The Party is Certainly Not Over For Mami

Whoever knows these two timeless soul-filled songs (the ‘Party’s Over’ and ‘Those were the Days, My Friend’) are aware of the depth of their intent. The forlorn lyrics express longing tinged with hope. It seems so apt for the phenomenal last-minute show that MAMI put on this year. MAMI despite its initial downcast days, is now set to re-ignite its love affair with Mumbai’s movie goers.

The past week saw full houses at the 16th Mumbai Film Festival theatres (in Cinemax, Versova, PVR (ECX), Citi Mall, Andheri and Chandan in Juhu). The selection of films, which had winners from recent film festivals, Berlin, Cannes and Toronto, and an excellent selection of new Indian films aiming for the Golden Gateway trophy plus cash prize of Rs. 10,00,000 for the Best Film and Silver Gateway trophy plus cash prize of Rs. 5,00,000 for Second Best Film in the India Gold section.

Congratulations go to the director of the festival, Srinivasan Narayanan, whose unswerving loyalty and regard for MAMI fuelled the cry for crowd-funding the beleaguered festival. The plea brought in cash from ordinary folk and more so from Mumbai’s enlightened corporate and film professionals.

Narayanan is the one who has spearheaded the festival in its recent years. With his decades of hands-on experience in various fields of cinema, he has made MAMI a festival recognized the world over. This year, the indefatigable Anupama Chopra took over as Creative Director, giving it a flourish that revved its energy, appeal and status.

MAMI’s precious money in hand set the ball rolling. But with around half the budget of earlier years, the organisers had to spend this sum judiciously wisely to live up to expectations. Narayanan has a highly trained team working in his Festival Cell. They had a month and a half in hand to put the show on the road. Most festivals take a year to nine months and have five times the budget. With Anu Rangachar as Programme Director, Prasad Khattu (deputy programmer / print control) , Mangesh Mardhekar (hospitality/guest relations) and many others doubling and tripling their tasks, the dedicated team delivered a first class film festival.

Above all, the volunteers this year were exceptional. They worked for free at theatres where the food cost is prohibitive, and for long, long hours. They were utterly reliable, cheerful and ever ready to help.

A case in point: in the darkly lit multiplex theatre after I completed the introduction and question/answer session of one of the films in my section, Film India Worldwide, I left the darkened hall. Two floors down at the foyer, I found that my mobile was missing. The person at the reception said, “Madam, here it is!”. The volunteers had found it and sent it straight down so that I got it in time.

I was told most of the volunteers were from Somaya college.

Nidhi Singh, in charge of the question/answer sessions, was ever present at different venues attending to her task ahead of time. Her interests are varied and currently she is working as Consulting Editor - Environment & Sustainability for The CSR Journal.

Priyanka Shetty, Festival Public Relations, remained unflappable despite the daily setbacks that inevitably occur in the wake of celebrities interfacing with media. Om Puri, who was to introduce a film on two consecutive days, cancelled last minute on both days as his work held him up in Chandigarh. Priyanka handled this lapse without fuss and all went well.

These were my personal encounters at MAMI this year. I found many others fulsome in their praise, say from Los Angeles-based Ian Bernie of the International Competition Jury to the general public.

And yes, there has been an attempt at controversy (media loves it) about French diva Catherine Deneuve being reticent and aloof. She is a legend above par. She graced her public appearances well. She was gracious about receiving MAMI’s Lifetime Achievement award. That too, on a stage, as impish compère Kalki Koechlin noted, was the smallest that any theatre could boast of. That Deneuve was not at parties and elsewhere is her prerogative.

Abroad, the media gets nowhere near celebrities. They arrive unseen in the cars with shaded windows, are ushered in at VIP exits and entrances that only the management has access to, and at parties they are kept unreachable in a distant cordoned off section. We had better luck for most of the time.