Indian cinema set to make waves at Locarno

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">MUMBAI: India is set to make quite a splash at the 55th Locarno International Film Festival that takes place from August 1-11. Aamir Khan, whose <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Lagaan</span> kick-started everything, has been honoured as a jury member of the international competition of the festival.<br />Aamir Khan will be among the delegation of film personalities who will head for that charming Swiss town, accompanying a special ‘Indian Summer’ package of 30 films.The films, curated by Uma da Cunha, include superb selection of both Bollywood as well as regional cinema picked from the last 25 years.<br />In addition, Aparna Sen’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Mr and Mrs Iyer</span> is in the international competition, and Ram Madhvani’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Let’s Talk</span> is in the international video competition. Both English features, they are a premonition of Indian cinema to come. The first is a love story set in a time of violence, while the second, a digital video, concerns the deterioration of a marriage.<br />Aamir Khan will rub shoulders with distinguished fellow jurists, including Iranian director Jafar Panahi (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The Circle</span>, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Golden Lion</span>, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Venice</span>), Bruno Ganz (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Wings of Desire)</span> and Niloufar Pazira.<br />The Indian delegation, with about 25 guests, includes Aparna Sen, Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Ismail Merchant, Mrinal Sen, Girish Karnad, Goutam Ghose and Deepankar Mukhopadhyay of NFDC. A book, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Indian Summer: Films, Filmmakers and Stars Between Ray and Bollywood</span>, edited by Italian director Italo Spinelli, will also be released.<br />On August 5, there will be a <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Milon Mela</span> directed by Abani Biswas, which will have Baul musicians, Kalaripayattu artistes and Chhau dancers livening up the streets and squares of the old town. <br />August 8 will be mainly devoted to Indian cinema and culture, with discussions exploring the linkages between Indian literature and cinema. Panelists include Aamir Khan, Anita Desai (author, who wrote the screenplay of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">In Custody</span>) and Aruna Vasudev (editor of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Cinemaya</span> and director of the Cinefan Asian film festival).<br />There are not many precedents in which varied facets of Indian cinema have been honoured on such a scale except the Indomania festival in Paris in 1995. As Irene Bignardi, director of the Locarno festival, told TNN, "Our audiences are sophisticated in the extreme.<br />"They’ve always been appreciative of Indian cinema, but mostly they have been exposed to the work of masters like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Adoor Gopalakrishnan. However, with <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Lagaan</span>, they’ve developed a taste for Bollywood cinema, and this prompted us to include a whole Indian film segment in this festival.’’<br />Says curator Uma da Cunha, “The Indian Summer selection is meant to give the audience a taste of Indian cinema’s many facets—popular and regional cinema, as well as varied forms, such as the operatic style of G. Aravindan’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Marattam</span>. I have chosen 30 films from the last 25 years and attempt to connect realistic films with popular mainstream cinema. There are also two films as tributes to their directors, Mrinal Sen’s latest film <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Aamar Bhuvan</span> (This, My Land) and Ismail Merchant’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">In Custody</span>.’’<br />In keeping with the current interest in Bollywood at festivals worldwide, the package of 30 films has only three mainstream films. But each of them is a landmark—Ramesh Sippy’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Sholay</span>, Shekhar Kapur’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Mr India</span> and Rajiv Menon’s Tamil film <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Kandukondain Kandukondain</span> (I See, I Discover).<br />The rest of the films evokes a rich palette of non-mainstream cinema in a range of cinematic styles and languages. They include Satyajit Ray’s ‘Shatranj ke Khiladi’ and Shyam Benegal’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Junoon</span>. <br />The formidable Kerala posse includes classics like Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Elippathayam</span>, Shaji Karun’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Piravi</span>, Jayaraj’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Kaliyattam</span> and Santosh Sivan’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The Terrorist</span>.<br />The Bengali selection includes Goutam Ghose’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Antarjali Yatra</span> and Rituparno Ghosh’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Utsab</span>. There’s also Govind Nihalani’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Ardh Satya</span>, Ketan Mehta’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Mirch Masala</span> and Mani Ratnam’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Iruvar</span>. <br />To tickle the audiences pink, there’s Pradeep Krishen’s ripping satire <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones</span> (1989), with a screenplay by Arundhati Roy, who also stars in it.<br />As the Swiss consul general Josef Renggli says, “We are happy that the package honours an entire spectrum of Indian cinema beyond Bollywood. Meanwhile, we are getting a very good response to the three-month-long Bollywood exhibition currently showing at the Museum for Design in Zurich, and hope to bring it to Mumbai early next year.’’ <br />If only the ‘Indian Summer’, with its grand sweep, would come to Mumbai as well. </div> </div>