Do you remember that last day of school, back in 10th or 11th grade, when you knew you were free to do as you pleased for the summer, yet would not be seeing most of your friends — and lets not forget crushes! — until the beginning of the next school year? Well, the closing night at the MIAAC film festival typically feels just like that to me. After five days and five nights of films, filmmakers, interviews, events and superstars, I am glad to have a little time to write it all down and enjoy Thanksgiving off, but yet am left with a deep yearning in my heart knowing it will be a whole year before this wonderful extravaganza of Indian cinema hits our city again… 

This past Sunday night MIAAC came to an end. Surrounded by all the wonderful filmmakers and beloved superstars that attended this year’s phenomenal festival — with a more than stellar line-up of films and premieres — Aroon Shivdasani celebrated the final night with a film screening, an awards ceremony and a fabulous party at O’Neals. Although the year has been a hard one for the Indo-American Arts Council, the support of the volunteers, the love of the people behind the organization and the passion of the participants made for a magical night. 

This year’s closing night selection was ‘Antaheen’ — The Endless Wait — written and directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury and starring Rahul Bose, Aparna Sen, Kalyan Roy and Sharmila Tagore in a supporting cameo. It was an interesting selection for the final night of a festival that sparkled with excitement at every corner, and the film perhaps created the bittersweet feeling within me that I simply needed to mention in the title of this piece. Bengali films to me have always felt like French cinema, as the modern Hindi filmmakers remind me of Italian cinema in its best and purest form. Of course, comparisons always appear a bit condescending, but mine is simply based on tone and mood. While Hindi cinema tells the stories of modern India through events and action, Bengali films have that conversational narrative I associate mostly with the French. 

Before the film screening, the red carpet was informal and fun and the press interacted with the filmmakers and actors in a casual and friendly way. While others conducted interviews, I joked around with Sudhir Mishra about his positive dislike of photographs and photographers — in his shot he is actually answering me with some witty and wise comment — held Anurag Kashyap’s coffee cup, which I eventually finished myself and complimented Rajit Kapoor on his Indo-centric elegance in red and black. Sanjay Suri and Rahul Bose both won my ‘bespoke elegance’ award for the evening — Suri in a cream suit and lovely smile, Rahul in a black one with tight trousers — while Tannishtha Chatterjee was the sexiest and coolest babe in her cream dress and peep-toe pumps. And now, onto the awards…

Best Film Award went to ‘Bombay Summer’ directed by Joseph Mathew-Varghese. The award was presented by Tracey Jackson and Aasif Mandvi, and the other two nominees were ‘Barah Aana’ and ‘Two Paise for Sunshine…’ Best Director Award went to Joseph Mathew-Varghese for ‘Bombay Summer’ and it was handed to the deeply touched filmmaker by Mira Nair and Anurag Kashyap. Best Screenplay Award went to Deepti Naval for ‘Two Paise for Sunshine, Four Annas for Rain’ and was presented by Javed Akhtar and Amitav Ghosh. Best Actress went to Tannishtha Chatterjee for ‘Bombay Summer’ and she received the award from Shabana Azmi and Rahul Bose, beating out Sarita Choudhury and Manisha Koirala, two other favorites of mine! Best Actor was handed to Aasif Mandvi for ‘Today’s Special’ and he received the award from Sarita Choudhury and Shyam Benegal. Truth be told, I was shocked that he was chosen over personal absolute favorite Naseeruddin Shah for ‘Barah Aana’ and Rahul Bose, who is always so intense and just right… This would be the one place I would have to disagree with the judges. Moving on, Best Documentary went to ‘The Salt Stories’ by Lalit Vachani, presented by Madhur Jaffrey and Sanjay Suri and finally Best Short was awarded to ‘Good Night’ directed by Geetika Narang and presented by Manisha Koirala and Rajit Kapoor.

Also part of the evening was a showcase of three cell phone films taken during the festival by NYU students in Professor Karl Bardosh’s Cell Phone Cinema Class. The compositions could be anything the students wanted within the guidelines of the title ‘My MIAAC’ and the timing of one minute long each. The results were quite impressive!

Alas, I did not go to the afterparty. Why, you wonder? It was too much for the softie in me and saying bye to all my friends and colleagues seemed anticlimactic, after such a wonderful festival. I preferred to slide into the dark night and leave the goodbyes for a time when they could be turned into hellos once again…

All images courtesy of MIAAC - All photos by ©2009 Michael Toolan