Of Dead Seas And Indian Indie Films

“Whether we see our wives or not, we see a dead body everyday,” complains a policeman inspecting the body of a fisherman who has been shot at sea by the Sri Lankan Navy. That one line in Leena Manimekalai film ‘Sengadal’ or ‘The Dead Sea’ - the only Indian film in International Competition in the ongoing Mumbai Film Festival, seems to sum up not just this movie, but Indian films in general.

Whether you see good cinema in India or not you invariably get to see tactless blockbusters every Friday, could be a common complain of any cinema fan in India.

The Dead Sea is metaphorical and allegorical. 

And nowhere is this metaphoric example more evident than in Leena’s film, which from many perspectives, like technical aspects and even scripting may not be one that is up there, but there is no denying that this is an important film that needed to be made.

“60% of the film was illegally shot. We had to resort to guerilla style of filmmaking to finish it,” Leena told IANS.

‘The Dead Sea’ is a tale of oppression of a people. First of all the Sri Lankan Tamils, to avoid rape, hunger and death from the Sri Lankan authorities, smuggle themselves towards the Indian side, only to face persecution here.

Secondly the fishermen community of Rameshwaram who venture out to see are blatantly shot, beaten and in a few cases have even been sodomised by the Sri Lankan Navy for no apparent reason. They also do not get much support from the apathetic Indian authorities. With over 600 dead or missing fishermen, it is an extreme example of living in the fringes. When you consider that this happens in the ‘world’s largest democracy’, you realize justice and freedom need not be synonymous to democracy.

Leena wanted to show an honest story. Hence you have real people almost playing themselves and their lives to the ‘T’. The result is a film that may be far from cinematic accomplishment, but the one accusation that cannot be levied on it is of being dishonest. If you were to see footages of film stars, you’d obviously want them in HD. Yet on the same TV, you don’t mind the grainy images of a terrible atrocity that makes breaking news. In that light ‘The Dead Sea’, that gives voice to the most marginalized of the marginalized lot, becomes an extremely important film.

In an ideal world, Leena's film would have enjoyed better resources. But neither has the film been made in an ideal world, nor is Indian cinema in a ideal state of existence with most film made and released with only commercial intentions in mind.

Yet, this years Mumbai Film Festival provides an interesting contrast and an example of where Indian cinema is headed. 15% films in the festival are Indian. They have been put in three sections: ‘Indian Frame’, ‘New Faces In Indian Cinema’ and ‘Film India Worldwide’. The range of films in these sections reflects the variety of films and creative that are making films in the country which sadly, like the fishermen in the film, lie on the fringes of Bollywood.

Despite receiving rave reviews from festival viewers, the fate of most of these films, are doubtful, just like the fishermen in ‘The Dead Sea’. “The fishermen of this community on which this film is based, is facing extinction,” says Leena. Hope the same is not the fate of Indian independent films and filmmakers. 

This feature has been written for the wire service, IANS (Indo-Asian News Service). 

Last Night – Poignant Tale of Temptation

Director: Massy Tadjedin

Actors: Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes, Keira Knightley, Guillaume Canet

Rating: 4 out of 5

One of the most complex monsters to handle in the world, is a man-woman relationship. That complexity is further intensified in our world today where communication has become easy, and old world morality and ideas of fidelity have no place in it.

‘Last Night’ is a film perfectly situated in our modern world. It is a deceptively and disarmingly simple story peppered with everyday incidents, many of which would have happened in many urban men and women’s lives.

On the same night that Micheal (Sam Worthington) is trying hard to beat temptation of a colleague, his wife (Keira Knightley) encounters an ex-lover and is faced with a similar dilemma. As the night progresses, desires ripen and the four people are forced to look deep into their lives, their relationships and the meaning they attach to it, and fidelity.

Make no mistakes, ‘Last Night’ is totally an urban movie. Though set in New York, it is a story that is playing along everyday in the thousands of cities of the world, with of course results similar, or different than this.

What, however, really works for the film is its simplicity. It could have lost its way in a lot of twists and turns and mood swings and the gimmickry that can go with intelligent writers handling the story. The film steers clear of these land mines and plot traps quite convincingly, giving you a tale that may seemingly not have too much new to offer, but would leave you thinking about many things.

Writer director (debutante) Massy Tadjedin handles the uneasy tension, the quiet blushes and the obvious discomfort of people handling the fireball of temptation stuck somewhere between their hearts, heads and groins with grace and poignancy. It is this minimalism that is the greatest quality of the film.

In a world of temptation where hoardings and ads everywhere thrust sex and promiscuity right into our faces, the film raises some interesting questions. Should sexual fidelity even be the basis of relationships anymore? Can we be truly faithful when we are bound to be attracted to many people in our lives? If yes, for how long? How long can one hold on? Is it even wrong if two committed people don’t do so?

In its well crafted back stories and gentle pace, the films packs in well-intentioned, urban people confronted with temptation. The lack of any melodrama or any unnecessary tension or scenes between the lovers, make it poignant.

