When probed, the festival authorities re-iterated the shut-down crisis of single-screen theatre-houses and cited fund-crunch problems to reinstate this carnival of new cinema to its former glory.The renowned heritage premises of Star Theatre in Kolkata (originally built during the British Raj in 1883) situated in its northern Hati Bagan fringes was finally restored to its pristine image by the local municipal corporation from an inevitable doom after a part of it was destroyed in fire.g. From adherents of yesteryear Marxist ideology to present-day supporters of "grassroots" politics, all have graced the occasion to light the lamp and unfurl the festival. Basusree, Lighthouse, New Empire, Globe, Chaplin, et al. It would be quite a pocket-pinch when as students we used to throng at cinema halls to enjoy movie-viewing.With the change of guard at state administration level in West Bengal, there has been a noticeable "paribartan" in hosting its cultural programmes too.Offering a much-needed platform to showcase talents of fresh, emerging filmmakers alongside a coterie of established names, the current edition of IFNC granted the wholesale plastic cutlery cinebuffs with an opportunity to check out and experience new waves and trends in the multifarious sphere of world cinema.

But before they tumble down to a collapsing fate, hope a miracle happens to save the impending disaster. A comprehensive package of European, Scandinavian, middle-eastern, Belarusian, Bangladeshi and Latin American films summed up the schedule for this year’s fiesta. But when so much is going on to shoot TRPs and climb up the chart of fame, one wonders then what went wrong with single-screen theatres that are deplorably languishing in dilapidated conditions in negligence and want of care. In the spree of thus lending a progressive facelift to centuries-old cities, often their old world charm and quintessential flavours get lost in process. Similar danger may be lurking upon the other famous halls of erstwhile Calcutta which would invariably showcase classic cinema. Cine Central President Shyamal Kumar Sen fondly recalled the dirt-cheap ticket prices of the past in comparison to today’s exorbitant rates. A horde of eminent personalities like Vidyasagar, Ramakrishna Parama-hamsa and Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore had visited this site to watch innumerable stage shows as that was the only source of entertainment in performing arts, those days

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