Focus on
Buddhism at this year's Asian filmfest
NEW
DELHI, July 14: Life and message of the
Gautam Buddha will be the subject of focus at
this year's Asian Film Festival, which will open
in the capital tomorrow with France-based Indian
filmmaker Pan Nalin's 'Valley of Flowers'.
Showcased at the
eighth edition of the film festival, which will
open at Delhi's Siri Fort auditorium tomorrow
evening, will be about a dozen films touching
upon Buddhism, to commemorate the 2550th
anniversary of the birth of the Buddha.
Films like Neten
Chokling Rinpoche, Sudipto Sen's 'The Last Monk',
Bernado Bertolucci's 'Little Buddha', Franz
Osten's 'The Light of Asia', Ho Quang Minh's
'Gone Gone Forever Gone', Nabendu Ghosh's
'Trishagni', Im Kwan Taek's 'Come, Come, Come
Upward' and Conrad Rook's 'Siddhartha' will
feature in the special section on Buddha titled
'The Middle Path: a Focus on Buddhism'.
Organised by the
Osian's Connoiseurs of arts at the Siri Fort
auditorium and Alliance Francaise till July 23,
this year's Asian film festival features over a
hundred films from 40 countries to be screened in
several sections, Including the Indian
competition, and Asian competition section, the
Arabesque section devoted to Arab cinema, tribute
to the legendary Ritwik Ghatak and Stanley Kwan
apart from New Theatres, Asian Frescoes, the
Indian Osean, In Tolerance and Cross Cultural
Encounters.
Among the films in
the section on the Buddha, Franz Osten's 'The
Light of Asia' (1925), one of the earliest films
to speak of Buddhism, shows an old man recounting
the life of Buddha to a group of tourists in
Bombay. Directed by German filmmaker Franz Osten,
'Light of Asia', which stars Himansu Ray and
Seeta Devi, reflects the romantic appeal of
Indian mysticism to Germans in the early 20th
century. The company that Osten formed to make
the film eventually evolved into Bombay talkies -
one of the largest colonial era film studios in
India.
While Neten
Chokling Rinpoche's 'Milarepa' is a story of
'Milarepa, the 11th-12th Century poet-monk and
mystic from Tibet who rose above the misery and
violence around him to become a great visionary,
Bernardo Bertolluci's 'Little Buddha' is inspired
by a true story of the search for the incarnation
of a deceased Lama, inter-cut throughout with the
story of Siddhartha.
Ho Quang Minh's
'Gone, Gone, Forever Gone'(1996) captures the
mood of the Vietnam war and things past in a
unique way while 'The burmese Harp' (1956) by the
japanese master Kon Ichikawa portrays the carnage
of battle and transformation of a soldier who
refused to return to base and devoted himself to
burying the dead.
'Trishagni' (1988)
by Nabendu Ghosh deals with monkhood and
seduction, banishment and repentence amid swirls
of desert sands. On a different note, 'Angry
Monk-Reflections on Tibet' describes the life of
Gendun Choephel, a free spirit and a
non-conformist monk who became a symbol of hope
for a free Tibet, yet remained a wanderer between
two worlds.
Over a hundred
films from 40 countries representing the best of
Asian and Arab cinema will be showcased at the
Festival where outstanding cinematic works from
Iraq, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka,
Iran, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia will be
screened.
While 'Valley of
Flowers', which will have its world premiere at
the festival, will be the opening film, the
closing film will be Jafar Panahi's 'Offside'
(Iran).
This year's Asian
film festival will feature 120 films in ten
sections.
Unlike earlier
years, when the entry to the film festival was
free for the public, this year, the general
public will have to pay Rs 20 per ticket to watch
the films on show at the festival.
Besides the Indian
competition and the Asian competition section,
Osian's Cinefan will showcase a clutch of
outstanding films in two of its well established
sections - Cross cultural encounters (featuring
films from different regions of the world) and
Arabesque (the
latest films from
Arab countries) - as well as a large mosaic
displaying the range of work being produced in
Asia and India, in Asian Frescoes and Indian
Osean respectively.
Another section,
'In Tolerance' features three outstanding
documentaries that hold a mirror to the past and
the present.
While the jury for
the Asian competition section will be headed by
award-winning Japanese filmmaker Ryuichi Hiroki,
and consist of renowned filmmaker from Hong Kong
Stanley Kwan, Chinese filmmaker Xie Fei, Indian
filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Indonesian
actress Jajang c Noer, the Indian competition
jury will be headed by Italian writer-director
Italo Spinelli, the other members being
award-winning Indian filmmaker Pan Nalin,
Egyptian filmmaker Khairy Beshara and Iranian
actress Niki Karimi.
The festival will
play host to a large number of luminaries from
Asian cinema such as Peggy chiao, Jean Claude
Carriere, Mark Damon, Xie Fei and Tu Duu Chih
Tony Rayns.
Besides, a number
of Indian film personalities like Adoor
Gopalakrishnan, Shyam Benegal, Naseeruddin Shah,
Rekha, Dimple Kapadia, Urmila Matondkar, Konkana
Sen Sharma and Gautam Ghose would grace the film
festival with a greater participation of
mainstream cinema than ever before.