Clint Mansell’s gentle score lingers in the background like an unrequited desire. All the four actors hold their parts and the blushes, desires and discomfort that go with it, fairly well.

One of the main reasons to not like the film would be that you would identify with a few or many of these fleeting moments and temptations depicted in the film. Contrarily, that would also be the reason many would like it. The director could have forced the choice, but she leaves it up to you to make up your mind. 

The Whistleblower – Poignant, Gutsy, Topical

Director: Larysa Kondracki

Actors: Rachel Weisz, Monica Bellucci, Vanessa Redgrave

Rating: 4 out of 5

It’s an old cliché which states that the world is what it is not because of bad men, but because of good men who watch and do nothing. We all have a strong sense of personal justice. But ask yourself, if you saw something so wrong with others that it churns your guts, would you poke your nose into it.

Even if you did, how far would you go? Far enough to risk your life and limb?

Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz) a US police officer in Bosnia on a UN peacekeeping mission discovers that her own colleagues are involved in a sex and trafficking racket of young women. She interferes, not realizing it to be an international conspiracy. She soon finds herself to be a lone fighter against a system that involves the military, MNCs and governments.

The history of the world is usually about emperors and dictators. But a footnote of history is dominated by misfits who refuse to be mute spectators. They are first coaxed, bribed and then beaten and often killed by the system they threaten.

But make no mistakes, it is these who stands up and blow the whistle, are the ones who count in the end. For they break through impregnable walls, bruised and battered in battle they still carry on and though their head may be cut it remains unbowed to the injustice around. Whatever good exists in the world, it is thanks to a large part due to these maverick whistleblowers who defy even their own puny statures to try the impossible.

This film does both, pays homage to their indomitable courage, and recount their impossible travails.

The film might seem like a distant story of a distant land. But it is as true for India, as it is for Bosnia. Like the UN peacekeepers have diplomatic immunity, the soldiers in places like Kashmir, the North East and Chhatisgarh in India, have laws like AFSPA that indemnify them against any wrong doings on their part.

The result is the Shopian rape and murder case of Kashmir, the Manorama rape and murder case of Manipur and the hundreds of tribal women whose rape by the military in far flung places like Chhattisgarh never makes it to the press.

‘The Whistleblower’ works because it plays like a thriller. It does an extremely good job in building up dramatic tension, even though few creative liberties taken from the real story may sometimes feel improbable.

Rachel Weisz’s right mix of innocent vulnerability and inner strength carries the film forward and gives out the message that justice often needs to be an inside job.

The good thing about American whistle blower films is that a viewer knows beforehand that the protagonist will win in the end. Americans, after all, are known to celebrate success. Reality, however, is slightly different. In the real world, the people in the true story on which the film is based, roam free.

Thankfully this little injustice will not deter those who seek justice for others. For whistleblowers in truth are the vigilante superheroes of the real world. And their superpowers include an indomitable will, a passion for justice and a belief that what they do matters. To these men and women, we truly owe the world. 

Paranormal Activity 3 – Manages To Scare Yet Again

Directors: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

Actors: Christopher Nicholas Smith, Katie Featherston, Chloe Csengery, Jessica Tyler Brown 

Rating: 4 out of 5

Paranormal Activity 3 is a surprising film. Yes, horror films are expected to shock. Yet the beauty of this film lies in it managing to give you the creeps even after you have seen the first two you realize that there isn’t much new added to this one. That it does so without being cheeky or over the top is its greatest strength.

After hearing strange sounds in his new house a wedding videographer in 1988, decides to fit the house with cameras to record these paranormal activities. His younger step-daughter however seems to have befriended the paranormal entity even as the incredulous wife, despite proof, refuses to believe, that is until something scares her out of her skin.

There's an unwelcomed guest in the house

You have seen the first two and you know how the story progresses and what happens. You are supposedly immune to the chills and fears since you know how and where it comes from. What will surprise you hence, is how this film, despite your self-assurances, manages to sneak up on you and terrorize you.

Just like the first two, this one does not aspire to explain anything to the audience. Neither does it try bigger sound or visual tricks. Instead, it relies on the proven formula and tricks of the first two films, and manages to scare you in the same surreal fashion.

Charlie Chaplin is undoubtedly the greatest filmmaker ever and will perhaps remain so till the death of cinema. The reason for this is that his films understand the importance of the purity of cinema to squeeze emotion out of its audience. What Chaplin did with the comedy genre, the Paranormal Activity series does with horror.

Yet, it was by no means the first to do so. How can anyone forget the game changer – Blair Witch Project. Yet, the difference between the two films of this series, and the three of Paranormal is that while the former tried to do something different in its sequel, the latter absolutely refuses to do so. In playing the same tricks it played in the first, and explaining as little, or even less, it teaches one of the greatest lessons of filmmaking – that simplicity and minimalism backing a good plot can often do more than expensive visual effects and a complex plot line.

