http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Lights-Camera-Action-Goa/articleshow/49865546.cms
There was anxiety and much criticism when the International Film Festival of India (IffI) relocated to Panaji with the intention of making its permanent base in the heritage city on the Mandovi that is the capital of the smallest state in the country. But, just over a decade later, it's clear the event and its location are an ideal match. Thousands of visitors from around the world mingle happily with thousands of local delegates in a convivial and relaxed atmosphere that combines a lot of the best Goa has to offer. When the decision was made to shift IffI to Panaji, there was a lot of talk about trying to replicate the formula pursued at Cannes, the globally renowned film festival of France. The first edition in Goa was similarly flamboyant, but it immediately alienated many of the state's residents by shutting down half of their capital. But over the following editions, IffI and Panaji have settled into a much more appropriate and sustainable pattern, which manages to unfold a cinema-lover's banquet without disrupting the surroundings and becoming a headache. This year, IffI seeks to take the relationship one step further: the festival features a bookshop specializing in Goa's own publishing imprints, an art exhibition that explores the wellsprings of Konkani culture, and a series of stalls that will showcase the best Goan food and beverages. There is powerful logic in hosting Asia's oldest film festival in a heritage precinct centered around Asia's oldest medical college, centrepiece of a state whose citizens have profoundly influenced and helped to create the world's first film industry. Everyone knows that India is the world's largest producer of films, and by far, the largest generator of ticket sales (where close to 2,000 feature films are made in dozens of languages every year). But less known is that "moving pictures" were shown in Bombay and Calcutta just months after they debuted in Paris and London in 1895, and original films were already being made by native Indians by the turn of the 20th century. After 1947, the national screen expanded cinemascope, and Indian movies aspired to a universal language and frame of reference to connect the disparate regions and peoples of the subcontinent. A stream of great talents from Goa gave the exciting new medium soundtracks that made it famous. From arrangers like Anthony Gonsalves to iconic "playback" singers like Lata Mangeshkar, as the cultural historian Naresh Fernandes writes, "The Sound of India was actually created by Goan musicians...it's clear. The Hindi film classics that resound across the subcontinent and in Indian homes around the world wouldn't have been made without Goans." The International Film Festival of India was founded in 1952, in that "golden age" of classic Indian cinema. The legendary American director, Frank Capra, was there. IffI is the oldest film festival in Asia, one of only fifteen in the world with a competition category accredited by the international federation of film producers' associations. For decades, the festival travelled to cities around the country, until the personal initiative of then chief minister Manohar Parrikar managed to bring it to Goa permanently. The old Goa medical college building is uncannily well-suited to share the spotlight with IffI - it is also the oldest institution of its type in Asia. The renovated 19th century headquarters on the Panaji riverfront is a stunning backdrop to the festival proceedings. It is notable that - like Indian films - graduates from Escola Medica Cirugica de Goa have travelled all over the world as tremendous ambassadors for India. All that history and context is the silent, but unavoidable reason why IffI in Panaji makes sense and why the combination works so well. Though some editions of the festival have been marked by turbulence and slip-ups between Delhi-based officials and the Goa teams that together manage the festival proceedings, there is no doubt that things have come to run smoother. But, just as these positive signs have emerged, there is rumbling from this state government about moving IffI to another, custom-built complex, and converting the marvellous Old GMC building into the new home of the state museum. Both of these are very bad ideas - there is no reason at all for the state to splash out huge sums for infrastructure that will lie empty or underutilized for 50 weeks of the year, and any inappropriate new construction or misuse of the superb old Escola Medica premises would be a cultural crime.