It is that time of the year called the silly season or the IFFY(I) season which begins on the 20th Nov 2014 this year. Notwithstanding varied criticism from different quarters the Goa government continues to waste money on IFFI, to the extent of Rs 10 crore as quoted by the head of the ESG. It is not that the IFFI is undesirable but what is objectionable is the manner in which it is held where public money is wasted to make it a spectacle, more like a tamasha.
Unnecessary expenditure in painting buildings down to the kerbstones and washing the Kala Academy boundary walls with water cannon and other things like decorations, flower arrangements etc. can be avoided. This annual exercise is to keep the small contractors of our political class vested interests happy. Hosting our film fraternity from stars to starlets at government expense is also avoidable since it does not add to the content of the film festival. Have the IFFI by all means but as a serious, professional film festival which will further the craft.
In this context the papers recently carried an article that the IFFI will show a Goan film in its mainstream section by Rajendra Talak and we should feel elevated about it since ten years ago you could not dream of such a thing. One wonders why we suffer from an inferiority complex since people like Rajendra Talak or Laxmikant Shetgaonkar would have made movies with or without the IFFI and it is the quality of the movies that they make which gets them the awards and national and international recognition rather than all this happening because of the IFFI being held in Goa. Let us not take away the individual credit due to them.
If we go back in time you will see that the then Goa government was fooled by the Centre to host the IFFI because the then CM, Manohar Parrikar was willing to spend on it. The other contenders for the IFFI like Mumbai, Kerala or Kolkata refused to kow-tow to the I&B Ministry orders to fund the festival. That was the only reason that IFFI came to Goa which transition was cemented because at that juncture in time the NDA government also took office at the Centre sympathetic to the BJP led government in Goa.
Goa has also been confirmed as the permanent venue of the IFFI because we continue to agree to spend funds to the tune of Rs 10 crore from our scarce funds. Nowhere has a bigger scam in event-related matters been perpetrated on a state government than the IFFI scam on Goa. It is time that we reviewed this from next year and hold the IFFI in a more subdued manner and cut out the plans to erect buildings to house the permanent secretariat of the IFFI etc. spending more crore from State funds.
