Children’s Literature, Cinema and Immunity take centre stage at the Second Day of Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2022

Kolkata, 22 January 2022: The second day of the 13th edition of Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival unfurled conversations with a stellar line up of delegates like Andy Griffiths, Vir Sanghvi, Seema Goswami, Sandip Roy, Aparna Sen, Kalyan Ray, Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, Dr. Mickey Mehta, Shobhaa De, Rahul Rawail discussing fiction, cinema, health, gastronomy, children’s literature and concluded discussing the extravagant journey of one of the greatest filmmakers in Bollywood, Raj Kapoor.

Key sessions included Vir Sanghvi and Seema Goswami: Unfiltered, a candid conversation about their lives and writing journeys ; Living It Colourful with Andy Griffiths; Celebrating Distinguished Film Historian Chidananda Dasgupta with his daughter Aparna Sen as a speaker on the panel along with other veterans; “Lockdown Liaisons” – Love in the Time of Covid by famous author and columnist Shobhaa De; Immunity – Our Survival Kit with co-authors of the book Immunity+: Revitalise in 28 Days , Indian chef, TV host, entrepreneur and author Chef Sanjeev Kapoor and holistic health guru, Dr. Mickey Mehta and the day wrapped discussing filmmaker Raj Kapoor – The Master at Work with Rahul Rawail and Vani Tripathi Tikoo.

The opening session Seema Goswami and Vir Sanghvi: Unfiltered introduced the audience to an absolutely enthralling conversation with journalist- author couple Seema Goswami and Vir Sanghvi talking about their lives and writing journeys. Commissioning editor at Penguin Random House and moderator for the session, Shreya Punj discussed their respective books Race Course Road, Madam Prime Minister and A Rude Life during the conversation. Speaking at the session Seema added, “I was a part of the political world as I used to do political journalism, I covered elections; interviewed politicians. Little snippets of people stick with you and then you sit down to write, they say write what you know. What you know are the people around you. So you consciously or unconsciously pick up from their lives, their mannerisms, the way they speak and all becomes part of your book.”
Celebrating Distinguished Film Historian Chidananda Dasgupta was a riveting session honouring and remembering the eminent filmmaker, critic and historian, and one of the founders of Calcutta Film Society with Satyajit Ray in 1947. His daughter, Aparna Sen revealed many unknown facets of Chidananda Dasgupta’s life and how his interest in cinema grew as a result of working with Satyajit Ray in the same office. Co-panellist Kalyan Ray rightfully added, “He had an umbilical connection between society, film, music and all of these aspects. He believed that evolution of cinema is a reflection of the evolution of society and Dasgupta was also deeply interested in other parts of cinema in India.”

National Award-winning Filmmaker Goutam Ghosh who was also a part of the session said, “I must thank Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival and Oxford Bookstores for remembering Chidananda Dasgupta. He was a very cultivated person with a very cultivated mind. He was very well-read across genres, be it literature, visual arts, music or cinema. He is perhaps one of the pioneers as a critic and theorist, who had shown us the way how to read a film.”
The concluding session of the day Raj Kapoor – The Master at Work with Rahul Rawail and Vani Tripathi Tikoo made viewers nostalgic reminiscing the golden era of Indian cinema with Raj Kapoor’s movies like Mera Naam Joker. The filmmaker- author said “Raj Kapoor knew everything at the tip of his fingers and that was what was fantastic and inspired everyone to keep them going.” Actor and moderator for the session Vani Tripathi Tikoo added, “The title of the book – Raj Kapoor the Master at Work is very interesting. Everyone saw Raj Sahab as a great showman, a fantastic filmmaker, and his tremendous journey from bringing the underdog to the screen to creating the most gorgeous romantic films of contemporary Indian History cinematically but Rahul Rawail’s the book is just not about his craft as a filmmaker it’s full of how stunning as a person as he was.”