By Mir Mohsin Ali
RIYADH — A film festival kicked off Thursday evening at the Indian Embassy auditorium with the screening of Bollywood movie Stanley Ka Dabba (Stanley’s Tiffin Box).
Indian Ambassador Ahmed Javed inaugurated the film festival, dubbed “Ambassador’s Choice – A Screening of Films”.
Viewers included diplomats of others countries, embassy staff and their families and a large number of community members.
The ambassador invited the diplomats of other countries to participate in the festival by screening movies from their countries.
[caption id="attachment_100875" align="alignright" width="300"]
A view of the audience who included diplomats, embassy staff and a large number of community members.[/caption]In his welcome address, Javed said India is the largest producer of movies in the world and Bollywood has its own distinction in the film industry. He gave a description of the inaugural film and said movies are the most cementing sort of medium.
He said he was amazed to watch Hindi actors fluently speaking Arabic on the screen in dubbed movies. When he joined the embassy he watched different channels on OSN and surprised to see so many Hindi movies dubbed into Arabic. It shows the popularity of Hindi movies in the Arab world. The dubbing is done so perfectly that it gives an impression of original dialogues by the actors.
The film festival will continue through Dec. 30 and movies from different countries will be screened every Thursday and Friday.
Stanley Ka Dabba is a 2011 Hindi film written, directed and produced by Amole Gupte, starring Divya Dutta, Partho Gupte, Divya Jagdale, Raj Zutshi and Amole Gupte.
The film tells the story of a student who never brings his own lunch to school. He is threatened with expulsion unless he changes his ways, which has unexpected consequences for the entire school.
The film, which was made on a very low budget, received positive reviews from critics across India
