Mango Souffle strikes a sweet note

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">Mango. A fruit that denotes passion, heat. Souffle. Whipped up in a jiffy, easy to digest. There''s a reason behind that name. Shot in beautiful mango groves, Mahesh Dattani''s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Mango Souffle </span>combines the serious with the light-hearted. <br />Issues that need to be tackled. Ideas that need to be mulled over. As a film it has the right ingredients: good acting, a wonderful script and brilliant music. And its Unique Selling Proposition could well be that the movie was screened at the 5th Annual Bangkok Film Festival on October 25, 2002.<br />Naturally, producer Sanjeev Shah was a little nervous about how people would accept the film there. Especially considering that the audience wasn''t completely Indian or young. Old, white, Asian, Indian, young. They all came to see what India had to offer. <br />Shah couldn''t have asked for a better response. People laughed at the right moments, gasped when they ought to have, and applauded when the credits rolled. In fact, people even walked up to the first-time producer and shook his hand, asking him when the film would be screened again so that they could bring friends along.<br />No slapstick humour of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">American Desi </span>or whacky theme of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Bend it Like Beckham.</span> According to Brian Bennet, the festival director, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Mango Souffle </span>pressed all the right buttons. "It''s a film in English and it''s about homosexuality. This was the first Indian film in English that''s been screened at the festival."<br />Since the idea behind the festival was to bring films that are enriching and exciting for an audience, people there got to see a range of films from various countries. It also gave them the opportunity to compare films and cultures. Bangkok was a great experience for Shah and his wife Seema, who was production designer for the film, for they got to meet like-minded filmmakers.<br />"These are independent films that push the edge and expand people''s minds. Some countries make films that are unique to their culture and for some it''s the only way to get their message across to people," Bennet said.</div> </div>