Amid rising cases of COVID-19, the West Bengal government has decided to go ahead with the 27th Kolkata International Film Festival, where 200 films will be screened at ten locations across the city from January 7.
The inaugural film will be Satyajit Ray’s 1970 classic Arnier day and night. The festival will pay centenary tributes to Satyajit Ray, Chidananda Dasgupta and Hungarian filmmaker Miklós Janso. It will also pay a special tribute to Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Dilip Kumar and Jean Paul Belmondo among others.
Finland is going to be the theme country of the festival this year. Six films from Finland will be screened. Forty nine films will be screened in the competition section.
Films will be screened at the Nandan Cultural Complex as well as Nazrul Manch and a few other places in the city.
The Kolkata International Film Festival used to be a mega event where Bollywood actors participated in the opening and closing ceremonies. However, this time the festival is likely to remain silent.
The festival will conclude on January 14.
Ganga Sagar Fair
While the state government has decided to go ahead with the film festival, questions are being raised about the Ganga Sagar Mela to be held in the second week of January.
A doctor has filed a petition before the Calcutta High Court challenging the state government’s decision to hold the annual pilgrimage. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said that she could not stop or stop the fair as it was not a state government program and people from across the country had participated in it. Several public health experts have written to the Chief Minister urging him to stop the gathering.
On the occasion of Makar Sankranti, about two million people gather at the Sagar Island at the confluence of the Ganges River and the Bay of Bengal.
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