Usually, a sequel tries to outdo its original. Surprisingly, Paranormal seem to have no such aspirations with all three films relying on the same bag of tricks. That it continues to feel so fresh, is indeed the scariest paranormal activity in the series. 

This review was written for the news wire service, IANS (Indo-Asian News Service). 

Have Indian Film Festivals Come Of Age?

On the eve of the Mumbai Film Festival, filmmaker Shyam Benegal had confidently said this is the best festival India has seen so far. As the festival came to a close amid the hits and the misses, the crowds cheering and hooting, his hyperbole became a fact.

Benegal, chairman of MAMI that organises the event, had reasoned that a festival is as big as its films. Showcasing the winners of the best festivals in the world, including Cannes, Berlin and Venice, if you couldn't go there, you could catch it here. And that was fair for Bolly-town. After all the biggest film-producing nation deserves one of the biggest festivals.

Yet, much to the delight of viewers, and often frustrations - after all, too many good films make you miss a few must-watch ones - the festival scored due to many other reasons as well.

The strongest were some stunning films in its International Competition section that carries a Rs.1 crore prize money, one of the biggest in the world. The mastery and control of the cinematic medium shown by these first timers challenges the dominance of masters. A few of them are bound to leave their stamp on world cinema in the next couple of decades. When they do, Mumbai viewers would proudly say they saw their films, and them, at MAMI.

Then there was the film mart, which is slowly becoming a very important event in the commercial cinematic calendar of the festival. There were people from non-traditional global markets, including Germany, South Korea, Japan and Latin America, scouting for the next Indian film to take back home.

'Rendezvous With French Cinema', a separate annual event for Mumbai, got clubbed to the festival, giving audiences not just a chance to see these films but also to interact with some French directors and actors who came to the country.

Having 20 percent films in the festival from India (besides the retrospectives), with none of them from the commercial filmmaking centres of India, the festival truly showed the storytelling prowess churning in this nation, which often does not get its due recognition.

The Open Forums every afternoon saw some cliché and a lot of fireworks. Veterans and newcomers to the mainstream commercial film industry debated the various aspects related to cinema. Is the art of Indian screenwriting dying, is there homophobia in Indian cinema, is taxation killing films? etc. Though a consensus could not be reached, laying down of the problems hopefully proved cathartic.

Not everything in the festival was rosy. The films that were expected to be popular often ended up being too popular to handle. People stood hours outside the halls for films like "Pina", "The Artist", "The Turin Horse", "Melancholia" and others. Taking a cue from previous editions, organisers held special screening for the leftover crowd every day at 10 o'clock. For a few films, even this wasn't enough.

Cinemax proved inefficient hosts for the prestigious festival as goof-ups in projections marred the the entire festival causing much screaming, heartburn and anger. Sadly, instead of Cinemax, it was often the festival organisers that received flak for the same.

Yet after everything was said and done, after the films were seen and many forgotten, what would perhaps be remembered is exactly what Benegal said. Film Festivals in India might just have come of age.

Scorsese Docu On Harrison Pays Tribute To His Indian Connection

He was one of the most important musicians of our times. Not just because George Harrison belonged to The Beatles but also because he was the first musician of global repute to try a fusion of different musical styles, especially Indian.

Director Martin Scorsese’s documentary on Harrison, ‘Living In A Material World’, that played to packed houses in the Mumbai Film Festival pays homage to this spirit of this man.

Fans of The Beatles are treated to some rare insights, trivia and anecdotes from the Band’s existence and archival footages from their tours and from Harrison’s home life. Others, however might not find the film too appealing.

Of course, there are many flaws that can be easily pointed out, including its over three hour length. And though it does talk a bit about Harrison’s formative years, a little more depth into the Beatle’s early life where they often used to perform 8 hours a day, seven days a week at bars in Hamburg, Germany, could have provided greater depth. After all this became their hallowed ground to practice and perfect their music.

“Martin (Scorsese) was not interested in the obvious. He wanted to go deeper. How did George live a meaningful life despite being one of the most famous people on the planet? How do you live such a public life and survive. Interestingly that was also what George was interested in,” says Olivia Harrison, wife of George Harrison and also the producer of the film.  

Yet, in focusing only on his fame, and how Harrison dealt with it, the film might actually be doing disservice to the very thing it is trying to comment against, materialism in this world. However, where it scores an ace, is in its Indian element.

Some maestros of Indian music like Ravi Shankar, Bismillah Khan, Allahrakha Khan, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt among others make an appearance from footage of the 70s. Watching them you realize that one of the greatest contributions of George Harrison was in being the first famous musician to try out a musical tradition totally diverse to his own, thus paving the way for a true musical fusion to happen later.

Olivia agrees. “I think he was very instrumental in influencing western music with Indian classical music. He loved it. He found a very gentle and way of influencing western music. Though, he always called Ravi Shankar the father of world music, he did find subliminal ways of introducing Indian music to the west,” she says.

