Indian films hog spotlight at Cannes

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">MUMBAI: It is a special occasion for Indian cinema, as the 55th Cannes international film festival honours mainstream Indian cinema this year. <br />The festival, which opens today, will run till May 26. It is hugely disappointing that no non-mainstream Indian films have been selected for the festival. Nonetheless, Cannes has acknowledged popular Indian cinema with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas in the official selection, though out of competition.<br />Moreover, it will showcase three films of Raj Kapoor, whom Cannes describes as the Prince of Bollywood’—<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Aag</span> (1948), <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Barsaat</span> (1949) and Awara (1951).In addition, two short films have been selected, Manish Jha’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">A Very Very Silent Film</span> (five minutes) as well as Tridib Kumar Poddar’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Khoj </span>26 minutes), in the Cinefondation section for films sent by film schools, in this case, the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute SRFTI).<br />While in earlier years, it was mostly NFDC officials and non-mainstream filmmakers who went to Cannes, this year a large posse of mainstream film industrywallahs are expected to attend. These include Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Yash Chopra, Karan and Yash Johar, Subhash Ghai,Amit Khanna,Pritish Nandy, Raj Kapoor’s wife Krishna, son Randhir Kapoor and daughter Ritu Nanda, as well as minister of information and broadcasting, Sushma Swaraj.<br />Mr Bhansali, who has a thing for stories of unrequited love (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam</span>), has recreated <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Devdas</span> as an opulent version of Saratchandra Chatterjee’s novel. It is the tenth Indian film version of the enduring classic. Featuring Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit, the film’s protagonist is a man who is unable to make decisive choices about the two women he loves, and ends up losing both.<br />As he put it, “<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Devdas</span>’ USP abroad is its unique vision of India. This isn’t the India of arid land and parched throats they’ve seen so far. is classical Indian literature treated in an opulent, glamorous way. Devdas opens up another India for Westerners.’’<br />The opening film at the Cannes festival is Woody Allen’s Hollywood Ending and the closing film is Claude Lelouch’s And Now..Ladies and Gentlemen. The 22 films in competition vying the Golden Palm are dominated North American and British offerings. <br />These include Paul Thomas Anderson’s<span style="" font-style:="" italic=""> Punch-Drunk Love</span>, Michael Moore’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Bowling for Columbine</span>, David Cronenberg’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Spider</span>, Mike Leigh’s<span style="" font-style:="" italic=""> All or Nothing</span> Ken Loach’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Sweet Sixteen</span>. <br />Says Deepankar Mukhopadhyay, managing director, NFDC, Cannes’ choices indicate a change mindset. Our mainstream cinema has got a boost.They seem to be looking at the Indian musical of 50 years ago and today. Musicals have and Cannes is following the trend. Parallel cinema in India is an endangered species.’’<br />Says Jatin Sarkar, director of the SRFTI, “This is the first time an Indian short film has been selected the Cinefondation section, and it feels great. Khoj, a diploma film shot on 35 mm, was selected from five films we sent.’’<br />Says Tridib Kumar Poddar, “It is nice to get recognition for your work. Khoj is about the journey of man who goes in search of his friend, who disappeared many years ago. We shot the film in Jharkhand with a crew of 50, including veteran actress Geeta De. I hope the selection makes it easier to make my next film.’’<br />Manish Jha’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">A Very Very Silent Film</span> is about a homeless woman who dies on the street and how her acquaintances bid her farewell.The film was shown at the Mumbai International Film Festival earlier this year. Its 24-year-old director was recently in Iceland, researching his debut feature film.<br />Aag, Raj Kapoor’s directorial debut film, is about a country boy disfigured by a scar, who dreams big and eventually builds his own theatre where Nargis becomes a star. Barsaat is a sombre musical classic contrasting different notions love, starring Kapoor and Nargis. <br />RK Studios’ first major hit, is remembered for Shankar-Jaikishen’s hits, including <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Hawa mein udta jaye mera lal dupatta</span> and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Jiya bekarar hai </span>by Lata Mangeshkar. <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Awara,</span> Raj Kapoor’s most famous film, features him as a judge’s estranged son brought up a criminal, who is redeemed by love of his childhood sweetheart (Nargis). It is cherished, among other things, for its songs, including Awara hoon and Ghar aya mera pardesi.<br />We wait to see if Mr Bhansali can grab foreign audiences as well, way Raj Kapoor once did.</div> </div>