from Meenakshi Karanth
Daijiworld News Network - Bangalore (MB)

Bangalore, Dec 19: The ‘Garden City’ now has yet another reason to celebrate this festive season. Adding to the spirit of Christmas and New Year is Bangalore’s first International Film Festival.

A week-long festival, organized by Suchitra Film Society, is geared up to grab the attention of people worldwide. Come December 22 and a whole line of national and international films will unveil themselves for an eager film lover.

'Burmese Harp'

'Death Hanging'

'Ceremony'

'Pyasa'

Around 100 films from across the world – Afghanistan, Argentina, Bulgaria, Chile, China, France, Germany, Hungary and the like, will be screened during the festival. Be it classics, contemporary or comedy, you can watch them all at the film festival.

The festival will also have a retrospective of the films made by ace cinematographer V K Murthy. For those who are unaware of the works of this creative genius, he has been the cinematographer for films like Pyaasa, Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam and Kaagaz Ke Phool. His works speak for themselves. Incidentally, all the three films are being screened at the festival.

Celebrating the spirit of Suvarna Rajyotsava the festival has a whole range of Kannada films lined up to be screened. There is something more exciting. Films will be screened across three theatres – Kailash, Tribhuvan and Movieland, giving you the experience of old Bangalore.

“Every major city in the world has its own film festival, then why should Bangalore be left behind. This thought inspired us to get our network worked out and we now are ready to showcase some great movies to the world,” said N Vidhyashankar, president, Suchitra Film Society.

Bangalore will host delegates from all around the country and world. There will also be discussions with directors on certain key issues relating cinema. A small fee will be charged for the entire event. The event will officially be inaugurated on December 21 by chief minister of Karnataka, H D Kumaraswamy.