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Cinemawallahs:
Aseem Chhabra on The New York Indian Film Festival
[dropcap]F[/dropcap]ilm journalist Aseem Chhabra is a great believer in the power of cinema to heal and rejuvenate. Instead of an apple a day, his mantra is a film a day and he often watches 365 films in a year. The veteran of several film festivals, he has traveled to many across the globe, and has captained the ship of New York Indian Film Festival for several years with thought-provoking programming. The author of popular bios of Shashi Kapoor, Irrfan Khan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, he has hobnobbed with film celebrities and interviewed them about the mysteries of cinema.
[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ince the pandemic has still kept the NYIFF 2021 from being an in-person event so beloved by cinema buffs, Chhabra, who is currently in New Delhi, has managed to conjure up the festival from afar with 53 strong films as well as zoom events with the stars and film directors. All the magic can be accessed through Movie Saints. The festival which started on June 7th has lots of offerings all the way till June 13.
7 Questions for Aseem Chhabra at the New York Indian Film Festival
Chhabra did a quickie one-on-one interview with Lassi with Lavina about all the questions you may have had about the festival – but were afraid to ask!
1. How strange is it is to be doing the NYIFF online — and what do you miss the most about not having a real people to people event?
After last year’s successful virtual festival, this year’s event was a no brainer, given that there was still a lot of uncertainty around the pandemic. I know New York City has opened up, but we had to plan the festival a few months ago. And we weren’t sure how things will pan out.
What I miss most is being in New York City (I am in India right now) and not interacting with the audience before and after the screenings. I miss sitting in the theaters and observing the audience reactions to my favorite films. I miss the presence of the filmmakers in New York, the daily after parties, the networking. Virtual festivals are a good way to share with our audience the best of Indian cinema, but it is definitely an alternative to the actual festival.
2. Are there any benefits at all to this socially distanced online festival?
Earlier we used to only have audience from New York City. Some people from Long Island, New Jersey, Westchester and Connecticut would also travel to see the films in Manhattan. But now we can share the films we have programmed with people across the US, North America, globally, including in India.
Yesterday I heard about a man in Fiji who wanted to watch one of the Assamese films we have programmed. Last year I heard from people in Baltimore, California, Texas – all were thrilled to be able to see our films. The online festival has helped expand the NYIFF brand.
3. What’s the special theme to the festival this year and what can filmgoers hope to take away from the festival?
We don’t set out to look for themes. Although themes evolve as we program films. This year we are showing a lot of films where children are the protagonists. We have programmed fascinating indie films in 15 languages spoken across India.
Plus we are marking the birth anniversaries of three Indian icons – Mahatma Gandhi (150 years), Subhash Chandra Bose (125 years) and Satyajit Ray (100 years) by showing three documentaries about them – “Ahimsa: Gandhi – The Power of the Powerless,” “At the Altar of India’s Freedom: The INA Veteran’s of Malaysia,” and “The Music of Satyajit Ray.”
4. Which has been your favorite film and what would you recommend viewers look out for?
I cannot say which films are my favorites. That would not be fair to the filmmaker. All films we have selected are good. But I would suggest people should try and watch films in different languages, and don’t miss our shorts and documentaries.
5. Have we come a long way from when everything in cinema had to be in Hindi and using mostly known names and famous pedigrees?
NYIFF has always shown films from across India. Our goal is to give people a taste of Indian cinema outside the Hindi language world. And we do not show Bollywood films. So we do not have works starring famous pedigrees. But this year we have shorts with indie stars like Naseeruddin Shah and Rasika Duggal (“The Miniaturist of Jaunagarh”), Pankaj Tripathi (“Laali”), Swatika Mukherjee (“Tasher Ghawar”), Shardul Bharadwaj (“Happy Birthday”), Vipin Sharma (“Naap”).
We have a documentary about Dhritiman Chaterji (“Talking Head”) and another featuring Zakir Hussain (“The Space Between the Notes”). And a Bengali feature film – “Parcel” starring Saswata Chatterjee and Rituparna Sengupta.
This is also the first time that we have an opening film in Kannada language – “Where’s Pinky?”
6. What has surprised you the most about this festival?
The biggest surprise has been the quality of films that were submitted even though all of last year India was shut down because of the pandemic. Sure some films were shot in 2019 and the post happened in 2020. But we also are showing quite a few films – shorts included, that were made entirely during the pandemic.
7. Your hopes for the next NYIFF?
Next year we will definitely be back with the physical festival – but we also plan to show many of the films virtually.
