NEW DELHI: The Naya Cinema Festival in Mumbai, which was scheduled to begin on 15 July, will now commence on 22 July with the screening of Kaushik Mukherjee‘s ‘Gandu‘.
The Festival was postponed by a week in view of the bomb blasts in the city.
As a tribute to the celebrated filmmaker Mani Kaul who passed away earlier this month, the festival by Taj Enlighten Film Society is screening two of his most revered movies as a homage - his first film Uski Roti (1969) and his third directorial, Duvidha (1973).
"The whole idea of the festival is to showcase first and second works by path-breaking directors. Mani Kaul‘s films were a major part of that list, but now those two screenings will pay homage to his genius," says Pranav Ashar, president of Taj Enlighten Film Society.
Post that, members of the film industry, who have worked with Kaul, will pay tribute to his films in a discussion.
The festival makers also say that not many know that it was Kaul‘s work that led to the introduction of the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie category. The director won that award four times for Uski Roti, Ashad Ka Ek Din (1971), Duvidha and Idiot (1992).
Interestingly, the latter was Shah Rukh Khan‘s second film. He also acted and paid tribute to Kaul in Paheli (2005), a film by Amol Palekar that was inspired by the same folk tale Duvidha was based on. The filmmaker also won a National Award for his documentary Siddheshwari in 1989.
