From left Lubna Salim, Dimple Luniya & Vandana Malik

MUMBAI, JAN 25- Today being the ‘Voters Day,’ India Non-Fiction Festival (INFF) had an initiative called ‘I Vote’. More than 200 youth of Mumbai took a pledge to vote in the coming elections and fifty of them received their voting cards at the event. The Collector of Mumbai, Chandrashekhar V Oak gave and inspiring speech about the importance of the youth of this country coming together through the voting method and create a better future for all.

The talk of betterment continued with renowned documentary filmmakers like Anil Zankar, Aditya Seth, Kundu and Pankaj Butalia spoke about creating non-fiction movies with a creative twist. The difference between news and documentaries and the various efforts being made by individuals and government to improve the documentary market.

In the session ‘Mythology: Non Fiction’ Ashwin Sanghi, Swami Shubh Vilas and Vinod Advani enthralled the audience with amazing insight from the world of Mythology. “A Myth is a lie that reveals a truth,” said Ashwin Sanghi.Swami Vilas continued on this journey by connecting the world of Ram to that of a common man. “History which we do not have access to because of separation of time becomes mythology,” he announced.

In another session ‘Heroes Everywhere and Within’ Geeta Anand, Faith Johnston, Jerry Almedia and Manjeet Kriplani spoke about how there is a hero within all of us and all we need to do is try and find it. While Sanskars in the New India by R Gopalkrishnan and Kumaar Bagrodia had a conversation about the culture of our country, the changes we see in values today and their own personal journey on this earth.

Suraj Eskay Sriram, won the audience with his humor and wit at the launch of his book ‘Excuse Me; Can We Have Our Country Back?’ Every day, the common man in India struggles against the ills of corruption, poor governance and much more. With tongue-in-cheek cartoons and illustrations, this book highlights the plight of the citizens of this country.

‘Indian Youth and Electoral Politics’ by Sanjay Kumar, explores the significant relationship between Indian youth and electoral politics in the country.

The launch of the book and the panel discussion with Sanjay Pugalia, Meera Sanyal, Niranjan Rajaadhyaksha, that followed, discussed issues like Does a young candidate matter to the young voters? Do youth vote more enthusiastically if there are young candidates contesting elections? The book looks at the level of awareness of the youth about political issues and analyzes youth interest and participation in electoral politics.

 ‘Elections 2014, Media & Women: Trapping the power within’ with Uday Shankar, Somnath Batabyal, R Jagannathan and Sangita Menon Malhan was an interesting discussion on why the women in this country do not vote and how campaigns like ‘Jago Re’ by Tata can actually create a difference.

 ‘Debunking Myths about the Occult’ was a mystical session where powers of Feng Shui, Heaven, earth and mankind energy were discussed by Dimple Luniya, Vandana Malik and Lubna Salim. Where to keep your gas and how to place your pillow were discussed with much ardor and Chinese astrology reasoning.

In ‘A Different Cinema and our Reality’ Jigna Kothari and Pankaj Butalia took the audience on a magical journey in the land of dreams, Cinema. The way movies are made, characters created and the craft of creating sensational, dramatic, emotional, inspirational scenes on celluloid were discussed with much passion and zeal. The audience was in rapture indeed.

Tomorrow, 26th January is the last day of the festival. So make your Sunday exciting by meeting some of these amazing authors and reading some of their wonderful works.