5 QUESTIONS
BILLBOARD
BOX OFFICE
MAKING WAVES
MEMORIES
MOVIES CHAT
QUOTE MARTIAL
REVIEWS
ROUGH CUTS
SHORT TAKES
SOUTHERN SPICE
THE LIST
WISH THE STARS
ARCHIVES

'I am shocked'

Ranvir Nayar

Vinay Shukla’s Godmother failed to cut ice with the jury and the viewers at the Second Panasia film festival which concluded in the northwestern French coastal town of Deauville on Sunday.

Godmother’s failure is in stark contrast with the waves that Deepa Mehta’s Earth had made at Deauville last year. The film received tremendous applause from the viewers and went on to win the Grand Prix.

Godmother, starring Shabana Azmi and Milind Gunaji, was the only Indian film in the competition category of this fledgling film festival, aimed at creating greater awareness about Asian films in France. However, when the awards were finally decided on Sunday evening at the closing ceremony of the three day festival, Godmother failed to make it in any of the six categories of awards that were up for grabs.

South Korea's Nowhere To Hide walked away with four awards, including the Grand Prix, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Camera. Taiwan's The Black Eyes bagged the Best Actress award while Hong Kong's The Mistress bagged the Public Award.

Godmother's failure appears more stark since it entered the festival with a high profile. The festival opened on Friday with the screening of Godmother. Azmi was Star Of The Festival, with a three film retrospective being screened here in her honour. Shyam Benegal’s Ankur and Mrinal Sen’s Genesis formed part of the retrospective. Though Junoon was also scheduled to be screened, the organisers failed to obtain a print.

The terrible quality of the print could have been one of the reasons for Godmother's failure. Even Azmi was caught unawares by the rundown print that had been sent to Deauville. "I am shocked," she said after the screening. The festival's organisers said since the film arrived literally at the eleventh hour, they did not have adequate time to screen it for quality. "Otherwise, we would have not screened it at all," they said.