Kolkata: The Kolkata Film Festival ended today as the most glamourous one ever with Bollywood 'badshah' Shah Rukh Khan, a display of rare photographs taken by Satyajit Ray and screening of two controversial films 'Rang Rasiya' and 'Meherjaan' being the biggest crowdpullers.
The presence of SRK and yesteryears' glamour queen Sharmila Tagore during the inauguration ceremony made thousands flock to Netaji Indoor Stadium, an unusual venue selected by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to accommodate more people.
Tollywood stars were also present to add to the glam quotient of the second oldest international film festival in India which screened 150 films by 125 directors selected from 50 countries over a period of seven days.
But the biggest attraction remained Ketan Mehta s unreleased film 'Rang Rasiya' and Bangladeshi film 'Meherjaan' which was withdrawn from theatres in that country following a controversy in the neighbouring country.
Based on the life of 19th century painter Raja Ravi Varma, 'Rang Rasiya', starring Randeep Hooda and Nandana Sen, was screened to an overcrowded theatre at the film carnival.
Film buffs stood in an hour-long queue at the state-run theatre Nandan with over a hundred of them sitting on the hall's floor to watch the film.
"Given the response, I didn't feel that I am watching it at a film festival where the crowd is reserved. Here people from every walk of life came in," an overjoyed Nandana told PTI after the screening.
The 2008 film is yet to be released commercially and has courted controversy for taking artistic freedom in boldly depicting nudity.
'Meherjaan', on the other hand, caught everybody s attention as it was for the first time that the film was shown in India.
Directed by Rubaiyat Hossain, the film, which stars Victor Banerjee and Jaya Bachchan along with Bangladeshi and Pakistani actors, is about a Bangladeshi woman's love affair with a Pakistani soldier during the 1971 Liberation War.
The storyline had triggered controversy in Bangladesh forcing its distributor to take it off cinema halls across the country merely a week after its release in January this year.
A section of the intellectuals and freedom fighters there had flaked the film for allegedly distorting the country's independence war and humiliating the freedom fighters and 'Biranganas' (Bangladeshi women who were raped by occupation Pakistani troops during the Liberation War).
Cine buffs, however, in Kolkata liked the film as all the three screenings saw packed halls.
Rare photographs taken by Satyajit Ray, kept on display at the film carnival, also turned out to be a big hit.
Ray's camera had captured some of the farthest corners of the world's most picturesque cities. The exhibition included snaps of the urban lives of Berlin, Rome, Venice, Japan and New York.
A sketch related to the film 'Shatranj ke Khiladi' was a special attraction. The most impressive part of the collection, however, was 'Mahanayak' Uttam Kumar's two portraits taken in Rome.
KFF's opening film 'The Magicians', made by Danish director Joram Lursen, struck a chord with the audience with its universal storyline of the love between father and son.
Bangladeshi film 'Guerrilla', London-based filmmaker Hammad Khan's 'Slackistan', Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylon's 'Once Upon a Time in Anatolia', Hungarian director Bela Tarr's 'The Turin Horse' and 'Certified Copy made by Italian director Abbas Kiarostami too proved to be a hit with the people.
Homages were paid to some of the legends by the screening of Ashok Kumar's 'Kismet' and Uttam Kumar's 'Nayak' directed by Ray.
With Kolkata as its theme, films like Satyajit Ray's 'Jana Aranya', Mrinal Sen's 'Interview', Ritwik Ghatak's 'Jukti Takko Aar Gappo', Tapan Sinha's 'Apanjan' and Goutam Ghosh's 'Kaalbela' were screened.
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