A dance medley on the golden oldies couldn't quite make up for their cinematic persona. But when veteran actors Sharmila Tagore and Shammi Kapoor were honoured with the lifetime achievement award at the sixth Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) on Thursday evening at the Ganesh Kala Krida Rangmanch, the audience was more than nostalgic.
The festival's inaugural ceremony saw a bevy of big names gracing the occasion. From MP Suresh Kalmadi, PIFF director Jabbar Patel, actors Zeenat Aman, Amisha Patel, Nana Patekar and Amruta Khanvilkar, and director Anurag Kashyap to mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale, Daniel Zonshine, consul-general of Israel, Anton Gogala from the embassy of Slovenia and Neelam Kapoor, director of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).
The week-long celluloid extravaganza started on a musical note. Not to forget members of the festival's jury that will be judging the competing films -- Norwegian filmmaker Jan Erik Holst, film critic Swapan Mallik, German actress Anna Thalbach, Israeli actress-writer Dana Modan, German filmmaker Sergey Stanojkouski, French director Alain Jalladeau and Dutch filmmaker Jindra Markus.
Retrospectives on Tagore and Kapoor had the crowd cheering enthusiastically. "For me, acting is not about fame or money, but that moment from action to cut the time span that tests me as an actor," said Tagore after being honoured with the award that also included a golden-brown `paithani'.
A brief moment of disturbance gripped the auditorium when a bunch of 25-odd youth from Lashkar-e-Bhima -- a lesser-known group -- began shouting slogans against Tagore, who is also the chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification. The protestors claimed that she hurt the sentiments of Dalits by not censoring some scenes from the recently-released films like `Bhool Bhulaiya' and `Aaja Nachle'.
However, once the protestors were shooed out of the auditorium, the event resumed with loud cheers and support from the audience. One could admire the dignity with which Tagore maintained her calm and conitnued sharing anecdotes with Kapoor, who was seated beside her.
The evening was superbly played up by Kapoor when he shared his closeness to Pune. He used to come to Pune for Prithvi theatre with his father, actor-director Prithviraj Kapoor, during the late 1940s and early 1950s. "I also remember chasing Madhubala all the way from Mumbai to Pune and proposing her to marry me. However, that never happened. But I still have very fond memories of Pune. We shot films like `Shama Parvana', `Naqaab', and `Basant' here," reminisced the actor. In fact, the ashes of his parents and elder brother, Raj Kapoor, have been interred in a river at Loni, very close to Pune, and I keep visitig the city frequently," he said.
And, how could one forget the man with the strongest Pune connection -- Nana Patekar? Patekar expressed his heartfelt appreciation for both Kapoor and Tagore. "I wanted to become a doctor. But it was the magnanimity of stars like Sharmilaji and Shammiji that helped me and I took to films," he said.
With more than 160 films in the offing, the festival is also acknowledging the efforts of student filmmakers from different parts of the world. For the first time, it has initiated the Whistling Woods awards for best student films, which have been sponsored by director Subhash Ghai. And judging these films will be jury members Ashish Kulkarni, Vincent Valladeres and Vaibhav Kumresh.
The evening concluded with the festival's opening film `Teeth of Love' from China.
