About NITTE International Film Festival 2018

Overview

The second Nitte International Film Festival, presented by Nitte (Deemed-to-be) University, brought together film viewers and film makers for a four-day film festival from April 16-19 at Bharath Cinemas in Bharath Mall. The festival aimed at showcasing critically acclaimed cinema from across India and the world, to the public in Mangaluru, while providing a platform for film-makers and film-viewers to have a conversation. All film-screenings and discussions at the festival were free and open to the public on a first come, first serve basis.

The festival kicked off on April 16 at 09:15 a.m. with the inauguration by renowned film-maker and theatre person M. Sadananda Suvarna. Dr Sateesh Kumar Bhandary, Vice Chancellor, Nitte (Deemed to be University) presided over the event. NIFF 2018 opened with the National Award winning Hindi film Mukti Bhawan (2016, Special Jury Award). The line-up included several other National Award winners, such as Village Rockstars (Best Film, Best Editing), Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum (Best Malayalam film, Best Original Screenplay), Mayurakshi (Best Bengali Film), Dhh (Best Gujarati Film) and To Let (Best Tamil Film).

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Recognising the lacuna in Mangaluru’s arts and culture landscape for a major film festival, NIFF was launched in 2017 as a student-run festival organized by Nitte Institute of Communication. For its second edition, NIFF built on its success from last year when the maiden film festival witnessed an enthusiastic crowd and packed theatres. This year, about 60 films were screened from different languages including Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati, Odia, Tamil, Chinese, Czech and French.

NIFF 2018 also showcases several children’s films to encourage an early exposure to good cinema. The lineup included Heidi, a German-language film presented in association with the Swiss Embassy, as well as award-winning Indian films such as Dhh (Gujarati), Pipsi (Marathi), Half Ticket (Marathi) and Maza Bhirbhira (Marathi). The festival played host to Raj B Shetty (Director, Ondu Motteya Kathe), Sanal Kumar Sasidharan (Director, S Durga), Hemanth Rao (Director, Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu), R S Prasanna (Director, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan) among many other film makers.

An interactive session with each filmmaker after the screening of their film and longer discussions including a session with R S Prasanna on his film Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, a session on Media, Politics and Society with Ramesh Sharma and N Manu Chakravarthy and a panel discussion on Caste and Cinema were the high points of the festival. A masterclass on cinematography by national-award winning cinematographer G S Bhaskar, was also held.

Movies Screened

Ondu Motteya Kathe
Director: Raj B. Shetty
Language: Kannada

Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu
Director:Hemanth Rao
Language: Kannada

Dayavittu Gamanisi
Director:Rohit Padaki
Language: Kannada

Puta Thirugisi Nodi
Director:Suneel Raghavendra
Language: Kannada

Shuddhi
Director:Adarsh Eshwarappa
Language: Kannada

Jeerjimbe
Director:Karthik Saragur
Language: Kannada

Mudalaseemeyalli
Director:
Language: Kannada

Marikondavaru
Director:K Shivarudraiah
Language: Kannada

Mooka Hakki
Director:Neenasam Manju
Language: Kannada

Uppina Kagada
Director:B. Suresha
Language: Kannada

Devara Naadalli
Director:B. Suresha
Language: Kannada

Naanu Avanalla…Avalu
Director:B. Suresha
Language: Kannada

Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum
Director:Dileesh Pothan
Language: Malayalam

Maheshinte Prathikaaram
Director:Dileesh Pothan
Language: Malayalam

Paathi
Director:Chandran Narikode
Language: Malayalam

Ayaal Sassi
Director:Sajin Baabu
Language: Malayalam

Take Off
Director:Mahesh Narayanan
Language: Malayalam

Eeda
Director:B. Ajithkumar
Language: Malayalam

Ozhivudivasathe Kali
Director:Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
Language: Malayalam

S Durga
Director:Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
Language: Malayalam

Half Ticket
Director:Samit Kakkad
Language: Marathi

Pipsi
Director:Rohan Deshpande
Language: Marathi

Gulaabjaam
Director:Sachin Kundalkar
Language: Marathi

Samhita
Director:Sumitra Bhave
Language: Marathi

Maza Bhirbhira
Director:Vivek Wagh
Language: Marathi

Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani?
Director:Jiju Antony
Language: Marathi/Hindi/English

