Sunday treat for cinephiles at the 15th Mumbai Film Festival

Day 4 of the 15th Mumbai Film Festival which happened to be a Sunday gave cinephiles a perfect reason to smile. Those who turned out in large numbers at the venues were treated to wonderful films like Viridiana directed by Luis Bunuel, 60 going on 12 directed by Frederic Proust, Diederik Ebbinge's Matterhorn and Tokyo Story directed by Yasujiro Ozu. Other films screened throughout the day included Davy Chou's Golden Summers, Costa Gavras' Capital, Sulemani Keeda directed by Amit V Masurkar, A Castle in Italy directed by Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi among others. The highlight of the day however was reserved for one of India’s greatest romantic epic - Kabhi Kabhi. The movie was screened in homage to the legendary Yash Chopra at Cinemax, Versova. This special screening was attended by the late filmmaker’s wife Pamela Chopra, who introduced the film to the audience attending. Meanwhile the Film India Worldwide section saw Good Morning Karachi directed by Sabiha Sumar playing before a packed theater. This coming-of-age movie talks about a young woman, Rafina who fights to become a runway and billboard model. As she climbs the social ladder, she is caught between two men with very different visions of Pakistan and the role of women. Sunday afternoon also saw a special session with Lifetime Achievement Award winner Costa Gavras in conversation with Daniel Kothenshulte. The French director held the audience rapt as he described his path to glory in cinema. If afternoon was all about a veteran discussing his journey, the evening was reserved for the Oscar Academy master class, 'The Digital Dilemma: Motion Pictures at risk in a Digital World. This session saw an elaborate discussion on the Digital Dilemma, and a report on digital motion picture preservation issues from the perspective of independent filmmakers, documentarians and nonprofit audiovisual archives were presented. Sunday was also high on the celeb quotient. Kirron Kher, Konkana Sen Sharma, Huma Qureshi, Jabbar Patel, Kiran Nagarkar, Shilpa Shukla, Sugandha Garg lent the festival some much needed Bollywood charm.