She smiles reminiscing about the times when in their home the masters of Indian music would be chatting and jamming together. “George often used to call this fusion, confusion,” Olivia says, trying to contain her laughter. 

George’s love of India and its music and musicians, is no secret. Yet, seeing is believing. Watching some masters of world music jam together in this film and the film’s contextualization of the same, might indeed become its greatest contribution to the world. 

This feature was written for the news wire service, IANS (Indo-Asian News Service)

Indian Screenwriting In a Miserable State: Abbas Tyrewala

Screenwriting all over is considered to be the backbone of a film. It is also believed that it is an art form that is in decline in India. Or is it? An open forum held at the ongoing Mumbai Film Festival to discuss the same, saw some interesting fireworks.

“Sorry, but I am not optimistic at all. I think we are f*****. There’s no dearth of writers in India, but there’s a great lack of writing that has the life and smell of this nation,” said celebrated screenwriter Abbas Tyrewala.

He dug into the root of this decline. “Before the 60s, we were telling stories. Major stars worked with the films instead of merely acting in it. Problem started during the Bachchan era. Amitabh Bachchan’s persona started towering everything. Suddenly it was okay to not have a story as long as you had him since people were in awe of him. If you just got his dates, you could make a film and recover money,” Abbas said.

Did our obsession with this man single-handely 'f*****' the art of Indian screenwriting? 

Abbas believes that even when Amitabh took a sabbatical from films, producers devised new tricks of having multi-star films to compensate for the same. “In the 90s, the three Khans emerged. However, someone suddenly discovered the NRI market. Again, shooting in foreign locations became more important. A film could recover its entire money with just its music, satellite rights and overseas market. Where was the need for a story and thus a good writer?” he rued.

While Abbas’ interpretation of Indian cinema’s history drew large cheers from the assembled audiences, his other panel members were more optimistic. Dev Benegal said, “I am positive because change is happening in Indian literature. New voices are emerging. And though most indie films are bad copies of European cinema, ultimately we will find our own cinematic voices.”

Writer and actor Saurabh Shukla said the only solution to the problem was to create cutting-edge writing. “Instead of constantly feeling that you are beaten, just go home and write. Better yourself,” he said.

Veteran writer Vinay Shukla who is part of a venture to find and train new scriptwriters, said, “I have read some of these new Indian screenwriters. They inspire me. There are new, authentic voices who talk about their own place and people. But they have no way to go. No stars would work on a script that does not have them playing larger than life roles.”

Despite playing the role of a doomsday prophet, Abbas Tyerewala was sympathetic to the producer community. “It is easy for writers to make scapegoats out of producers. In reality producers have a lot of guts. They risk everything. They keep playing and gambling with their lives.” Candid and frank he elicited a lot of response when he said, “Perhaps it is the biggest lie that audiences are smarter. The truth is that maybe they have become stupider. And maybe they are getting what they want and deserve.”

Despite the witty attempts of moderator Atul Tiwari who tried diverting the discussion to a solution, there was no hopeful solution in sight. Yet putting the problems at one platform might just end up proving cathartic to Indian scriptwriting and hopefully it will emerge stronger and better. 

This was written for the news-wire service IANS (Indo-Asian News Service). 

The Un-French-Like Frenchman

Actor, writer and director Martin Provost, whose film ‘The Long Falling’ is playing under ‘Rendezvous with French Cinema’ at Mumbai Film Festival is not your typical Frenchman. His heart beats for things ‘un-french-like’. First of all in a very uncharacteristic move, he denounced his fame as a theatre and film actor and plunged into direction.

“When I was young I wrote for theatre. Then acting happened but inside I knew I wanted to make movies and I was unhappy as an actor. One day, I decided acting wasn’t my way and from that day I began to write a lot.

“After one novel was published, I was on my way. Then I made my first short film and then another and then feature films. When I tell you this, it seems easy but believe me it was not,” Martin quips.

Secondly if there is one constant in his films, it has been women. But unlike the French fascination for beautiful women and skin-shows, he is interested in unconventional but strong women with a mind of their own. Invariably, these women are older.

“My mother was extremely talented but she couldn’t express herself since she belonged to an era in France where girls had to get married and that was the end of their expression. So I have taken it upon myself to do what she couldn’t. Being her son, I have inherited the frustration of her generation,” he says.

In famous French actress Yolande Moreau, he seems to have found his ‘mother-figure’.

In his sleeper-hit, multiple César Award winning film ‘Séraphine’ an accomplished painter chooses the anonymous life of a housemaid. In ‘The Long Falling’ an oppressed woman finally kills her husbands and goes on the run. Both of these characters have been played with aplomb by Yolande Moreau.

Ask him if in Yolande he sees the image of his mother and he says candidly, “There is something there. She belongs to the same region in the North of France as me, and she lives barely an hour from me. My mother and she are not exactly alike, but there is definitely something there.”

