‘Eeb Allay Ooo!’, Gitanjali Rao’s ‘Bombay Rose’ win big at MAMI

PTI, Oct 25, 2019, 9:54 AM IST

Mumbai: Filmmaker Prateek Vats’s debut feature, “Eeb Allay Ooo!” has emerged as the top winner at the Jio MAMI 21st Mumbai Film Festival with Star, taking home the Golden Gateway prize.

The dramedy, about a young migrant, who takes up the job of mimicking langurs in Delhi, also bagged the young critics’ choice award besides earning the special jury mention for its lead actor, Shardul Bhardwaj in the India Gold category.

“I will cherish this for the rest of my life. It was an honour to be a part of this. No film is made without its team and I would like to thank my team for this. Thank you so much again,” Prateek said while receiving the award.

Director Gitanjali Rao’s animation feature debut, “Bombay Rose”, a romantic ode to the Maximum City, and Kislay’s “Aise Hi” tied with two wins each.

“Bombay Rose” won the Silver Gateway award and the Manish Acharya award for being the new voice in Indian cinema.

“This is very special. The audience has moved us, truly. Thank you Ma and MAMI, this is great,” Rao said receiving the award.

“Aise Hi” received the Films Critic Guild award and bagged the special jury mention for its lead performer Mohini Sharma.

Actor Deepika Padukone, who’s also the MAMI chairperson, said she learnt a lot in the last couple of months being involved with MAMI.

“I was fortunate to see one film out of the 190 films screened at the festival. My takeaway from the experience was the audience, people were just passionate about cinema. Some are related because they are aspiring directors, actors, but some of them are just pure audience who are passionate about great movies,” Deepika said at the closing ceremony of the festival.

The Grand Jury prize in the India Gold section for screenwriting went to Saurav Rai for “Nimtoh”.

In International Competition, the Golden Gateway was given to Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s “Honeyland”, while Rodd Rathjen’s “Buoyancy” won the Silver Gateway prize.

The Grand Jury prize was given to Suhaib Gasmelbari’s “Talking About Trees”. Amjad Abu Alala’s “You Will Die at Twenty” and Carlo Sironi’s “Sole” received the special jury mention.

The winners for the Dimensions Mumbai category were Akshay Sarjerao Danavale’s “Batti” (Golden Gateway), Shubham Sanap’s “Attention” (Silver Gateway).

Deeksha Mhaskar’s “Unsaid” and Avishkar Bharadwaj’s “Apna Apna Andaz” bagged the special jury mention.

Musician Sona Mohapatra-starrer documentary, “Shut Up Sona”, directed by Deepti Gupta, received the special jury mention in the Film Critics Guild Award section.

Danish Renzu’s “The Illegal”, starring Suraj Sharma and Adil Hussain, won the special award for discovering India in Association with Turkish Airlines.

Besides “Bombay Rose”, Achal Mishra’s “Gamak Ghar”- in a tie- received the Manish Acharya award for new voices in Indian cinema. Nikhil Rao’s “Indian Circus” won the Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films award.

In the Half Ticket section, the Golden Gateway award (in the age category 5-12) went to Guillaume Maidatchevsky’s “Ailo’s Journey”.

The Golden Gateway (in the age category 13-17) went to Valerie Barnhart’s “Girl in the Hallway”.

The Screen to Word MAMI-HarperCollins Imprint Grant went to Mukesh Manjunath while Sanchita Shetty was announced as the best young critic.

At the ceremony, it was also announced that the next edition of the festival will be held from November 5-12.