Cinema is the greatest mirror for reflecting a society’s struggles, unexplored ideas and unspoken issues. In an attempt to celebrate the innate flavour of Indian cinema by maintaining the authenticity of the typical Bollywood style, the eighth edition of the Jagran Film festival allowed Delhi’ites to enjoy movies at their best. Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor, along with Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, accompanied by the Moroccan Ambassador, Mohammad Maliki, graced the inaugural ceremony.

At the inception of the five-day-long film gala, a special screening of the unreleased movie Fakir of Venicewas organised for cinebuffs in the presence of director and producer duo, Anand Surapur and Punit Desai. The screening was followed by the trailer launch of the just-released film Mom, in which Sridevi and Nawazuddin Siddiqui are in the leading roles. Day one also witnessed the screening of rare international titles — Purple Horizons and Horses of God.

Transcending the cultural and geographical boundaries of India and uniting film enthusiasts from various corners of the world, the Jagran Film Festival attempted to present a treat for cinema lovers by showcasing unique and popular movies.

Basant Rathore, senior vice-president Jagran Prakashan said, “I am elated to be a part of the eighth edition of the Jagran Film Festival, which is truly India’s only Travelling Film Festival. We have successfully presented a series of local and international film screenings every year and the fact that many leading personalities of Bollywood embrace the occasion to share their passion and views, and further engage with cinema, is a testimony to how much they love this distinguished platform.

We are honoured to have their participation and at the same time, see the amazing response from the growing audience every year.” On the screening list, names of some popular and critically-acclaimed movies appeared like Agneepath, Pink, Shivaayand M S Dhoni:The Untold Story to name a few. Much-feted English movies such as The Social Network and Black Cat, along with other foreign language movies like Bravo Virtuosoand The Letter Boxwere also screened at the festival.

Tannishtha Chatterjee, the Indian actress, who starred in the British film, Brick Lane, also graced the occasion with her presence during the special screening of her yet to be released movie, Doctor Rakhmabai. The film is based on the life of a lady doctor whose fight against gender discrimination has been retold brilliantly through the movie. The festival also saw more faces from the film fraternity joining in and bonding over their love for cinema. Sarika Salian, Tisca Chopra, Paaki A Tyrewala, Rakesh Bedi and Vinod Pandey were present, giving a versatile flair to proceedings. The one-of-a-kind “travelling film festival”, saw huge participation from different sections of audiences.

Actress Swara Bhaskar, who was present at the festival, received plaudits for her performance in Anaarkali of Aarah. The Jagran Film Festival also paid homage to legendary actor Om Puri, who passed away recently.

As part of the event, large groups of people from New Delhi came together to light candles outside Siri Fort Auditorium as a mark of respect. The event was followed by the closing ceremony and screening of the closing film, Mr Kabaadi, which is the last movie in which Puri appeared. Like every year, the eighth edition of the Jagran Film Festival will travel across 16 cities in India.

This year, it begins with Delhi and travels through Kanpur followed by Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Dehradun, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bhopal, Indore, Hisar, Ludhiana, Meerut and Raipur. It will culminate in Mumbai.