Thirdly, this Frenchmen despises the craving for intellect and fame. “Séraphine was unknown when I discovered her and that is the point. I wouldn’t have made a film on someone famous. I wanted to show that a woman had done her artistic creation without being known. And that was enough,” Even his next film Violette is about an important but little known French female writer.  

“One of the most difficult things in the world is to not expect any kind of recognition and quietly go on doing your thing. It is this detachment that I was seeking to capture. Today, Frenchmen want their fame and fortune by any means,” Martin rues.

“I try to make simple films without trying to be unnecessarily intellectual. France today is suffering from too much intellectualism. These days they think if they are intelligent, they are superior to others. That is a big mistake.”

In mind, matter and his creations, Martin Provost defies French conventions. There is a sage like quality about him. In a world where materialism has become one and all, his is the kind of creation that will perhaps provide Europe with an antidote for afflictions they do not yet realize, especially fame an intellectualism.

This story was written for the news wire service IANS (Indo-Asian News Service).

A Masterful Fable Of Memory And Time

Debutant director Julia Marat in one of the most nostalgic and yet riveting Latin-American debuts ever, tells the fable of a place which time has forgotten. The dozen villagers in ‘Stories That Only Exist When Remembered’ go about their daily routine with a clockwork precision that is both a reverence to their past as it is a wait for their inevitable future.

Time, however, cannot forever neglect its dominion, no matter how remote. And so it happens that time does come visiting the village in the form of a young female photographer who neither understands the place or its people, yet is curious enough to want to know.

“If I was old, I wouldn’t do this film. It will be clichéd then. I did this because for me today this is different and unique,” director Juila Murat told IANS about her film. “As a young person I need speed and the latent energy of a place like Rio or even Mumbai,” she candidly admits.

Hence, her debut feature with its masterful command, not mere control of time and space, stuns you. With touches of eternity, this is indeed a sculpture, a portrait of time.

Julia paints a mythical landscape of a place where a few old people live, neither too nostalgic of the past nor needing any hope. They may seem in a sort of limbo but perhaps these handful old, forgotten villagers and their village, are the only ones who truly live. For isn’t living, about the present moment rather than the burdens of their past or anxiety of the future?

With unsentimental and poetic touches she paints life as it should be, unhurried, relaxed and sentient. Considering that in our structurally violent world today, this is extremely rare, ‘Stories…’ thus becomes a rare fable.

For some the film might be slow. But for those with a fertile imagination it has speed all about it. Every single wrinkle on the faces of the characters, ever single crack on the wall, ever little rust on the iron in the village, tells a million tales of times gone by, stories and histories of its people, both dead and alive and of the village. You have to be sensitive to hear these stories.

Unlike other filmmakers with a rich antecedent, Julia’s candour stands out. She admits the role of her filmmaker mother in shaping her cinematically. “How many 12 year olds watch indie films with a gusto. I did,” she says reminiscing the time watching the best of the films from her country and the world. Her cinematic mastery also comes from assisting her mother Lucia Murat in almost every cinematic department: scriptwriting, direction, camera, editing etc.

Yet, while Lucia’s films are political in nature, steaming from her experience as a journalist and activist against the dictatorship in Brazil between 1968-79 when she was arrested and tortured in prison, Julia’s films are about life.

It is perhaps the poetry of life, that Julia, born the year that dictatorship ended in Brazil, is carrying on her mother’s legacy and represents life just as her mother represented political strife around. With her debut feature, Julia Murat become a voice to watch out for.

This feature has been written for the new wire service, IANS (Indo-Asian News Service). 

An Accomplished Debut Puts Asian Cinema In The Spotlight

If cinema had its child prodigies, she would be one. After all considering the maturity that direction requires, mid 20s could be seen as the teenage of a director’s life. With one of the most accomplished Asian debuts in recent years, 26 year old Kamila Andini makes a great case for Asian cinema. And conservation.

This might seem like a huge load put on a young shoulder, yet see ‘Mirror Never Lies’ and you’ll shake your head with incredulity at both the control and intuition of the film. Kamila has control over time and space that usually comes with experience, and wisdom. Knowing that this is her first film, you’d expect it to have come from a tight script.

“I wrote only 80% of the script, intending to explore the rest 20%. The exploration has gone way beyond that,” she says, an impish smile lighting up her petite face.

The various metaphors in the film thus come as a surprise. A teenage girl, whose father has been missing at sea, refuses to believe that he won’t return. She keeps looking for him in a mirror. Her young mother constantly scolds her for this infatuation but herself hides behind a sunscreen, refusing to reveal her youth to others. It is as if the mother is aware that till her daughter is free from her illusion, she cannot be free from hers.

The images and the split images, the mirrors and their reflections, the calmness of the ocean surface and its serenity below, the characters perceptions and their reflections in the ocean, all come together in an adept, aesthetic and lyrical fable.

“A mirror and the sea have the same mystery to me and contain a lot of questions, reflections and stories. It is these stories that I wanted to explore through the film,” says Kamila.

