IFFI might not have had too many present-day Bollywood superstars, but it has been fitting to see that both the opening and the closing ceremonies have honoured motion picture veterans, legends in their own right.
While Dev Anand did the honours earlier, this time the onus fell on Mithun Chakraborty. Curiously, despite the actor featuring in two films in the festival this year, (Kaalpurush and Swapner Din, both directed by Buddhadeb Bhattacharya), Rakshanda referred only to his age-old mainstream glory, using Disco Dancer as an adjective while calling the man on stage.
The actor was attired classily, in a black kurta and traditionally ornate Bengali dhoti, and laughed when he said, "I don't think I need to talk too much, as my introduction just said Disco Dancer. Now, since I can't do the disco in this dhoti, I might as well leave the stage."
The IFFI 2005 jury comprised Chilean director Miguel Littin (Chairman); French director Alain Corneau, Indian director Saeed Akhtar Mirza, Iranian actor Faramarz Gharibian and Austrian director Sabine Derflinger.
Mithun came on stage again to give away the Special Jury award to director Tom Hooper for his South African film Red Dust, a court room drama set in the post-apartheid era.
On behalf of the jury, Saeed Mirza felicitated Hooper's directorial debut for the "efficient use of cinematic language and a great understanding of the issue of human rights".