I hate commercial cinema: Naseeruddin

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, November 6

Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah has joined the list of actors who have disapproved of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. When quizzed by mediapersons at McLeodganj today if he liked Modi, Shah said, “Modi muje kuch nahi lagte (I feel nothing for Modi).”

His presence added colour to the conclusion of the four-day Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF). Shah, who came this morning, watched a few movies screened during the festival and participated in a talk on his life and journey in the cinema. He also showed keen interest in an art exhibition organised during the DIFF.

Later interacting with mediapersons, Shah expressed concerned over “unhealthy stuff” being served in Bollywood. He said,” I hate commercial cinema.” “It takes a century to develop the taste of audience for healthy cinema. However, the way Indian audience are being served unhealthy stuff, it shall take a long time to change the trend toward healthy cinema,” he added.

He said it was good that a lot of film were not being shot in Himachal. Too much exposure would damage the ecology of the state, he added. Shah avoided controversy by skipping most of the questions pertaining to ban on Pakistani artists.

When asked about the decision of the film producers association of India to ban Pakistani artists, he said the government should take decision regarding it and he had nothing to say.

The final day of the 5th Dharamshala International Film Festival saw the screening of eclectic features and documentaries. Five interesting short films by Umesh Kulkarni, Chaitanya Tamhane’s ‘Six Strands’, Gurvinder Singh’s ‘Ghuspaithiya’, Payal Sethi’s ‘Leeches’, Nishant Roy Bombarde’s ‘The Threshold’, and Siddharth Chauhan’s ‘Papa’ were featured.

Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s docu-feature Sonita (Iran), which made an Indian premiere at DIFF, received a standing ovation from the full house audience. Other crowd puller films were Boo Junfeng’s acclaimed Singapore prison drama “Apprentice” nominated as Singapore’s Oscar entry for the foreign language film, Asian premiere of Tenzin Dasel’s ‘Royal Café’ and Bauddhayan Mukherji’s dark Hindi comedy, ‘The Violin Player’.

The director of A Syrian Love Story (UK) Sean McAllister attended the audience, which also included independent filmmakers, critics, audience, tourists and movie aficionados.

Saibal Chatterjee conducted a panel discussion on the topic “Cinema India: Voices From The Non-Hindi Mainstream” with Umesh Kulkarni (Maharashtra), Girish Kulkarni, Bauddhayan Mukherji’s (Mumbai), Chittranjan Giri (protagonist of Lathe Joshi) and Sanjeev Kumar (Himachal Pradesh).

The four-day film festival was held at Tibetan Children Village, McLeodganj, Dharamsala, from November 3 to 6.

The programme included 43 films, which include 27 feature films (18 narratives and nine documentaries), 15 short films, and one medium docu-fiction. 20 filmmakers, including nine international filmmakers, are coming to DIFF to present their films. As many as 21 countries are represented and 18 films will have their India premieres, including two world premieres and one Asian premiere.

Acclaimed Indian New Wave director Saeed Akhtar Mirza was in conversation with film writer Aseem Chhabra and renowned film and theatre actor Naseeruddin Shah. Shah discussed his life and work with film critic Rajeev Masand.