Unlike many self indulgent films in competition in MAMI this year, hers is surprisingly free of forced control, yet has a strong spiritual core. The beautiful Bajonese people who literally build their high wooden homes in the middle of the sea and live both in harmony and strife with the ocean around, couldn’t have found a better ambassador.

The beautiful underwater shots are haunting. They are like the mythical universe whose door lies in the mirror that the young girl holds in her hands.

Kamila shares the penchant for making children the centre of her film just her father, the celebrated Indonesian director Garin Nugroho. Yet ask her about his influence and she says, “I was on my own. My father saw the film only while it was being edited and even then he merely laughed at my mistakes.” 

The influence of WWF (World Wildlife Fund), who were part of the film, is evident. For at another level it is about mans relationship with nature. It calls people to preserve their nurturer, but does so metaphorically instead of being overbearing.

At MAMI this year, considering the films in competition, there is perceptible difference between films from developed worlds like Europe, North America and Australia and those from developing worlds. Whereas the former have intellectual control, the ones from Latin America (Las Acacias) and Asia (‘Mirror Never Lies’ and ‘Death Is My Profession’) carry a spiritual strength rarely achieved in cinema. Seeing and putting these films into perspective, it is evident, that the hope of cinema lies in the latter.

This feature story has been written for the wire service, IANS (Indo-Asian News Service). 

India Needs Time To Open Up To Gay Themes In Films

In India it has recently become a criminal offence to discriminate against people due to their sexual orientation. But commercial Indian films are far from catching up with the law and still hide under the curtain of comedy -- all for a reason, say filmmakers.


“There is an anxiety when it comes to gay films and gay-based roles,” said documentary filmmaker Sridhar Rangayan at an open forum at the 13th Mumbai Film Festival, Monday.

The talk focussed on LGBT films in India.

Filmmaker Tarun Mansukhani, the director of "Dostana" -- so far the only mainstream, commercial, hit Bollywood film to talk of gay issues upfront -- defended his idea of portraying gays in a comical vein.

“If I were to make a film where both my characters were gay, first of all I wouldn’t get the money. Secondly there would be no mainstream actors who’d want to play it, and thirdly the audience would shy away from it,” he said.

Defending both -- his film and other stereotypical portrayals that could have been more honest -- he added: “If you scream from the rooftops in favour of gay issues, it will not work. Give it some time. Let us begin by having some fun with it. The time will come when the nation would open up and we’d see their true and sensitive representation in commercial cinema.”

But is middle class India ready to see "queer" films? Onir, who is open about his sexual preference, believes they are.

“I have taken both ‘My Brother Nikhil’ and ‘I Am’ to the remotest corners of the country and not only did no one have any objections, but there ran to packed houses.”

When asked to compare his 'commercial' films with those of Onir, Mansukhani said: “They are doing the sensitive side of the issue. I am doing the commercial, where yes, there are a lot of jokes and there is stereotyping of gays.

"But I don’t want to rush into it and not just get booted out, but also kill any chance of any other sensitive filmmaker in the future who wants to make films on the issue.”

He repeated: “Over time it is bound to get normalised in cinema. Have patience.”

New York-based film journalist Aseem Chhabra was of the opinion that there has been a lot of remarkable work done in India in terms of feature films, short films and documentaries. But the work has not travelled much, according to him.

“Not just in cinema, but as a country India has a long way to go,” said Chhabbra.

Actor Rajit Kapoor, who had acted in a very bold short film about a male prostitute serenaded by an elderly businessman, said: “Change is happening slow and steadily. We are on the road to progress. So let us be happy about what we have achieved so far.”

Rajit also features in an upcoming film on the issue by Deepti Naval.

There was no common consensus on the issue during the forum, except one: it was indeed great that MAMI had such an open forum on the same, something it perhaps couldn’t have done a decade back.

The audience, many of whom got emotional on the issue, expressed their desire to not just see more films on LGBT issues at MAMI next year, but to even have such open discussion on an issue for which the time has come to emerge out of the closet.

This story was written for the wire service, IANS - Indo-Asian News Service. 

Of A Stunning Debut And Dead Weights

His film ‘Las Acacias’ received an uproarious standing ovation from the MAMI crowd. But Argentinean director Pablo Giorgelli left them on the verge of tears with his admission, “I don’t think I’ll recover money.” No big deal really, unless you consider that his film won three prizes at Cannes this year, including the Golden Camera and for cinema enthusiasts globally, represents one of the most stunning debuts in the last few years.

If this be the fate of such a beautiful, moving and celebrated film, what hope do others have?

“It took me five years to make ‘Las Acacias’, taking money from wherever I could. It will be nice if I can recover and pay back the money,” he told IANS later, a little introspective for his kind, jovial face.

And if you look at it this way, ‘Las Acacias’ is indeed ironically metaphoric for most film viewers and distributors. This road movie, tells a simple story of the relationship between a truck driver who is ferrying a woman with a five month old baby across the borders of Paraguay and Argentina, a huge cache of lumber loaded on the truck.  

