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18th JIO MAMI – The Events and The Star-struck Moments!

18th JIO MAMI MUMBAI FILM FESTIVAL with STAR 2016 – the Star-struck Moments!

written by Souranath Banerjee

To engage and communicate with the film buffs of our country Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival for the last few years has been amitabh-and-jaya-bachchanincluding multiple interactive sessions and events that make the overall experience of the film festival all the more interesting!

So here are some of the best events of this year!

MOVIE MELA:

Jio MAMI Movie Mela with Star ended on a high note with three panel discussions and up close and personal chats with some of the most celebrated names in the Indian film industry.

Panel One: VR discussion with Gabo Arora, Raja Koduri, Anand karan-johar-and-aishwarya-rai-bachchanGandhi and moderator Shakun Batra pondered upon current usage of virtual reality.

Panel Two: In conversation with Directors – Rohit Shetty, Zoya Akhtar, Vishal Bhardwaj, Gauri Shinde and Shoojit Sircar, moderated by film critic Rajeev Masand and Jio MAMI with Star, Festival Director Anupama Chopra.

Panel Three: Actor Shahid Kapoor in conversation with Rajeev Masand and Anupama Chopra about his journey in the industry so far.

PLAY SECTION ON WEB SERIES

Jio MAMI 18th Mumbai Film Festival with Star had an exciting day at PLAY, the youngest section which celebrates the digital narrative through the best of web series of India.

Panel one: The Writers Panel saw some interesting insights on how the web series content is driven to the young audience and how 18th JIO MAMI MUMBAI FILM FESTIVAL with STAR 2016writers want to connect to the youth of India because television as a medium has nothing for them. This panel had Sumeet Vyas (TVF- Permanent Rommates & Tripling), Nidhi Bisht (TVF), Sattvik Mishra (ScoopWhoop), Varun Grover (Writer), Preetika Chawla (Actor-Producer), Naveen Richard (Writer-Actor) in conversation with Shreevasta Nevatia.

Panel two: The Business Panel had some industry experts talking about the business of web series and how profitable the model is? This panel included Sameer Saxena (TVF Originals), Anand Tiwari (Actor-Writer), Rohan Sippy (Producer), Ashish Patil (Y-Films), Samir Nair (Balaji Telefilms) and Swara Bhaskar (Actor) in 18th JIO MAMI MUMBAI FILM FESTIVAL with STAR 2016conversation with curator Nikhil Taneja.

The Best of PLAY saw the team of TVF Permanent Roommates, TVF Tripling, Y-Films Sex chat with Pappu and Pappa, Not Fit by Dice Media and many more.

PLAY also world premiered some of the web series which included Little things (Pocket Aces), NRI (OML), Qisson ka Kona (OML), Ramsay Reloaded (101 India), Sneh (ScoopWhoop) and Yes Kaneez (OML).

SPECIAL SCREENING FOR THE UNDER PRIVILEGED YOUTH OF THE COUNTRY

Jio MAMI 18th Mumbai Film Festival with Star, in association with Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), presented a special anupama-chopra-and-kiran-raoscreening for the under privileged youth of the country. Le Reve (Globus), Bandra hosted the screening of ‘Shree Devi Phataka’, directed by Navin Chapade on October 23rd, 2016 for youth from the deprived areas of Mankhurd, Ambujwadi, Jogeshwari, Wadala, Chembur and few other parts of Maharashtra.

WOMEN IN FILM

Day Five at the Jio MAMI 18th Mumbai Film Festival with Star saw some great sessions for film as well as television audiences.

Starting from the Oxfam and Jio MAMI with Star Women in Film Brunch at JW Marriot saw some powerful like MAMI Chairperson, Kiran Rao, Oxfam head, Nisha Agarwal, Konkana SenSharma, Richa Chaddha, Poonam Dhillon, Ekta Kapoor, Leena Yadav, Deborah oxfam-women-in-film-pannelYoung, Maanvi Gagroo, Nidhi Singh and more.

