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)

The Artist – Clichéd, Melodramatic But Brilliant

Director: Michel Hazanavicius

Actors: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman

Rating: 4/5

Imagine a feature film made during the silent era, lost and forgotten, to be found 80 years later? Would it even be released? Would it be a hit? Your perception perhaps would be a definitive no but as ‘The Artist’ has shown, once again, that sound in cinema, is highly over rated. After all, for those who have forgotten, cinema is first and foremost, a visual medium.

Yet, ‘The Artist’ is as clichéd and melodramatic as they come. If it were competing with the best of the lot in the 20s and 30s, it would have been amongst the average films then, perhaps garnering no critical or commercial success.

Come, lets zoom right ahead into the past... 

 The film thus works only in the context of the present since many of you have not watched a silent film in their lives and would be shocked by its temerity to hold your attention without uttering a word. One thus only hopes that ‘The Artist’ becomes an excuse for you to revisit the masterpieces of the 1920s and 30s, the films of masters like Charlie Chaplin, F W Murnau, Buster Keaton, Sergei Eisenstein, Fritz Lang, King Vidor, D W Griffith etc. Watch for example Murnau’s ‘Sunrise’ or Frank Borzage’s ‘Seventh Heaven’ which matches ‘The Artist’ in its melodrama.

Having said that one has to give ‘The Artist’ its due. It is witty, intelligent, funny and poignant at the same time. The story - that of an artist who finds himself obsolete with the changing times and technology and unable to cope, has been told several times before (one of the best being Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Limelight’). Yet, it has a freshness that tugs at your heart even when you cringe at the excessive melodrama.

You also forgive the makers for the melodrama and the excessive pathos. In our times, there was perhaps no other way to make you realise the power of silent cinema than by making it this simplistic and unashamedly melodramatic.

In essence this is also Charlie Chaplin’s story, who refused to move to talking pictures even as the world did and in rebellion made ‘Modern Times’ - a huge hit despite hardly having sound. And even when he spoke for the first time in cinema, in ‘The Great Dictator’ he did so to call for peace and justice for all in the world.

There is no doubt that a lot of hard work has gone into the making of ‘The Artist’. For that and for the conviction of the producers to fund something like this, the film deserves to be seen as widely as possible. See it and you’ll definitely want to go forward into the past where silent black and white cinema scorched the silver screen and your mind space.

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

Warhorse – Sloppy Melodrama Rescued By A Beautiful Intention

Director: Steven Spielberg

Actors: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, David Thewlis

Rating: 3/5

Every writer, artist, musician or filmmaker develops a certain style of representing his work that makes his work easily identifiable. ‘Warhorse’ is an example of what one can call either ‘Spielbergish’ or ‘Spielbergesque’ cinema with simple scenes overly dramatized and melodrama that is out of place and seems desperate and thus despicable.

Yet this, one of Spielberg’s worst directorial works, is rescued by three things – technical brilliance, a lovely metaphor and most importantly its beautiful, anti-war sentiment.

A kind of a war-based retelling of Anna Swell’s ‘Black Beauty’ ‘Warhorse’ is based on a children’s book of the same name by Michael Morpurgo that was adapted for stage by Nick Stafford. A beautiful and powerful horse passes through many hands before and during the First World War, observing with his silent, kind eyes the horrors that man inflicts upon man.

Steven Spielberg is a master at making aliens look and feel human. Making a horse more human than most human around would not have been such tough work for the master. And best of all, he has chosen a subject which is so rich in allusions and allegories, that even a decent direction would have sailed it through.

The beautiful, kind and powerful horse is a metaphor for humanity. In the true spirit of animal books or movies like Anna Swell’s ‘Black Beauty’ or Robert Bresson’s donkey ‘Balthazar’, he becomes both the symbol of humanity as well as an observer of its abundant lack and occasional triumph.

Thus in the end when it is trapped in barbed-wires of war in no man’s land where nothing survives, it needs the help of both warring factions – both of whom he has seen and served as a warhorse – it gives a strong message to us all. Love, compassion and humanity is in desperate need of patronage. In the absence of this, it will wither and die, trapped in a no-mans land it cannot get itself out of.

You cannot pick a bone with the film in terms of its story or its technicality. The last scene of the unmanned horse running through the battlefield with bullets and shells flying all around, not because it is scared, but because it is too proud and humane to take this insanity, is one of the most technically brilliant scene you would have seen in cinema.

Yet, you can indeed find flaws in its excessive emphasis on melodrama, especially in the end. Spielberg has a knack of making even small, ordinary moments look magical. However, excessive use of melodrama, especially at the end in an desperate attempt to wriggle some salty water from your eyes will perhaps indeed make you cry but only wondering where Spielberg has lost his directorial way in the film.

It is also too literal for its own good. A good director needs to trust his viewers to understand some unsaid thing. Hence the scene where a woman explains why she lives with a drunk husband or where it is directly making statements against the absurdity of war, seem not needed.

However, they seem unnecessary if you look at it from adult perspective. If you look at it as a children’s film, after all the original book was for children, you would really have no complaints with the film. Perhaps that is what Spielberg indeed intended – to make a children’s film. If that be so, he succeeds magnificently.

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

Contraband – Predictable Fun While It Lasts

Director: Baltasar Kormákur

Actors:  Mark Wahlberg, Giovanni Ribisi, Kate Beckinsale

Rating: 3/5

There are films made on predictable scripts. Yet their execution often raises their quality a few notches and though overall there’s nothing really to love or hate as the film hangs in a balance in no man’s land, you do give a thumbs up to the director for the brave rescue act. ‘Contraband’ is one such film.

An ex-smuggler who has gone legit, is forced to return to his old ways after his brother-in-law gets into trouble. He faces insurmountable odds to smuggle a huge cache of counterfeit money while also trying to protect his family.

This film is like the famous computer game ‘Dave’; where the protagonist encounters seemingly impossible obstacles one after the other to emerge victorious. Thus, the crux of the story is not revelation of secrets, though it has its predictable share, but in the impossibility of the obstacle before him and the resources that he brings together to get over it.

And though our hero is a smuggler, in typical films of the genre, he is given enough moral authority in the minds of the viewers – he is protecting his family, he is being set up, he is a good guy at heart – for us not to mind his prosperity stemming for an illegitimate act.

And the stakes put up against him are so high that your heart goes out to him and his family. You root for him as you know he has no option but to push through the inferno and not around it because inside it is smelting the purest gold that will solve all his problems of the past, present and future. And it is in making you pray for his success that the film succeeds, and not because of any cinematic merit.

It is a formula film where the hero ends up richer than he started out and the villains are punished. Yet, like life, it is about the journey. Such a film cannot be self conscious. It has to be natural enough and the direction, invisible.

Yet, that does not take away the accusation that almost everything in this remake of an Icelandic film Reykjavík-Rotterdam in which Contraband director Baltasar Kormákur is the lead, is taken from somewhere else; from heist, gangsta or action thrillers. Yet, it is not taken to such a level to seem overbearing.

E.g. in the end the discovery of a rare painting worth more than the money made in the heist, is typical of a Guy Ritchie movie where two ancient guns or a big diamond makes it worthwhile for our protagonist (copied copiously worldwide). Yet, in the film it seems more like a closing of a loop of a previous heist, though any discerning viewer would have obviously figured it out much before.

Kate Beckinsale is almost wasted in a small role while actor and producer of the film Mark Whalberg plays a kind of role he has become comfortable in over the years. A good, but not a ‘must’ watch.

This review has been written for the newswire service Indo-Asian News Service.