DAY2, IFFK

Well I started the second day in a very promising note. First film was Something Like Happiness. A well made film about the problems faced by three families in an apartment. The story is woven in and around these families and more specifically around a young lady Monika.
The second film was Persona Non Grata . The funny thing was that I was actually waiting for an Australian movie Look Both Ways but maybe because of the unavailability of the print, they played this movie. And it was a blessing in disguise as I would have missed this wonderful movie. Moreover I can watch the Aussie movie on 13th when it'll be screened again as per the schedule.
Evening I went for the inaugural of the Adoor Gopalakrishnan's retrospectives. The chief guest was Minister for Culture, Mr. M A Baby. The programme started about 10 minutes late. The guests included stalwarts from Indian cinema like Girish Kasaravalli and Gautham Ghosh. At around 30 minutes into M A Baby's speech about Adoor Gopalakrishnan, suddenly a young lady shouted aloud "Can you just start the movie". It was followed by claps from few guys. Most of the audience were just stunned. But Mr. Baby took the comment in a sporting way and carried on his speech for 5 more minutes. He said it was the organizers who wanted him to speak for such a duration and he doesn't have any intention to bore the people. I felt very bad for the minister as he was giving a very good speech about the cinema and I must say he does indeed know about the cinema. He spoke about his days as the college union arts club secretary and criticism of the left movement in Adoor's film.
The function was followed by screening of Adoor's first film Swayamvaram.