The lumber behind the truck is a metaphor of the dead weights both the characters are carrying in their subconscious, the ghosts of their sad pasts. It can also be seen as the dead weight of film-clichés and expectations that the audiences and distributors worldwide carry that will not allow “one of the most accomplished debuts in history”, as veteran film critic Rashid Irani said of this film, to recover its money.

Yet, one of the most hopeful films in the circuit this year, there is a metaphor in its hope as well. The five month old baby who is always happy and cheerful and carries no past baggage, wins over the reticent truck driver. It is one of the cutest and funniest babies you will see in cinema history of whom Pablo Giorgelli told IANS, “It was a miracle that we found the baby, barely a month before shooting began.” The baby is perhaps a simile for a new kind of audience, young folks who are yet untouched by the past of filmmaking or its clichés.

These new generation of viewers don’t need to know that this film took five years of painful birth pangs to be born, or that the casting for the mere 3 characters that predominate the film took a whooping one and a half year, or the many prizes it has won globally or that the director exorcised his own demons by stripping off layers and layers of unwanted scenes and dialogues to bring before his audience a truly polished gem. All they need to know and believe in is what they see in on screen.

In a quiet, subtle and dignified way, the two protagonists in their hesitant interaction at the climax discard their dead weights. Hope the audiences and film industries globally could do the same for those like Pablo Giorgelli. After all there cannot be good cinema without good and evolved viewers.

“Acacias in Spanish means ‘dead wood’,” Pablo explains the name of his film before signing off.

This feature story has been written for the wire service, IANS (Indo-Asian News Service).  

It’s Raining Women Filmmakers in MAMI This Year

Most film festivals are great in many respects. But even if they are great, few are unique. The Mumbai Film Festival this year, or MAMI as it is lovingly called, is stunning in one respect. From the 14 films in the highly coveted international competition that carries a big prize money, 6 films are from debut women filmmakers, a truly first for any decent film festival in the world.

What is surprising is that the festival organizers, caught up as they are with preparations of the festival, did not realize this till the last moment. “When I’m talking to you, I realize that one of the most unprecedented things for any festival is that in competition we have 6 debut women filmmakers vying for the many prizes,” Rashid Irani, senior film critic and a selection committee member of the festival told this correspondent. “And each one of them is such a stunning debut that you have to see it to believe it.”

True emancipation of women can occur when they occupy position of power in every department, including the arts. And having almost 50% films in the main competition by women director, is one of the greatest proof of them claiming their place in the world. And that all women directors are from different parts of the world, give proof the truly global nature of women’s empowerment in the arts.

Among these films include, Julia Leigh’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ from Australia, ‘History Only Exists When Remembered’ by Julia Murat from Brazil/Argentina, ‘My Little Princess’ by Eva Ionesco from France, ‘The Dead Sea’ by Leena Manimekalai from India, ‘The Mirror Never Lies’ by Kamila Andini from Indonesia and ‘She Monkeys’ by Lisa Aschan from Sweden.

Mr. Srinivasan Narayanan, Festival Director, is all smiles when he is reminded this, “Last year we had an all women’s jury and this year we have women dominating the competition section. What more could we ask?”

But not content with hyperboles, the film lover does ask for more. Shyam Benegal, the Chairman of MAMI (Mumbai Academy of Moving Images), the organizers of Mumbai Film Festival, confirms that the viewers this year will have more than they bargained for. “This is by far the best festival we have had under MAMI so far and the best in the country.”

He explains, “The quality of any film festival should be judged by its films. This year we have an enviable line up of not only the best films made in the world last year, but also the best from the Cannes Critics Week, first films of Indian filmmakers, great first film in competition etc. There’s something in the festival for everyone – the film professionals, cinema lovers and especially the youth hungry for good cinema.”

For once, the hyperbole is the truth. When you look at the line-up, you realize what he means. Not only are there the winners from the world’s best film festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Venice etc. but the International Competition for first film has a line up that will be a thing of envy for the best film festivals in the world.

Then, of course, you have your usual suspects, the past masters who continue to blaze the trail of creativity with Lars Von Trier, Wim Winders, Gus Van Sant and Bela Tarr among others being the stars of this pack.

Seven days, 10 screens in Mumbai, 201 of the best films made last year in the world, 60 countries, and over a crore of Rupeees in prize money and best of all almost half the films in competition being by women filmmakers. Film Festivals in India indeed don’t get bigger, or better than this. 

This story was done for the wire service IANS (Indo-Asian News Service), who obviously (the cub-editors on desk) did not get it and massacred the final story. 

Real Steel – A Real Deal

 Director: Shawn Levy

Actors: Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly

Ratings: 3.5 out of 5

In our technological age we crave for it so much that even brainless film with a lot of tech and action thrown in works. The loud, garish and pointless ‘Transformers’ series is a case in point. Yet, a sci-fi, technological film need not be so bad. Want proof, watch ‘Real Steel’ that combines the best of tech effects with the soul of ‘Rocky’.

