| Tuesday (18-12-2007)
was largely dominated by Indian films, which
formed a part of the Indian Panorama section.
The day, however, began with a fantastic film
titled Memory Thief by debutant director Gil
Kofman. This film is about a Holocaust survivor,
played by Jerry Adler, whose past torments
him and his encounter with a hapless tollbooth
operator, played by Mark Webber. Lukas (Mark
Webber) begins to identify with the experiences
of Adler's character and they begin to identify
each other’s pains and pleasures. Lukas
begins to slowly realize that the guilt of
a survivor isn't restricted to Jews alone
and that it transcends across all barriers.
The story is narrated winsomely with a lot
of humor thrown in, unintentionally though.
Quite unbelievable, when it was revealed that
Memory Thief was the director's first film.
The next film was Veyil. Despite seeing
the movie earlier, I decided to give it
a shot again as I felt it was worthy of
it's place at the film festival and also
seeing it in the midst of World movies helps
me reassess our cinema vis-à-vis
the films from across the world. It was
a strange experience with some enjoying
it as they were seeing it for the first
time; most of them being foreigners. The
movie was engaging, nevertheless, in spite
of the fact that I was watching it for the
second time. Veyil got a standing ovation
at the end and it made my day and enlivened
the hope I had on Tamil cinema's renaissance.
Lastly, it was again a Tamil film titled
Ammuvaaghiya Naan, but this one I hadn't
seen earlier. I was a bit cynical about
the reviews it received and in fact happened
to miss it in the theatres. However, this
was the right place to watch it, as the
crowd, as is common to all film festivals,
is well behaved and you don't have those
cat calls and cell phones ringing. The movie,
as most of you must know by now, is about
a writer who yearns for a National Literary
Award for his work having missed it twice
narrowly in the past. He is determined to
get it this time and plans a work that revolves
around the life of sex worker. The rest
of the story is about how he gets involved
in the subject and how their lives get intertwined.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that
it was a must watch as the movie didn't
thrive on clichéd representations
of the lives of sex workers. The subject
of his story, Ammu, enacted impressively
by actress Bharati, is one who likes what
she is doing and has not even an iota of
guilt. How the writer takes interest in
her character and even marries her is told
realistically. The movie doesn't try to
make any statement making it germane to
the story. Another day at the movies made
memorable.
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