Godmother Of Hollywood Comes To Rev Up Indian Films

If unofficial sobriquets could be turned official, Michelle Satter would be called the ‘Godmother’ of creative cinema. Over the last 31 year since she became the Founding Director of the Feature Film program at the Sundance Institute, she has mentored some of the greatest minds of cinema; Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson and Darren Aronofsky included. Now she has set eyes on India with Mumbai Mantra | Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab 2012 where she will groom, nurture and guide 8 scripts.

Michelle Satter at a press conference in Mumbai

Yet there’s nothing in her genteel voice and demeanour to suggest that she has been such a strong influence on cinema without ever having made one herself. “I have learned from every filmmaker who has come through Sundance and have been moved by them and their stories,” she told IANS.

Her humility however is laid bare when one reads what her ‘students’ have to say about her. Aronofsky says: “Michelle has always had the most-sensitive ear and heart-warming words. Her early encouragements made me feel invincible.” Anderson, meanwhile says, “Michelle was firm and loving and gentle and intelligent in her advice… She changed the course of my life and I don’t know where I’d be without her.”

She confesses, “I love the creative process. It is extraordinary to be working with an artist at a time when you can have the greatest impact on their stories, to engage with them in dialogues where voices have been strengthened and where there often has been confusion but where wonderful directors have emerged. At Sundance our job has been to support the vision of the artists and to help them connect with their audience.”

And after 31 years of existence and of an extended presence in a lot of countries, she and Sundance are in India for the first time and she is excited about it. But why this delay?

“We have finally found partners with whom we can associate for a long time. This is just the beginning of a process where we believe that if you support the next generation of artists, the world audiences would be enriched by that,” she says. 

Michelle has always been enthralled by the vibrancy of Indian cinema and the many voices that exist here. She plans to make the Sundance association with India, long term. “We support our artists the year round as the lab only becomes the beginning of the relationship. In India we hope to continue supporting these artists and their projects on an ongoing basis,” she said.

She agrees that not all films tutored under the lab in India would be made. “What is more important is that we will change the craft of the artists and we’d have helped them find their own individual voices. And if not this film, then the affect will be seen in the next. It’s an ongoing process,” she says.

She is upbeat about the Indian scripts.  She is particularly enthused about Shonali Bose’s screenplay ‘Margarita. With a Straw’. “Shonali is bold and has great courage. ‘Margarita…’ is a beautiful screenplay, very moving and comes from a very personal space,” she says. Asked if she believes it has the potential to become the next ‘My Left Foot’ in terms of scope and she says, “Yes, it could.” 

But how does a writer in a remote corner of the world create cinema that touches the world. Michelle says, “I strongly feel that stories that are specifically set in time and place and in characters, with details that are authentic, such stories have universal appeal.” 

(This feature was written for the wire service IANS, finally appearing as these: 

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-03-23/news/31230150_1_artists-cinema-indian-films

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/godmother-of-hollywood-comes-to-rev-up-bollywood/242057-8-67.html)

Shonali Bose Focuses Lens on Taboo Subject - Again

Sisters Forever: Malini Chib (left) and Shonali Bose

Mumbai, March 20 (IANS) Once bitten twice shy is a proverb you cannot apply to filmmaker Shonali Bose. For the second time in her life, she is trying to make "Margarita. With a Straw", a film on a largely untouched subject - cerebral palsy.

This time, she is armed with a little experience. The film is inspired by her cousin who suffers from the condition.

Her "Amu" in 2005 was a rare feature film to be made on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Though it helped sensitise people about the issue, making it was an uphill task.

"Since it was a low budget film, I thought I would easily get funds from the Sikh community. But I found that they did not want to remember that darkest period in their history," Shonali told IANS in an interview.

"Then, while shooting, a prominent politician threatened us if we continued. Finally, even after winning two National Awards, Doordarshan, for whom it is mandated to show every National Award winning film, refused to show it," she said.

She realised the hard way why even after two decades there was no film on the 1984 riots - and not another made till now - for as far as taboo subjects go, in Punjabi dominated Bollywood, this was up there.

