The
presence
of
Aamir
Khan
and
Kamal
Hassan,
India's
two
finest
film
personalities,
at
the
opening
ceremony
of
the
11th
Chennai
International
Film
Festival
(CIFF),
turned
the
evening
unforgettable
for
the
audiences
and
organisers
on
Thursday
(December
12).
Organised
by
the
Indo
Cine
Appreciation
Foundation
(ICAF)
in
association
with
the
government
of
Tamil
Nadu
and
several
luminaries
of
Tamil
film
fraternity,
the
eight-day
extravaganza
(Dec
12-19)
will
screen
163
films
from
58
countries.
The
event
began
with
the
musical
performances
of
playback
singer
Karthik
and
pianist
Anil
Srinivasan,
who
played
some
of
the
evergreen
Tamil
hits
of
Illayaraja
to
a
packed
hall
here.
Karthik
dedicated
a
couple
of
Hindi
songs
such
as
'Behka'
and
'Phela
Nasha'
to
Aamir
Khan,
who
attended
the
festival
as
the
chief
guest.
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The
Aamir-Kamal
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The
musical
show
was
followed
by
dance
performances
by
TV
anchor-dancer
Swarnamalya
and
actress-dancer
Shobana.
Later,
the
performers
of
the
evening
received
mementos
from
Kamal
Hassan
and
Aamir
Khan.
This
is
the
fourth
year
in
a
row;
CIFF
has
introduced
a
special
competition
section
for
Tamil
films.
Actress,
writer
and
dubbing
artist
Rohini
introduced
the
jury
for
this
section
which
constitutes
R.
Sripriya,
S
Ramakrishnan
and
RV
Udayakumar.
As
many
as
12
films
such
as
Soodhu
Kavvum,
Aadhalal
Kadhal
Seiveer,
Haridas,
Paradesi
and
Kumki,
among
others,
will
battle
it
out
for
the
prize
money
of
Rs.6
lakh.
Actress
Suhasini
Maniratnam,
the
festival
organiser,
mediated
a
question-and-answer
session
with
Kamal
Hassan,
who
answered
select
questions
from
different
members
of
Tamil
cine
world.
Answering
one
of
the
questions
by
legendary
singer
SP
Balasubrahmanyam
on
the
need
for
qualified
critics
in
censor
board,
Hassan
said,
"I
strongly
feel
only
qualified
people
should
be
there
in
the
censor
board.
Industry
should
take
responsibility
of
censorship."
"The
people
we
have
on
our
censor
board
are
not
qualified.
They
like
cinema,
they
may
be
watching
films
regularly
but
that
doesn't
make
them
experts.
All
political
parties
want
one
of
their
members
to
be
part
of
the
censor
board
and
that's
wrong," Kamal
added.
Aamir
spoke
about
the
need
for
a
chain
of
theatres
to
screen
international
films
in
the
country.
"I
sometimes
wish
in
India
we
had
a
chain
of
theatres
which
would
throughout
the
year
showcase
films
from
different
parts
of
the
world.
Even
films
from
different
parts
of
our
country,
films
from
different
languages
which
we
could
all
get
to
watch,"
he
said.
The
festival
was
also
graced
by
international
film
personalities
from
other
countries
including
Serbia,
France,
Iran,
Ukraine,
Poland,
and
Mexico.
This
year,
CIFF
will
have
retrospectives
of
international
filmmakers
such
as
Goran
Paskaljevic
from
Serbia
(seven
films),
French
filmmaker
Claire
Denis
(five
films)
and
Istvan
Szabo
from
Hungary
(three
films).
The
festival
will
also
have
a
special
section
showcasing
six
films
from
contemporary
Turkey
apart
from
a
country
focus
on
Taiwan
and
Iran
as
well.
Japanese
drama
'Like
Father,
Like
Son'
opened
the
fest.
IANS