Kolkata Int'l Film Festival all set to begin in style

Kolkata: Noted actor and Dadasaheb Phalke awardee Amitabh Bachchan is likely to be present at the inaugural ceremony of the 25th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) at the Netaji Indoor Stadium on Friday.

Jaya Bachchan, Rakhi Gulzar, Shah Rukh Khan and Mahesh Bhatt are also likely to attend the ceremony. The theme country at the KIFF this year is Germany.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, along with her council of ministers and directors Goutam Ghosh and Raj Chakraborty, actor Ranjit Mullick and Parambrata Chatterjee will also share the dais.

After the inaugural programme, an immortal creation of Satyajit Ray Goopi Gayen Bagha Bayen will be screened to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the film. A story by Ray's grandfather Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, the black and white film meant for people across ages is far ahead of its time. The songs were written by Ray who had also composed the music. Ray had introduced Anup Ghosal, then a student as the playback singer in the movie. All the songs in the film were super hit. To commemorate the centenary of two great singers and composers — Hemanta Mukhopadhyay and Manna Dey — two feature films where they had sung songs will be screened. Atleast 214 feature films and 152 short and documentary films will be screened at the KIFF. There will be 17 screening venues in the city.

After coming to power in 2011, Mamata Banerjee decided to screen cinemas in the localities to encourage people to see good movies. Paray paray cinema has become very popular with hundreds of people watching movies in their localities free of cost. Under Paray paray cinema, Prakton, one of the most popular films of Prosenjit and Rituparna will be shown at the crossing of Pratapaditya Road and Shahnagar Road near Andhra School on November 12.

Durga Dalil, a documentary film directed by Samrat Chattopadhyay on the history of Durga Puja that started 400 years ago will be screened at Nandan 3 on November 10. This is for the first time that a documentary on Durga Puja from the making of the idol to the Red Road Carnival along with interesting stories associated with the festival will be screened. Nandan has been given a thorough makeover. Films will be screened at Rabindra Okakura hall in Salt Lake and Nazrul Tirtha in New Town as well.