HTKGAF 2018: Cinephiles get a taste of Oscar movie magic in Mumbai

Moonlight, which won the Oscar for best film last year, and Her, which won best original screenplay in 2014, were screened

On the final day of the Hindustan Times Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, movie buffs were treated with two Oscar-winning movies back-to-back, as part of the cinema section presented by &Prive.

Veteran actor, screenwriter and director Ananth Mahadevan at Kala Ghoda on Sunday.(Ragul Krishnan/ HT)

Moonlight, which won the Oscar for best film last year, and Her, which won best original screenplay in 2014, were screened on either side of a talk with veteran actor, screenwriter and director Ananth Mahadevan.

In a no-holds-barred interaction with RJ Divya Solgama of Fever 104 FM, Mahadevan discussed the role of the production house, director, government, multiplex, technology and even cine-goers in the state of film evolution in India.

The government must support good cinema, Mahadevan added. Multiplex owners must too, by lowering ticket prices for acclaimed and niche works of quality. Instead, there are ‘acting schools’ of dubious worth mushrooming around the country, offering students no access or exposure to the nuances of cinema, he said.

“During the 1960s and ’70s, moviemakers made good middle-of-the-road cinema. Back then, there was a large slice of the audience that was enlightened,” he added. “People would watch Amar Akbar Anthony as well as Guddi. But now, tolerance for challenging cinema has dipped.”

Nilanjan Ghosh, 45, a marketing executive in the audience, said he found the discussion refreshingly honest. “Mahadevan spoke without worrying about being politically correct,” he added.

For Kamalika Ray, the biggest takeway was an introduction to Iranian filmmakers. “I knew about some of them. Now, I will check out the rest,” she said.