Australians and Indians in Australia alike have hailed the Indian Film Festival held earlier this month in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth as a great success. The second leg of the festival is being held in Auckland next month.

Organised in the backdrop of tensions caused by the high number of attacks on Indian students living in Australia over the past one year or so, the festival has done its bit to soothe ruffled feathers on both sides of the equation, Mitu Bhowmick Lange, one of the festival’s organisers told Indian Weekender.

The star attraction at the festival was Bollywood diva Rani Mukherjee, whose retrospective was a major part of the landmark event.

"The way I look at it, in any big country around the world, the majority of people are peace-loving and it is only only a minor group that believes in spreading hatred," she said at the media conference preceding the event in Melbourne.

"I hear the sad stories about attacks on Indians, but I’m sure it's only a minority that is responsible for these attacks. I'm going to ask the majority of Australians to speak up against the people who want to spread hatred.”

Asked if she hesitated at any point of coming to Australia, she said, "This [festival] was decided a long time ago. To cancel this programme and my visit would have been immature."

The 30-plus films in this year's festival included the Rani Retrospective of six of her films. Though Bollywood is noted for flamboyant escapism, many of Mukherjee's films are tough tales, with heroines who are poor, disabled or thwarted by stubborn tradition. The first night opened with the screening of Dil BoleHadippa.
Asked which were her personal favourites, Rani said, "The films I enjoyed doing the most are Black and Bunty Aur Babli.” Both films played at the retrospective.

"Black is about a blind girl, Michelle, who comes out victorious in the end. It gave me a great feeling of strength because it talked about the fact that nothing is lost in the world. If you want to achieve something you have to have passion and put your mind to it. It really uplifts my spirit when I watch it.

"And Bunty, because it's the story of two kids who come from a very small town to the big city to follow their dream. Reality then hits them. But it's also the fact that if you are a good person you can use the good opportunities and leave the bad ones."

Two free film screenings at Federation Square were specifically aimed at interna- tional students. "We are doing this so that all our Indian students – can bring their friends, bring their beanbags and just make a night of it and watch these great films under the stars," Ms Bhawmick Lange said.

One of the free screenings was of the all time Bollywood blockbuster 3 Idiots, whose celebrated director Rajkumar Hirani was also present. Mr Hirani shot to fame with Munnabhai MBBS and Lage Raho Munnabhai and has quickly established a reputation for making riproariously funny flicks that also have become huge box office successes.

Other Bollywood personalities present were Sohail Khan, Imtiaz Ali and Anurag Singh. Both Mr Hirani and Sohail Khan.

Rani Mukerjee talking exclusively with Indian Weekender expressed her desire to come and do a shoot in New Zealand. Anurag Singh also said that he had planned to visit New Zealand to scout locations for some of his upcoming films. Sohail Khan, Imtiaz Ali and Raju Hirani also echoed similar views and said they would surely plan on visiting New Zealand and keep Indian Weekender informed of their plans.
Indian Weekender assured the film makers of all support in New Zealand.

Bollywood productions that were screened also included Dev D, Dostana, Ghajini, Kaminey, Love Aaj Kal, Luck by Chance, New York, Paa, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, and Wake Up Sid.

Its “Beyond Bollywood” category included regional Indian films Chaturanga (Bengali), Harishchandrachi Factory (Marathi), Kanchivaram (Tamil), Mee Sreyobhilashi (Telugu), Mudhal Mudhal Mudhal Varai (Tamil), and Shob Choritro Kalponik (Bengali).

It is also screened some documentaries, including Antardhwani (Hindi), Ladies' Special (English), The Journalist And The Jihadi (English), The Shop That Sold Everything (Bengali), Three Of Us (silent), and Vellapokkathil (Malayalam).

Australian students of celebrated dancer-choreographer Shiamak Davar, who runs his dance class franchises around the world put up excellent dance routines before and in between shows effectively showcasing the beauty, creativity and fluidity of rhythm fuelled Bollywood dancing that blends traditional and contemporary techniques.

Filmfare award winner director-screenwriter-producer Yash Chopra (Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi) was the patron of the Festival, which was organized by the Melbourne headquartered Mind Blowing Films whose director is Ms Bhowmick Lange. The company’s advisory board comprises Ronnie Screwala (UTV), Amit Khanna (Reliance), and Simi Grewal (actress).

As part of the festival a short film competition has also been organised with participating filmmakers from Australia and New Zealand besides other countries.