baritone voice of the Indian cinematic legend (the film has been narrated in English and Hindi by Bachchan) and. Candidly, they said though they had not seen any of his films yet, they "assume that he is a very big personality in India."

Bollywood impressions

Lioud, who had earlier visited Kerala about a decade ago said, "A lot seems to have changed since then," adding, "We had a chance to see your latest hit film, Guru, and although we did not understand it, we could grasp the theme with the help of a facilitator, and enjoyed the song and dance sequences, which are a new experience for us."

Talking about their film Penguins, A Love Story, Darondeau, who is on his first visit to India, elaborated, "It is a poignant tale of love and survival, and has been shot in the ice deserts of Antarctica. It is a remarkable and heart warming story of the arduous journey penguins undertake each winter for the survival of their young ones."

April release

A justifiably proud Darondeau said, "It is internationally the most successful French film; also, it will be the first French film to be commercially released in India, where it has been brought by Alliance Media and Entertainment and distributed by Adlabs Films Limited and is scheduled for release in April, 2007."

The filmmakers said Bachchan had given a lot of his time and attention to the narration, and it substantially adds to the film.

They added that after Delhi they looked forward to their visit to Mumbai, where they expected to learn more about the Indian film industry and promote.

APS MALHOTRA

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