This is definitely the best time of the year. With the PIFF pass in hand, I get to pick and choose from around 30 movies which are screened every single day. The venues are great, the crowd sparse and the movies fantastic.
Inox has been my all day hangout for the last three days. But there are only so many movies that can be seen in a day. So I pick my movies carefully from the list. There are two screens which simultaneously screen movies. And sometimes it can be difficult picking out which ones to leave.
Mostly I pick movies for the countries they are shot in and yeah the synopsis helps too. If I have time, I take a look at what imdb has to say about it. But mostly its just instinct. So there sometimes I pick the wrong one. Like this Irani movie which was just another B grade Bollywood movie really. Another disaster I picked was a South African movie which turned out to be a musical (no mention at all in the synopsis). At such times its best to either sleep and get some rest or walk out. Apart from these two, the rest had some aspect which was fascinating. Take for example La Chevre. It’s a hilarious old French movie. Great acting, great situational comedy. It was quite priceless. Szalency (or Madmen) is Polish and not the conventional comedy but its humorous without a doubt. Then there were some that weren’t the best but kept me interested nonetheless. By the pricking of my thumb is just what I would have expected an Agatha Christie adaptation to be like. What is a man without a mustache is about the intersecting lives of the residents of a small Croatian village.
The crowd was nothing comparable to the number of people who came to watch Hatrick and Just married show after show. But I prefer it this way. Though I would have loved to see more enthusiasm and interest in the screening of movies from all over the world. Even places like Serbia, Hungary, Norway and Croatia. If nothing else, watching such a movie gives me a chance to peek into their way of life and of course I can visit a place I wouldn’t otherwise ever get a chance to! Simply put its just so much better to watch a different point of view rather than the same cliché films.
I fail to understand how PIFF failed to generate more interest in a place like Pune with so many college students and IT professionals. I assumed they would have the time and inclination to indulge in something like this. But then again maybe PIFF just wasn’t publicized enough. Adverts on Radio Mirchi could have done the trick. I for one didn’t come across even one acquaintance who’d come to attend it.
