The 'Habitat Film Festival 2023', scheduled to be held from May 5 to 14 at the India Habitat Centre in the national capital promises to offer a selection of the finest of Indian cinema. The pan-Indian platter includes about 60 features, documentaries and short films in 17 languages. Films will be screened in Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Assamese, Maithili, Odia, Hindi, English, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Ladakhi, Meiteilon, and, for the first time, Kumaoni.

For the first time, several films will have their national and Delhi premieres at the festival. The national premiers include the Malayalam film 'Meghdoot/ The Cloud Messenger' directed by Rahat Mahajan, and two Bengali films: Sujit Kumar Pyne's 'Meghbari', and Aritra Sen's 'Ghore Pherar Gaan/ The Homecoming Song'.

Delhi premiers include 'Tora's Husband', an Assamese film by award-winning filmmaker Rima Das; Gautham Ramachandran's Tamil film 'Gargi', and 'Arivu Mattu Guruvu/ The Word and The Teacher', a multilingual film by Prashant Pandit.

This year marks the birth centenary of filmmaker Mrinal Sen. A small retrospective of some of his seminal films, including 'Khandhar', 'Ek Din Pratidin' and 'Ek Din Achanak' will be screened.

Some documentaries that will be shown include 'All That Breathes', 'Urf', 'Colours of Life', 'The Show Must Go On' and 'Mask Art of Majuli'. Talks and book launches will also be held. Entry is through registration which starts on May 1. [IANS/NS]