It is 2012 and Shonali is gearing up to make "Margarita. With a Straw" and cerebral palsy (CP) is another no-go subject.

Think of disability in cinema and names like Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Black" or Gulzar's "Koshish" come up, one about visual and the other about hearing impairment. There are none in India and few films globally about cerebral palsy, and for good reason.

Cerebral Palsy causes multiple disabilities in a person, often distorting the body. Thus cinema, the greatest propagator of conventional beauty through the nubile bodies of actors, is not keen on having someone visibly 'ugly' as a lead.

It even goes against the dictates of the most renegade of world cinema which has at least one thing in common with commercial cinema - good looking actors. Though there is a notable exception in "My Left Foot", which won Daniel Day Lewis an Oscar for his stunning performance, there hasn't been one in over two decades that matches its power.

This Shonali knows. Yet, she is upbeat about her script "Margarita. With a Straw". The reason: it has already won accolades by winning the 2012 Sundance Institute Mahindra Global Filmmaking award along with three other global projects and being the only Indian among 500 scripts selected from the country.

"As a filmmaker with a conscience, I am drawn to stories that have never been told. My first cousin, Malini Chib, has cerebral palsy. She is only a year younger and we grew up like sisters. Cerebral palsy is very personal to me and despite not being biographical, 'Margarita..' is inspired by Malini," she said.

There is another taboo Shonali has not been bogged down by. While "My Left Foot" was about a man, would the world accept a film about a woman in a 'rejected body', searching for love?

On her part though, Shonali is unruffled, for hers is the case of "once bitten, twice try". This is good for cinema. For only those mad enough to think they can challenge and change taboos are the ones who in the end do.

(This feature was written for the news-wire service IANS and appeared as this: 
http://in.news.yahoo.com/shonali-bose-focuses-lens-taboo-subject-again-064128773.html
http://news.in.msn.com/gandhi/Features_article.aspx?cp-documentid=5928339
http://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/movies/shonali-bose-focuses-lens-on-taboo-subject-again_107938.htm)

Portrait Of Three Disparate Men As Artists

At the turn of the new millennium Ayrton Senna, Asif Kapadia and Irrfan Khan were three souls as disparate and far from one another as they could be. Senna was a Brazilian who gave hope to million by breaking into the European dominated sport of Forumla 1, while Asif Kapadia was an Indian origin aspiring filmmaker trying to make it big in UK and Khan was a struggling actor who had almost quit acting. Yet the story of these three people would intertwine in ways in the first decade of the millennium that would show the similarity between them.

Those who like Irrfan in 'Paan Singh Tomar' should not miss him in 'The Warrior' directed by Asif Kapadia.

In 2000, British-Indian Asif Kapadia was looking to make ‘The Warrior’ about the spiritual journey of a man who one day quits as the henchman to a local landlord even as goons hunt him down. “Warrior was a difficult story and I needed an actor to tell it. Then I met a brilliant man who was a casting director then, Tigmanshu Dhulia. He read my script and said he knew exactly who to cast. I was sceptical since I had met many actors,” begins Asif.

He adds, “I was waiting in a casting room and Tigmanshu brought his actor friend Irrfan in. I just looked at his face and knew he was the guy. There was this instant connection between us for unlike most actors I had looked at for the role, Irrfan had seen all the international film I talked about.”

That was the time when Irrfan was doing roles in TV serials and children films of Children Film Society, India. His mettle and his acting prowess had not yet been tested. “At that time he told me that he was thinking of giving up acting. But ‘The Warrior’ came along and somehow gave him a chance to be the lead actor. It was an amazing experience to work with him and now look at what has become of him,” Asif says. 

‘The Warrior’ carried on the shoulders of a stunning performance by Irrfan Khan, travelled through the globe, winning many awards including two BAFTA Awards.