Among the film's
featured in the Indian competition section this
year are Girish Kesaravalli 'In the Shadow of the
dog', Santosh Sivan's 'Eternally Secure', Suman
Mukhopadhyay's 'Herbert', Taranjeet Singh's 'It
could be You' and Onir's 'Bas Ek Pal'.
Among the other
Indian films to be screened at the festival this
year, as part of the Indian Osean section, are
Rituparno Ghosh's 'Dosar', Homi Adajania's 'Being
Cyrus', Rajat Kapoor's 'Mixed Doubles', Anjan
Das' 'Faltu' and Rahul Dholakia's 'Parzania'.
This year the film
festival will also hold a special screening of
Naseeruddin Shah's debut directorial venture 'Yun
Hota To Kya Hota' (What If) and Gautam Ghose's
'Yatra'.
Also featured will
be a special tribute to filmmakers Ritwik Ghatak
and Stanley Kwan which will include films like
'Love Unto Waste', 'Rouge', 'Centrestage', 'Lan
Yu' and 'Everlasting Regret' by Stanley Kwan and
'Pathetic Fallacy' (Ajantrik), 'Meghe Dhaka Tara'
(The Cloud-capped Star), 'Subarnarekha' and 'Ekti
Nadir Naam' (The Name of a river) by Ritwik
Ghatak.
Four films from
the banner of New Theatres will be screened at
the festival, in acknowledegment of their 75th
year in the business. (UNI)
Institute
of Speech and Hearing launched
CHENNAI,
July 14:
The Institute of Speech and Hearing was today
launched by the Madras ENT Research Foundation
(MERF) to offer professional Bachelor course in
Audiology and Speech and Language Pathology.
A brainchild of
MERF President and eminent surgeon Dr Mohan
Kameswaran, the institute would offer a four year
face-to-face mode programme, including one-year
internship.
Speaking at the
launch function, he said the courses would start
from September this year and the students would
be taught the core subjects of Audiology and
Speech and Language Pathology with other subjects
like Basic medical sciences, ENT, Neurology,
Psychology, Linguistics, basic electronics and
acoustics, research methods and statistics.
Stating that about
six million children were having hearing loss in
some degree or other and one million of them were
profoundly deaf, he said the courses were aimed
at creating professionals to deal with specific
handicap of speech disorder or hearing loss.
For this purpose,
the MERF Institute had signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu Open
University and Rehabilitation Council of India
(RCI).
The RCI would
provide the syllabus in association with the
TNOU.
The course was
open to all the students in Tamil Nadu and the
minimum qualification was Plus two with physics,
chemistry and biology as the major subjects.
Initially, 40 students would be admitted to the
course through entrance examination and personel
interviews. (UNI)
Business
in SBI remains paralysed due to internet failure
SRINAGAR,
July 14:
Business activities in the State Bank of
India (SBI) branches in the Kashmir valley today
remained paralysed due to internet failure.
"The system
failed on July 12 and today it is again down. We
cannot help it," said the SBI officials to
customers in the main branch at Residency Road.
The bank officials
said they are connected with outside the state
banks through Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)
Sanchar net which is down.
Thousands of SBI
customers had to return disappointed after the
officials refused to entertain cheques and cash.
Many customers
protested against the bank after they were
refused cash. A similar situation was witnessed
in other branches also.
A BSNL official
said that the main cable got damaged at Jammu,
disrupting the system including internet, which
has also affected the functioning of the two
national news agencies and other private
television channels.
He said efforts
are being made to restore the cable. (UNI)
No law
and order in Maharashtra and Kashmir: Jyoti Basu
KOLKATA,
July 14:
The serial bomb blasts in Mumbai and the
attacks on tourists in Srinagar have shown that
there is no law and order in Maharashtra and
Jammu and Kashmir, veteran CPI-M leader Jyoti
Basu said here today.
"There is no
law and order there. It was also an absolute
intelligence failure," Basu said when asked
whether he thought intelligence failure was
responsible for the attacks.
He was speaking to
reporters after a meeting of the CPI-M state
secretariat attended by Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee and senior party leaders including
the state's Left Front chairman Biman Bose.
A series of blasts
on Mumbai's suburban trains on Tuesday killed 200
people and left 714 injured.
A string of
grenade attacks in Srinagar the same day killed
eight persons, including six tourists from West
Bengal. (PTI)
Broadcast
Bill: Media barons plea for consultation rejected
NEW
DELHI, July 14: Despite strong protests by
broadcasters, there was little likelihood of the
Information and Broadcasting, Ministry consulting
them on the shape of the controversial draft
Broadcast Bill before its likely introduction in
the monsoon session of Parliament.
The proposed
legislation that is understood to have provided
for sweeping powers to authorities to control
media evoked widespread protest by both the print
and electronic sector when its contents leaked
out recently.
However, the
Ministry seems to have made up its mind on the
non-requirement of any further consultation.
