Goa flaunted its physical proximity to Bollywood and uncorked its effervescent Portuguese spirit as the 36th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) got off to a festive start amid unbridled glitter and glamour on Thursday evening on Panaji's famed Mandovi riverfront.

Bollywood stars like Urmila Matondkar and Dino Morea, among others, performed live in the INOX multiplex courtyard after the traditional lamp-lighting ceremony was presided over by the evening's chief guest, the evergreen Dev Anand, his jaunty gait and toothy grin firmly in place. Screen scorcher Bipasha Basu and National Award-winning Kanada actress Thara were at hand to help the veteran actor-director-producer do the honours.

The screening of the festival's opening film, Brazilian director Jayme Monjardim's "Olga", followed the formal inauguration of IFFI 2005. The director and the film's lead actress, Camila Morgado, were introduced to the 1,500-strong audience in the INOX courtyard before the action moved to the four screens of the multiplex, which was erected in record time last year for Goa's first shot at IFFI.

Probably for the first time ever in the history of IFFI, the curtains went up on the festival without the union information and broadcasting minister being in attendance. Present at the opening show was Urban Development and Culture Minister S. Jaipal Reddy, who lost his I&B portfolio less than a week back in a minor cabinet reshuffle.

The new I&B minister, Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, who is yet to fully settle into the job, is expected to make an appearance in Panaji within the next few days.

Earlier in the afternoon, a short distance away from the main venue of the film festival, Goa Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane flagged off a parade of floats to kick-off of the "Celebrating IFFI Goa 2005" festivities. The colourful, wonderfully designed floats wended their way along the riverfront and past the Grand Stand of the Old Goa Medical College complex before ending up at Campal in the heart of Panaji.

The spirit of IFFI Goa, only its second year, had well and truly hit town.

At the other end of the promenade, at Caranzalem, the English version of Ketan Mehta's "Mangal Pandey - The Rising" had its Indian premiere in an open-air beach screening. With the star of the film, Aamir Khan, in town for the occasion, excitement had reached fever pitch in the hours leading up to the premiere.

Among other celebrities spotted at the IFFI inauguration were Pooja Bhatt, the director of "Holiday", a new Hindi film set entirely in Goa, and its female lead, newcomer Onjolee Nair, who struck a nifty rhythm with co-star Dino Morea on stage.

The opening film, "Olga", one of Brazil's biggest hits last year, also has a connection, though a trifle less direct, with Goa. The Portuguese-language period drama, in a way, reinforced Goa's links with its colonial and cultural past.

"Olga" is the story of the heroic but tragic life of Communist revolutionary Olga Benario, who died in a Nazi gas chamber at the age of 34 during World War II. A Jew born in Germany, she ended up in Brazil when the party gave her the job of escorting a leading Brazilian political figure of the time, Luis Carlos Prestes, to the sprawling South American country thought ripe for Communism. By the end of the long voyage, Olga and Carlos became lovers and, eventually, man and wife.

In one of Brazilian history's darkest chapters, the then president Getulio Vargas, a Nazi sympathiser, deported Olga to Hitler's Germany. The powerful and disturbing political saga set the tone for what, at least on paper, promises to be a wonderful film festival.