In a not so distant future, robot boxing is big. Charlie (Hugh Jackman), a cocky promoter spoils his chances by making some rash calls. An unsentimental guy he even uses the son Max (Dakota Goyo) he had deserted for money. However, the sensibility and sensitivity of this 11 year old kid changes his fortune and his life as a junk robot with a heart of steel and the ‘soul’ of a champion turns out to be a winning prizefighter.

It should be clear at the onset that there’s really nothing original at all about ‘Real Steel’. And it’s not even a very creative reworking of clichés that most art films these days seem to be. Instead, it plays along with the cliché, but with the endearing lightness that makes it a worthwhile watch. Despite its hackneyed plot and predictable subplots, it has the nimble footwork of a heavyweight boxer who manages to ‘fly’ as he boxes.

The non-living, junkyard robot Atom becomes a metaphor for the liveliest emotions we know: love, courage and a never-say-die-spirit. That it takes an inanimate object to arouse human feelings in Charlie is a commentary on our life and times and our obsession for everything external. His wins as an abandoned thing thus become the victories of what is truly important in life, but which we have relegated into the junkyards of our lives. These emotions are indeed the atoms of our very existence.

The man, his son and their reconnecting link. 

The film will remind you of ‘Rocky’ and surprisingly the ending too is similar. And that is another beautiful thing about the film and its message. You don’t have to win to prove a point. The real victory in life is in doing something with passion, standing tall with courage and the ability to never give up despite the odds.

There’s tenderness in the father-son relationship, despite its clichés, that will tug at your heart. The chemistry between the actors playing it Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo only adds to it.  

The special-effects are gentle and subtle enough not to jar like in ‘Transformers’. That is because the driving force is the story, not the robots. Those who liked huge metal things fighting or like boxing and wrestling, will love the film.  

It is thus surprising that Steven Spielberg, who is also the producer of the ‘Transformer’ series, also produces this. For Indian cine lovers there’s another reason to watch ‘Real Steel’. It has been co-produced by our very own Reliance Entertainment and of the five odd films they have produced so far, this is by far the best. 

This review has been written for the wire service, Indo-Asian News Service (IANS).

Drive – Has the Drive, Chutzpah & Finesse

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Actors: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan and Bryan Cranston

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

After the dialogue heavy films of the 40s and 50’s, the New Hollywood of the late 60s and 70s became just the opposite. Films then were perhaps truest to the idea of ‘visual’ cinema with not one extra word, not a single needless expression appearing on screen.

Ironically, it was not the art-house cinema that achieved this miracle, but commercial movies, and leading the pack were action films. A case can be made of ‘Bullitt’ – an ‘action’ film where the protagonist barely spoke a few lines.

If you look inside the bonnet of ‘Drive’ you will find the engine that drove ‘Bullitt’ running this film.

Under the bonnet of 'Drive' is the engine of a 'Bullitt' and inside the driver of 'Drive' is the spirit of Steve McQueen from the same film

A driver (Ryan Gosling) who’s a stunt double in films but moonlights as a driver for criminals, falls in love with his neighbour - whose husband is in prison - and her son. After the husband returns and is forced to pay back protection money or his wife and son would be harmed, the driver gets involved only to find himself a hunted man.

The simple fact that this film relies on visuals rather than words can be found in one tiny detail – the ‘driver’ is never given a name. Nor is he really given a back story. It’s like he is someone who has appeared from nowhere - a quiet, reticent man who merely observes the violent world around him.

We know him through his actions that evolve with time. He is surrounded by violence and violent men. Even his other profession - that of a stunt double - is violent. Yet, like a lotus he remains calm amidst the muck, a smirk permanently fixated behind the toothpick on his lips.

‘Drive’ is thus seemingly unique and refreshing. But its uniqueness lies in the present context. In the land of a blind Hollywood, the one eyed is king. In reality the elements that make ‘Drive’ so endearing have actually been done to death in many spectacular films of the 70s. Indeed, the character of Ryan Gosling, of a strong, reticent, honorable man is modeled on Steve McQueen’s cop character in ‘Bullitt’.

Thus what comes out as a refreshing, art-house take on action, is nothing but an old, 70s-commercial take on action cinema where a car-chase was not about speed, but about the temperament and poise of the man behind the wheels. For proof also watch ‘Two Lane Blacktop’ and ‘Vanishing Point’. The only difference in the film is a lovely background score that punctuates the silence of the film, and some impressionist slow-motion scenes.

‘Drive’ is thus a memory refresher of a fascinating time for cinema, where the past of the character was less important that his present, where unrequited love did not fail to inspire men and where the desire of the director was to tell the story as best as possible without worrying whether it’s original or clichéd.

Today, some might find the above elements disconcerting. Yet, ‘Drive’ based on a book by James Sallis, is not a film you’ll forget in a hurry. Like good cars, it’s meant to last. Just like Hollywood action films of the 70s.

This review has been written for the wire service, Indo-Asian News Service (IANS).