This was clearly
and strongly conveyed to media barons who met the
Secretary S K Arora on Tuesday last, Ministry
sources told UNI.
The secretary told
a delegation of the Indian Media Group led by ZEE
Group President Subhash Chandra that drawing up
the legislation was the prerogative of the
Government and it may or may not consult the
broadcasters at every stage.
As for
incorporating the views of public or
stakeholders, it was up to Parliament to do that
by placing it for discussion in the House and
referring it to some of its select committees,
the media representatives were told, according to
officials in the Minsitry.
They were,
however, told by the Secretary that their request
for consultation on the Bill will be conveyed to
the government.
Information and
Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi also
gave ample hint of the Ministry's intentions
yesterday when he said representatives from the
electronic media had already been consulted on
the Bill and the Government was now discussing
the measure with print media.
He again sought to
assure the people that the Bill will be
"most media-friendly legislation in the
world" and was likely to be introduced in
the monsoon session of Parliament.
The Information
and Broadcasting Ministry has been maintaining
that there was nothing new in the Bill and the
"draconian measures" as the media
called it were already there under the existing
Acts.
"What we have
done is just to put together various Acts under
one comprehensive Bill. So all the hue and cry
made by broadcasters was not because of the
freedom of the press being affected but because
the Bill provides for a cap on crossmedia
ownership," said a very senior officer of
the Ministry.
The bill proposes
to cap cross media ownership at 20 per cent and
restructure the sharholding pattern. That would
mean that a broadcaster cannot have more than 20
per cent stake in another broadcasting network, a
cable network or DTH or a radio network.
Just like FM radio
operators, television networks too will not be
allowed to own more than 15 per cent of the total
number of channels. That comes to 30 at the
maximum as there are a total number of around 200
channels registered in India.
The Bill also
limits the number of subscribers for cable and
service providers to a maximum of 15 per cent.
Representatives of
the broadcasting industry feel that while
anti-monopoly measures were welcome, the
provisions in the bill will limit business
options for players in the field which was not
good for the health of the industry.
Media tycoons in
their latest meeting with the Information and
Broadcasting Ministry told the government that
they were for a uniform regulator in the
broadcasting sector but firmly opposed move to
put restrictions on cross-media and inter-media
ownership, saying the Indian media is "too
nascent to warrant" any ownership shackling.
The Indian Media
Group, which held a two-hour discussion with the
Information and Broadcasting Secretary, also
suggested that the law governing the Press
Council of India should be amended to extend its
authority as a regulator for the electronic media
also.
"Cross-media
and inter-media restrictions cannot be duplicated
in India as applicable in developed countries
like the US where there is a uniform language.
India is, howerver, a pluralistic country with
diverse languages. Moreover, the reach of print
media in India is limited to not more than 20 per
cent of the population," he said.
Mr Chandra also
pointed out that Indian media was in a nascent
stage and required capital investment, greater
manpower and technological upgradation. (UNI)
BJP
demands sacking of Arjun, Antulay
NEW
DELHI, July 14: The Bharatiya Janata Party today
demanded the sacking of Human Resource
Development Minister Arjun Singh and Minority
Affairs Minister A.R. Antulay for what it
described as ''utterly irresponsible statements''
over terrorist attacks, including the Mumbai
blasts, in the country.
While Arjun Singh
was reported to have said at the Cabinet meeting
yesterday that the attempted attack on the RSS
headquarters was a framework by the Sangh itself,
Mr Antulay is reported to have said the Hindus
were behind the Nanded blast in Maharashtra in
April to defame Muslims.
"Both are
central ministers. By their utterly irresponsible
statements they are trying to encourage terrorist
forces. We demand sacking of both Mr Arjun Singh
and Mr Antulay," BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar
Prasad said.
Nothing could be
more unfortunate than such kinds of statements,
he added.
The party
meanwhile also assailed the statement of Uttar
Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav,
giving a clean chit to the banned organisation
SIMI.
"It is the
height of appeasement at the cost of national
security," Mr Prasad said.
He said that Mr
Yadav had made such a statement despite the fact
that police and intelligence agencies had told
him that SIMI was behind the bomb blast in the
Shramjivi Express at Jaunpur.
He said SIMI was
banned in the state when Mr Rajnath Singh was
chief minister and at that time Congress had
opposed the decision. Today the UPA Government
wanted to ban it nationally, he noted.
The BJP spokesman
accused the Congress and its allies of playing
with the national security for the four-five
years. He said that it was unfortunate that CPM
leader Sitaram Yetury making such a statement
that as the country moved closer to the US, there
would be more such terrorist attacks. "What
does he mean to say? Mr Prasad asked, alleging
that Mr Yechury was trying to communalise the
country's foreign policy.
"We condemn
it," he said, cautioning against creating an
environment for terrorist to promote their
activities.
The party reminded
the UPA that most of the terrorists attacks had
taken place in states either ruled by Congress
and UPA partners. "The Government owed to
explain whether it was happening because of
intelligence failure. If not, why had the state
government failed to take pre-emptive
measures?" Mr Prasad asked. (UNI)
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