Films are screened in ‘Tapra Talkies’ among the villagers away from the seven star glare
Can there be a film festival among ordinary villagers in towns far away from the seven-star glamour? It may be surprising if the answer is yes, but it is true.
Girijashankar
Like every year, this year also the International Film Festival was organized in the historical city of Khajuraho. In which apart from Indian films, films from more than a dozen countries were screened. Khajuraho International Film Festival which is being organized regularly since last eight years.
Film actors Raja Bundela and Sushmita Mookerjee, who came out of the National School of Drama, are the facilitators of this festival. The grandeur of this film festival is completely different from the traditional film festival. Film stars come here from all over the world, but instead of big cinema halls, films are screened here in huts called ‘tapra talkies’.
More than a dozen such Tapra talkies are set up in Khajuraho town and its surrounding villages, where film screenings, film discussions, training on film making techniques, seminars, workshops go on throughout the day and the audience consists of a large number of villagers. Many of them are such that they are watching the film for the first time. The Hindu and Jain temples located in Khajuraho are included in the UNESCO Heritage Site. The temple groups here are famous all over the world and tourists from all over the world come to see them, but this will be the only city in the whole country where there is no cinema hall even today.
Raja Bundela, the founder of the festival, says that due to the absence of any cinema hall, films did not reach this area. This was one of the reasons for organizing the film festival here, but the biggest reason has been the backwardness of the Bundelkhand region, which governments have been trying to remove. Khajuraho has always had its own fame and attraction because of the heritage temple groups.
Due to this, by organizing a film festival here, an attempt is made to create awareness among the villagers of Bundelkhand region at the cultural level by providing healthy entertainment. That is why the format of this film festival is slightly different. By the way, the festival remains limited to only film stars. But the Khajuraho Film Festival remains dedicated to the villagers apart from them.
Through the Khajuraho Film Festival, efforts are made to take films to far-flung villages. After the screening of films throughout the day, cultural programs are organized every evening, in which regional folk art as well as folk art of other states are displayed, in which thousands of spectators participate. This year, apart from Bundelkhand, Jammu-Kashmir, Haryana, Karnataka A group of folk artists from the states of Rajasthan, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh etc presented folk arts.
More than hundred documentaries and short films were screened in this film festival, which were produced by the youth of Madhya Pradesh and other states. These films, made with limited resources, awaken new possibilities with their narrative and presentation. This year, apart from Dr. Dwivedi, Seema Vishwas, Puneet Issar, Chunky Pandey, Yashpal Sharma and Makarand Deshpande, Arvind Gaur etc. from theater participated. Film actress Wilma Ellis from German and Marinette Borgo from France were important presence in this festival.
