The several thousand-strong audience that had come to attend the inauguration of the 28th edition of the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) on December 15, 2022 was in for a surprise. During a song and dance recital, conceptualised by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the huge background screen beamed a picture of Lord Ganesha, accompanied by Amitabh Bachchan chanting a shloka-Vakratunda Mahakaya Suryakoti Samaprabha-in his familiar baritone. To many who had been present at earlier KIFF inaugural ceremonies, the paean to a Hindu deity was a first. It seemed out of place at an event where the retrospectives of films of such global film luminaries as Pier Paolo Pasolini and Michael Cacoyannis were to be shown. But, then, it was just another sign of the change in political messaging that the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) is increasingly, and aggressively, pushing in the state.
The TMC has been at the receiving end of the main opposition party BJP's constant accusation of 'Muslim appeasement'. Then there was the electoral scare in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and charges of misgovernance and corruption-two of its heavyweights, Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mondal, are under arrest for their alleged complicity in scams. To counter the negative popular perception, the TMC had had to take refuge in its own brand of Hindutva. From Mamata chanting Chandi shlokas and proclaiming to have a "staunch Brahmin" background to the decision to build replicas of Jagannath and Vaishno Devi temples in Bengal and the organisation of Varanasi's Ganga aarti along the Hooghly, the TMC is leaving nothing to chance in its desperate effort to woo Hindus. The immediate goal is the impending panchayat polls; but looming ever closer is the big prize-the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
TRINAMOOL'S GRADUAL SHIFT
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Shuttle Star
Ashwini Ponnappa was the only Indian to compete in the inaugural edition of BDMNTN-XL, a new international badminton tourney with a new format, held in Indonesia
There's No Planet B
All Living Things-Environmental Film Festival (ALT EFF) returns with 72 films to be screened across multiple locations from Nov. 22 to Dec. 8
AMPED UP AND UNPLUGGED
THE MAHINDRA INDEPENDENCE ROCK FESTIVAL PROMISES AN INTERESTING LINE-UP OF OLD AND NEW ACTS, CEMENTING ITS REPUTATION AS THE 'WOODSTOCK OF INDIA'
A Musical Marriage
Faezeh Jalali has returned to the Prithvi Theatre Festival with Runaway Brides, a hilarious musical about Indian weddings
THE PRICE OF FREEDOM
Nikhil Advani’s adaptation of Freedom at Midnight details our tumultuous transition to an independent nation
Family Saga
RAMONA SEN's The Lady on the Horse doesn't lose its pace while narrating the story of five generations of a family in Calcutta
THE ETERNAL MOTHER
Prayaag Akbar's new novel delves into the complexities of contemporary India
TURNING A NEW LEAF
Since the turn of the century, we have lost hundreds of thousands of trees. Many had stood for centuries, weathering storms, wars, droughts and famines.
INDIA'S BEATING GREEN HEART
Ramachandra Guha's new book-Speaking with Nature-is a chronicle of homegrown environmentalism that speaks to the world
A NEW LEASE FOR OLD FILMS
NOSTALGIA AND CURIOSITY BRING AUDIENCES BACK TO THE THEATRES TO REVISIT MOVIES OF THE YESTERYEARS