Idak the Goat
Director:Deepak Gawade
Language: Marathi

Sairat
Director:Nagraj Manjule
Language: Marathi

Juze
Director:Miransha Naik
Language: Konkani

Dhh
Director:Manish Saini
Language: Konkani

Karsandas Pay & Use
Director:Krishnadev Yagnik
Language: Gujarati

Reva
Director:Vinit Kanojia
Language:Gujarati

Village Rockstars
Director:Rima Das
Language:Assamese

Mayurakshi
Director:Atanu Ghosh
Language:Bengali

Benaras: Unexplored Attachments
Director:Amartya Bhattacharyya
Language:Bengali

Andarkahini
Director:Arnab k Middya
Language:Bengali

Khyanikaa
Director:Amartya Bhattacharyya
Language:Odia

Capital I
Director:Amartya Bhattacharyya
Language:Odia

To Let
Director:Chezhiyan
Language:Tamil

Aruvi
Director:Arun Prabhu
Language:Tamil

My Son is Gay
Director:Lokesh Kumar
Language:Tamil

Vikram Vedha
Director:Pushkar
Language:Tamil

Ashwathama
Director:Pushpendra Singh
Language:Braj Bhasha

The Journalist and the Jihadi
Director:Ahmed Alauddin Jamal
Language:English

Sachin: A Billion Dreams
Director:James Erskine
Language:Hindi

Images/Reflections – Documentary on Adoor Gopalakrishnan)
Language:English

Ananthamurthy…not a biography…but a hypothesis
Director:GIRISH KASARAVALLI
Language:English

Baavra Mann
Director:GSudhir Mishra
Language:Hindi

Heidi
Director:Alain Gsponer
Language:German

Alive
Director:Frank Marshall
Language:French

Touch of Concrete
Director:Viktória Rampal Dzurenko
Language:Czech

Ballad from Tibet
Director:Zhang Wei
Language:Tibetan/Chinese

Ralang Road
Director:Karma Takapa
Language:Nepali

Guest List

Amartya Bhattacharya	B. S. Lingadevaru	Chezhiyan	Sachin Kundalkar	Manish Saini
Atanu Ghosh	Deepak Gawade	Arnab Middyai	Pushpendra Sing	Shefali Bhushan
Lokesh Rajavel	Vidhi Kasliwal	R. S. Prasanna	Rahul Bhole	Ramesh Sharma
B. Suresha	Jiju Antony	Miransha Naik	Hemanth Rao	Adarsh Eshwarappa
Sajin Babu	Rohit Padaki	Suneel Raghavendra	Sanal Kumar Sashidharan	K. Shivarudraiah
Chandran P. P.	Vivek Wagh	Karthik Saragur	G. S. Bhaskar	N. Manu Chakravarthy

Panel Discussions

Media, Politics and Society

Award winning critic Prof N Manu Chakravarthy in conversation with Director Ramesh Sharma.

Caste and Cinema

Panelists included (S Durga, Ozhivudivasathe Kali), Suneel Raghavendra (Puta Tirugisi Nodi) and Sachin Kundalkar (Gulabjaam). The directors from different states, having made very different movies, came together for a panel discussion on representation and identity politics.

On the third day of the festival, national award winning film critic Manu Chakravarthy, was in conversation with Director Ramesh Sharma. Two of Sharma’s films were showcased at the festival – the 2006 Emmy-nominated documentary The Journalist and The Jihadi, and the 1986 feature film, New Delhi Times. Chakravarthy asked Sharma to talk about the politics and history behind the making of New Delhi Times and asked whether it was time to make a sequel to the movie.

“I do not want to make a sequel in the current times,” Sharma declared, talking about the rise in intolerance and the cumbersome censorship process. He admitted his late-career preference for the use of the documentary form over fictional narratives to tell his stories.

The discussion, moderated by Chakravarthy, explored the link between media, politics and society, raising questions about media ownership and the resulting compromise in the freedom and integrity of journalists. Ethics also featured prominently in the discussion on the fourth day of the festival between Sanal Kumar Sasidharan (S Durga, Ozhivudivasathe Kali), Suneel Raghavendra (Puta Tirugisi Nodi) and Sachin Kundalkar (Gulabjaam). The Directors from different states, having made very different movies, came together for a panel discussion on representation and identity politics. What followed was a thoughtful conversation on the role of films in society and the grey area of the ‘responsibilities’ of a film maker.

With three male film makers on the panel, an inevitable question was on the challenge of creating and sustaining roles for women. The consensus, among the panelists and the audience they were speaking with, was that the industry needed more women filmmakers, and that we have to make space for and include different voices in our cinema and in its making.

Sasidharan, whose film S Durga courted controversy and ran into trouble with the censor board, said that democracy is meant to ensure the equal distribution of power, but our society today is a “democracy only on paper.” He spoke about resisting the restrictions imposed on creative freedom by the authorities, by having film screenings in different parts of Kerala, including remote villages. S Durga, which happened to be NIFF’s closing film, received a warm response from the audience and was a fitting finale to the festival.

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NIFF 2018