Giant hoardings celebrating the best of cinema have decked the city's skylines, capturing the essence of the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival, which brought together tinsel town glitterati and cinephiles on one platform.
Each of these promotional posters has iconic movie characters from international films and Indian movies captured in a single frame, blurring timeline and language barriers. The hoardings, corresponding to this year's KIFF's theme 'Bishwa Meley Chhobir Melay' (Meet the World at the World of Cinema), have received widespread appreciation on social media, with Amitabh Bachchan among others finding the artwork "imaginative and unique".
A poster where Charlie Chaplin from The Kid (1921) shares space with Apu from Pather Panchali (1955) has subtly tried to draw a connection in their childish innocence through parallelism. Ralph Fiennes from The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) is seen in another poster with Rabi Ghosh from Galpa Holeo Satyi (1966), conveying the commonality between the two caretakers, one of a hotel and another of a middle-class family caught in cacophonic arguments. The one in which Bachchan from Sholay meets Al Pacino of Scarface has particularly won many hearts, both on Instagram and in real life.
Talking about the Big B's poster, KIFF office-bearer Sudeshna Roy said, "Both are superstars in their own world. It is in these posters the two legends have come together, transcending timelines. "One of the hoardings shows Uttam Kumar from Nayak (1966) with Jean Seberg from Breathless (1960), while another one has Soumitra Chatterjee as Feluda sitting next to Tom Hanks from Forrest Gump (1994), both the posters staying true to this year's KIFF theme.
Director Mahesh Bhatt, who had graced the inaugural programme of KIFF, had described the concept as "coming together of hearts of the West and the East".Shuvaprasanna, the chairman of the exhibition committee of KIFF, said the idea was to find a connection between Indian and international cinema. "The posters are not just eye-catching but also intellectually rich, and it is but natural for cinephiles to like and appreciate the concept," he added.