30th Kolkata International Film Festival

It's the worst show ever.

- Sudipto Mullick

Crisis had ripped through Tollywood, about 3 months before the Kolkata film festival, held last year between December 6 to 11. Turncoat Arindam Sil, who was found guilty of sexual misdemeanour, that too on shooting set, in the pretext of prepping for a scene was summarily and indefinitely booted out by the governing film guild. Then, attendant with the heinous RG Kar rape-case were the morality bites of public personalities overpowering prevalent political allegiance. The ongoing sentiments were deepened when the muscular vigilantism by the film guild put kibosh on a film project about to take off on account of not having recruited requisite but extraneous guild-registered crew. This unwarranted over-zealous helicoptering by the said guild had stonewalled an arduous hair-dresser into taking his own life.

Not only those incidents put a dark gelid shadow on the supposedly glamorous side of the festival with most celebs choosing to mute their presence; it also apparently resulted in the shuffling of the chairmanship position. Really insipid creatives (they said it's highlighting terracotta craft; it seemed shoddy Al) and theme song (purportedly penned by the WB CM! - is there nothing she can't do?) decided to further steamroll the mien. If only the quality of the selected films - be it in competition or otherwise (by a crony and unctuous coterie) were to be any redemption, but it clearly wasn't. The only assurance is that one perhaps can't get any low. Then again, these are an 'ultra talented' bunch, so who knows?

Inaugural Shift