IFFI 2024, 16: Quality of films seen and the recurring walk-outs
You may find it incredible that I walked out of so many films, and I find it terrible that I had to. Never, in my living memory, have I walked out of so many films at any given film festival. IFFI 2024, however, took the cake. In the recent past, with films being polarised into block-buster, but inane, action extravaganzas and the well-intentioned small films that just do not have it in them to hold a viewer’s interest, there did emerge a slew of Indian films that treaded the precarious middle territory and managed to grab my attention, hold their own and even earned prizes at festivals. Most of these realistic films either ended-up on OTT platforms, a handful got to the release screens while some are languishing in no man’s land, without buyers and distributors. But IFFI is not a release platform, and a viewer may walk out of the film at any time, without the accompanying guilt that he would face at an Indian film preview, held for critics.
A walk-out at a festival makes good, practical sense. I go completely unprepared, without any research or googling, hoping that the film I have reserved tickets for will surprise me, pleasantly. In any case, research can only narrow down your need to get an idea of what the film is about. It might have been shown at other, even more prestigious film festivals than IFFI, and won prizes galore, but the real thing may not make the cut with me. Nothing really prepares you for what will be projected on the big screen minutes after you have entered the auditorium. I give a film 20 minutes to inspire me to stay on and watch the rest of it. In rare cases, I even sit through till half or 75% of the movie, and yet walk-out, feeling drained and uninterested. Once I am out, I have no chance of getting into another theatre within the same multiplex because new ticketing norms deny you the right to walk into a cinema without a pre-reserved ticket, and you cannot book two or more tickets in the same or overlapping show-time slots. So, you are punished. Walking out means being left with no choice but to wait for the screening time of the next film you have booked. This might mean a wait of 2-3 hours. And there is very little you can do to bide time till then.
What follows is a list of films I went to see, and how did I rate them, based on how much I saw of them. Only a few films could hold my interest till the end. Yes, while attending a press show in good old Mumbai, I never walk-out, even if the film is terrible, because that is a professional commitment as well as an occupational hazard. Moreover, the PR team is standing outside and rebukes you if you walk out. It might never call you again for its future press shows of forthcoming releases. I have to review the film, and that cannot be done after seeing only a small part of it. Believe me, after having been immersed in film society culture and being on the selection committees of the Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI), I have sat through some of the most boring and listless films ever made. But I used to see them fully, because it was my duty, and that of the other selection committee members, in the film society circuit, to separate the grain from the chaff. At IFFI, or any other film festival, there is no such binding. And that is big relief. When the option is between sitting through, and corrupting my hard disk (grey matter inside my skull, which demands high notches from a film when I am at liberty to walk out) and whiling away my time for the next 2-3 hours, I always prefer the latter.
So, here they are.
GÜLIZAR Turkey-Kosovo co-production Screenplay and direction: Bilkis Bayrak Duration: 84 minutes
The show was an Asia première. Gülizar is obviously a variation of the Urdu word Gulzar, meaning garden. It is also the name of the protagonist, a woman. We ha