can you vish?

 If you know me personally, you might also know that I am a regular at the International Film Festval of Kerala, held annually in December at Thiruvananthapuram (and if you don’t know me personally, just read the first sentence). A habit that started during my Thiruvananthapuram days in 2016, I look forward and try to attend the week long celebration of cinema - unless life or a killer virus gets in the way. Prologue Since the dates for the next fest are officially announced during the conclusion of the current fest, what follows is an year long wait. Nothing significant happens for the most part of the year, so let us skip ahead to November - when the registration opens for delegates. Yes, we know that there are over ten thousand delegate passes and registration window usually lasts days - still most of my friends (and I) hit the servers with a passion  until our registrations go through. Once that is done, the wait begins for the schedule to be released - where we would come...

Most of the film festivals around us were conceived before a time when the numerous OTT platforms or even the Internet was a thing. Those days, we could only watch the movies that were screened in the cinemas near us. Film festivals were probably the only way to get a taste of cinema from around the world. Now, of course, times have changed so much that a South Korean TV show was the biggest hit of the past year worldwide. We have digital platforms offering carefully curated, critically acclaimed movies. Content has never been more accessible.  In such a time, have film festivals lost their relevance? One look at the huge crowds who turned up for this year’s IFFK would tell you the answer is a big, loud NO. Film festivals are all about movies, and yet not only about watching them. The feeling of a community action that you get when you see co-delegates with their clothe-bags and id tags, the adrenaline rush from the careful scrutiny of the screening schedule to pick the films match...