Here in India as a Creative Advisor for the 8 script selected for the Mumbai Mantra Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab 2012, he talks about how ‘The Warrior’ led him to get ‘Senna’ the documentary of Formula 1 legend Ayrton Senna who tragically died in a crash in front of 300 million TV viewers. The film became the biggest grossing documentary in British history.

Yet Asif Kapadia and Ayrton Senna are as different as the cliché of chalk and cheese. Firstly Asif wasn’t such a big Formula 1 fan and secondly rumour has it that before him biggies like Oliver Stone, Michael Mann and Ridley Scott had approached the Senna family to make a film on him. Yet they entrusted the story to Asif and his writer Manish Pandey.

“Irrfan saw a special screening of ‘Senna’ and said that he saw me in the film. And the funny thing is I did not write Senna or produce it and the idea was also not mine. I was only asked to direct it. I think there are themes one is interested in and that is carried forward in everything you do,” Asif says.

Perhaps through the separation of time and space, there were indeed similarities between three completely different people Ayrton Senna, Asif Kapadia and Irrfan Khan – each an outsider, struggling to find their place in their fields while trying to stay pure to the chosen art. First it was Ayrton Senna, then Asif Kapadia and after the international productions of ‘The Amazing Spiderman’ and ‘The Life of Pi’ the world will finally see the full potential of this man called Irrfan Khan who almost quit acting once. 

(This feature was written for the wire service IANS, finally appearing as :http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/senna-irrfan-asif-kapadias-lens-045414406.html)

The Iron Lady – The Perfect Streep Show

Director: Phyllida Lloyd

Actors: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Richard E. Grant

Rating: 4/5

The test of democracy is when a woman has as much right to a position of power, as any man. Yet, if you look into the history of the western world, you’ll realise that most aren’t true ‘democracies’ for most of them, including USA, has had no women ruler. A notable exception, though controversial, is Britain’s Margaret Thatcher.

Thus beyond the politics of that woman, lies the politics of gender against which she rose and captured the world’s imagination. In the same vein, beyond the politics of the film ‘The Iron Lady’ lies a film about ambition, of a woman in a bloody man’s world. And in that respect, this is one tough nut of a film, just like the lady it portrays.

Yet this biopic of Thatcher steers clear of any controversies and instead skims the surface in an attempt to truly show her as the ‘Iron Lady’. It is this attempt that works for the film, but distorts its politics and intention.

 The lone woman in blue in a man's black world, scorching her own way...

There is no denying that Thatcher was every bit of the lady of conviction the film portrays. But conviction itself is not a guarantee of correctness. If it were we’d be worshipping Hitler and Bollywood would be sweeping global film awards. In hiding much of Thatcher’s bad politics that is perhaps the reason why Britain is in such a soup, that the film tries to ameliorate her past.

Yet beyond the films covert intentions lies a woman who dominated world politics like few men have done, played by a woman who has dominated the space inside the four walls of a picture frame like few ever have. And therein lies the casting coup of the new millennium.  

With 17 Academy Award nomination (3 wins) and 26 Golden Globe nominations (8 wins), both more than any man or woman, Meryl Streep is clear the ‘Iron Lady’ of cinema. And in portraying the Iron Lady of politics, she exactly shows why she is who she is. And the film is indeed a complete Streep show from beginning to the end. There are other very good actors, but all of them pale in front of her domineering presence so much so that when you see her on screen, it is as if it is not Thatcher that is on the prowl, but the unstoppable Terminator himself.

On another side, the film also shows the other side of a woman desperate to rise and control everything around. You cannot seek to control so much and not break up in the process. Thus her hallucinations, and moments of dementia are like the price she has had to pay to be an woman with ambitions higher than a mans in a patriarchal world.

This battle of wits between this lone woman and men around is the high point of the film. It is also captured evocatively in beautiful montages like the one of being the only sandal in an ocean of shoes or being the only blue dress in a sea of black men’s coat, or being seated in the furthest seat from the man in power etc.

These, and many other deft touches, force you to forget the politics of the film, and focus on the politics that both made and broke the woman being portrayed. And that in itself, is a great triumph for any film anywhere.

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