A literary opening — Manto to open Jaipur Film Festival

Looks like there is no stopping Manto, Sarmad Sultan Khoosat's biopic on the iconoclast writer. The film has crossed the border not only for any film festival screenings, but as their grand opener. Manto will open the Jaipur Film Festival, along with Deepika Padukone-Irrfan Khan starrer Piku on January 2.

Set to be inaugurated by filmmaker Prakash Jha, JFF's eighth edition will have UAE's Iraqi Odyssey and Rajasthan's Saankal as closing films, reported The Indian Express.

Showcasing a total of 152 films at Golecha Cinema, the festival will be presenting 35 feature films, 17 documentary feature films, 58 short films, 17 documentary short films and 15 short animation films. The films have been selected from a total of 2176 ones received from more than a 100 countries.

“There has been increased representation of films from Asian countries this time. There are representation of films from Pakistan, Afghanistan, UAE and Iran besides European countries and India. There are more than a dozen films on subjects concerning women to get screening in the Festival,” said Hanu Roj, festival director.

Previously Manto saw a full house at Washington DC South Asian Film Festival and was also screened at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, University of California, Berkeley, Georgetown University and University of Texas, Austin.