Oxfam discussed Women and Films with Oxfam Head, Nisha Agarwal, Christine Vachon, Leena Yadav, Rucha Pathak, Tala Hadid, Vibha Bakshi, Tillotama Shome and moderator Rahul Bose. The discussion covered topics like the portrayal of women in Indian cinema and how it affects the way we portray their roles in our society.

And then there were some very interesting events to follow:

18th JIO MAMI MUMBAI FILM FESTIVAL with STAR 2016Television Vertical screened the world premiere of ‘P.O.W.’ The panel included Primetime Emmy Winner Cary Fukunaga, Gideon Raff, Gaurav Banerjee and Nikkhil Advani in conversation with Nikhil Taneja about the changes in the way TV series have evolved over the years.

Mani Kaul’s tour de force, Ahamaq, was on the big screen for the ahamaq-reunion-posterfirst time. Uncut and in its pure form Ahamaq a nostalgic celebration. Present for the screening were cast including Mita Vashisht, Ashish Rajadhyaksha, D Wood, Vikram Joglekar and others.

Remembering Bimal Roy was a special tribute to someone who has a 18th JIO MAMI MUMBAI FILM FESTIVAL with STAR 2016big contribution to our entire cinema heritage. Joy Bimal Roy, Jaya Bachchan, Apurva Asrani, Nasreen Munni Kabir, Namrata Joshi in conversation with Rauf Ahmed.

Events and Films, 18th JIO MAMI MUMBAI FILM FESTIVAL with STAR 2016 a heaven for all you Cinema-Lovers. Enjoy!

Photo courtesy: mumbaifilmfest.com

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Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (2015)

My Ratings: 3.9/5.

Sometimes in the anticipation of fulfilling our expectations we seem to surrender ourselves to a particular art form even before we have truly experienced it.

For me in this case, being a huge fan of both Byomkesh Bakshy (detective) and Dibakar Banerjee (director), i realized that even before watching the film Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! i somehow knew that this would be a cinema of superlative excellence.

But then again such emotional pre-asumptions could be dangerous.

detective-byomkesh-bakshy-poster1Well, i surely won’t go that far by saying that Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! failed to live up to my expectations but i have to admit that the climax and specially the post-climax melodrama could have been handled better.

But first things first, this is THE best, most-detailed and flawless period film i have ever seen!

Thanks to awesome production designing by Vandana Kataria and superb Vfx by Prana Studios.

From the unique Kolkata trams to the Life magazine displayed in a bookshop, from the logo in tea cup to the hoardings and advertisements in the streets, the color/texture of the buildings, the typical style of wearing dhotis and sarees, the cars and their number plates, even the make of a revolver – all takes you back to an era that we have only read but never seen before.

Nostalgic Kolkata in the early 40s – a city traumatized by the World-War II, ripped and torn apart by the internal power struggle for freedom from the British Raj.

And in such turbulent times, in the midst of outraged freedom fighters and violent Japanese opium smugglers, a young man seems to be investigating a peculiar case of a chemist’s disappearance.

Detective_Byomkesh_Bakshi_poster4Dibakar Banerjee chooses to portray Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay‘s famous fictional sleuth as an inexperienced, just-out-of-college, curious, restless, impulsive youth – Byomkesh Bakshy, the legendary detective in the making. 

And Sushant Singh Rajput does a great job, he is absolutely sure of what is wanted from him and delivers spot on. Even the other actors Anand Tiwari (as Watson), and then Neeraj KabiSwastika MukherjeeDivya Menon all have given their best.

Cool background score by Sneha Khanwalkar and great frames captured by Dibakar’s favorite cinematographer Nikos Andritsakis.  

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! is no doubt a decent thriller, technically flawless but the overall plot and editing could have been sharper.

A good film that easily had the potential to be a great one.

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