Machhli Baba gets a seat at Kolkata film fest

Kolkata: A month after the demise of actor Manu Mukherjee, who was popular as Machhli Baba in ‘Joi Baba Felunath’, an installation of the character seated in his foxhole from Ray’s cult film is being put up on the Nandan premises. And, of course, there is Feluda. Ahead of the screening of ‘Apur Sansar’ at Rabindra Sadan on Friday after the virtual inauguration of 26th edition of Kolkata International Film Festival (Kiff), it’s impossible to miss the photos of Soumitra Chatterjee who will be remembered by various other film screenings.
Online booking of tickets for the screenings on January 9 began on Thursday morning. The Nandan premises already have a festive buzz. Anirban Addhya, Subhrabrata Dutta and Susmita Dutta — youngsters with experience in decorating Kolkata’s Puja pandals — have designed three black polystyrene installations, a selfie corner along with Machhli Baba’s den. The installations have been placed in front of two cityscapes with the Victoria Memorial and Metropolitan Building as their backdrops. Ray’s film posters adorn the vintage ‘box-office’ gate that the trio has designed.
The red brick wall featuring the titles of Soumitra Chatterjee's movies
Last-minute touches are being given to the red brick wall with inscriptions of Soumitra’s film titles in white as they were used in the posters. Work is going on at the Gaganendra Pradarshashala that will be hosting the centenary exhibitions. “I have been curating the Kiff exhibitions since its inauguration at the Netaji Indoor Stadium. At 25thKIFF, Soumitrada and Rakhee Gulzar had attended the exhibition,” said artist Shuvaprasanna.
Subhrabrata Dutta, Susmita Dutta and Anirban Addhya in front of the selfie corner
Director Sudeshna Roy is helping the state government’s department of information & cultural affairs organize a tribute exhibition on Soumitra along with those on Pt Ravi Shankar, Hemanta Mukherjee, Bhanu Bandyopadhyay and Eric Rohmer. The Italian consulate in Kolkata is extending all support to put together Fellini’s exhibition. For the first time in India, the Fellini Foundation for Cinema (Sion) is presenting, in collaboration with the Consulate general of Italy in Kolkata, a ‘nutshell’ of iconic photos and posters from its cinema archive dedicated to Italian film director Federico Fellini.
The Nandan complex
The first such exhibition in Asia on Fellini by the Foundation was organized in Singapore in 2015. Then, it went to Indonesia. Last year, the exhibition was held in Bangkok to coincide with the Fellini Centenary. Recipient of five Oscars and feted at all international festivals of repute, Fellini’s works are universal in their appeal simply because they ask questions about the identity of modern man, about his place in time, about death, power, desire and freedom. In this exhibition, there are posters from his cult films including ‘I Vitelloni’ (1953), ‘La Dolce Vita’ (1960), ‘8½’ (1963), ‘Giulietta degli spiriti’ (1965) and ‘La Voce Della Luna’ (1990).
Along with these are on-the-sets photos of Giulietta Masina, Fellini and Anthony Quinn in ‘La Strada’ (1954), of Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg in ‘La Dolce Vita’ (1960), Anita Ekberg and Fellini in ‘Boccaccio 70’ (1962) and Fellini and Claudia Cardinale in ‘Otto e mezzo’ (1963). Through these images, viewers will get a chance to understand the relationship the director shared with his actors
Some on the set solo photos from ‘La Dolce Vita’ are particularly interesting. Apart from Fellini trying his hand at playing the guitar and harp, one photo has him wearing a helmet. These black-and-white images will usher viewers to explore how the legendary director could rule and put an order on a chaotic reality that has often shared resemblances with a circus.