HYDERABAD: The golden elephant props adorned every corner of the venue, children sang along in their colourful attires and so did parents and teachers.The jury was set, but day one of the 17th International Children’s Film Festival at Shilparamam started off on a jarring note on Tuesday.The film festival had lined up 17 movies for the first day at the three screens, which were specially erected for movie screenings during the course of the festival.The morning shows, which were supposed to start by 9:30 am, began an hour later, leaving the children, audience and the jury waiting impatiently inside the theatres.On top of that, the delayed movie screenings were followed by audio glitches.Speakers gave no relief with their static sound.Finally, when the crowd settled and the reels started rolling, there were more than three breaks between a 60-minute movie for reel change, making the kids restless.With people allowed to walk in at random, the screens were blanked out several times and technicians too didn’t rise to the occasion with every reel change bringing in an interruption.On being asked as to how they were liking the fest, one of the visiting delegates, chaperoning a school group, said, “The experience will be good I guess, but there’s a lot more organisation required.Things have been pretty haphazard so far.” Another chaperon observed, “There is so much confusion here.Everybody is wearing the same tag.We do not know who to interact with and ask for queries.” Asked a b o u t t h e same, special officer to Shilparamam, GN Rao said, “We have fixed the errors and all the things have been sorted out.We have tried doing something different and enjoyable for the children this time so that they spend time in a nice environment.” Nandita Das, chairperson, Children’s Film Society India (CFSI), too said, “We have tried bringing in something new and since it’s the first day, a few glitches are always a part of it.We have worked on them and by afternoon, I am sure they will start flowing even more smoothly.”
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