Entertainment

Film festival’s Asian feast


4/ 5/2004

THE Commonwealth Film Festival is back in Manchester and will launch the largest annual showcase of Indian and Asian films in Britain.
It opened on 30 April. A whole range of films from the subcontinent will be on show at various veniues around the city.
The festival has provided a platform for new and emerging Asian cinema.
For example the 2002 festival opened with Arjun Sajnani's 'Agni Varsha: The Fire and the Rain' while last year's festival closed with Buddhadeb Dasgupta's 'A Tale of a Naughty Girl'.
During both years, films from the sub-continent proved extremely popular in Manchester, with Supriyo Sen's 'Way Back Home' winning the 2003 BBC Audience Award for best documentary.
This year, Asian films make up the largest component in the festival from the surreal Murali Nair's 'A Story that Begins at the End' to the political Rajiv Vijay Raghavan's 'The Path' and Manish Jha's 'A Nation Without Women'.
Directors, producers, writers and actors will be attending the festival, introducing and discussing films, and taking part in debates.
These include Partho Sengupta, Manish Jha, Rajiv Vijay Raghavan and Pritish Nandy.kar.
The highlight of this year's festival will be the closing film Maqbool - Vishal Bhardwaj's star-studded retelling of Macbeth, modernised and relocated to Mumbai's criminal underworld.
The film stars Pakaj Kapoor (Ghandi, Roja, The Burning Season), Om Puri (East is East, White Teeth) and Naseeruddin Shah (Monsoon Wedding, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) and Vishal Bhardwaj and main star of the film, Irfan Khan will be present at the screening.
Irfan Khan is well known to both Indian and mainstream western audiences for his roles in Asif Kapadia's 'The Warrior and 'Mira Nair's 'Salaam Bombay'.
A spokesperson for the festival said: "Whichever way you look at it, for 10 days Manchester will be alive with the buzz of intelligent, independent, international filmmaking. So sit back, break open the popcorn, and book the week off."
The festival will end on 9 May.
For more information about films and screening dates log on to: www.commonwealthfilm.com


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