Out of India, GAUTAMAN BHASKARAN considers the current Indian and Bollywood Cinema.

INDIA’s official entry to the 2008 Oscars, Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Eklavya: The Royal Guard with Amitabh Bachchan in the lead/title role is now in a legal tangle. Bhavna Talwar, whose Dharam was also in the race for selection, has gone to court saying that some members of the selection panel (chosen by the Film Federation of India) were closely associated with Chopra. The court will decide on October 10 whether the case merits a hearing, and has asked the parties involved in the dispute to submit their responses by that date.

Whatever be the court decision, the fact remains that the Film Federation has – for years – been selecting and submitting to the Oscars worthless movies. No wonder, the Academy has mostly NOT been kind to Indian films. Since 1956 – the year the Academy started presenting Oscars for foreign language pictures – only three Indian movies, Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay (1988) and Lagaan (2001), have been nominated in the category. All three were Hindi films.

India made some brilliant cinema in that period. Satyajit Ray’s classics, Ritwick Ghatak’s gripping works, Mrinal Sen’s captivating fare (all three were from Bengal), Aravindan’s touching movies, are Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s excellent body of work (both from Kerala) are some of the examples. None of these were even considered by the Federation, let alone sent up for a possible nomination by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Admittedly, the Film Federation of India was – and continues to be–- deeply biased against non-Bollywood cinema. Even among the Mumbai movies, the better ones were never chosen. Examples: Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy and early Raj Kapoor. What a shame to have shamed the country this way.


The other day I was in Trivandrum and heard that Ketan Mehta was making a movie on painter Raja Ravi Varma. Called Rang Rasiya (Colours of Passion), it will trace the life and times of one of India’s most celebrated artists. Mehta, whose oeuvre stretches from untouchability (Bhavni Bhavai) to history (Mangal Pandey – The Rising), will complete his film by December. Incidentally, two other works on the painter are being produced. Shaji N. Karun and Lenin Rajendran have their cameras all focussed, but Mehta might just about pip them at the post. And, he plans to say a little more about Varma; his relationship with his muse, for instance. Nandana Sen will essay that part.


Two interesting Indian movies will premier at the Rome Film Festival beginning October 18. Sudhir Mishra’s Khoya Khoya Chand on the old Bollywood studio system and Anurag Kashyap’s socially pungent No Smoking with John Abraham will screen where once gladiators fought lions as part of bloody amusement. Cinema can be as gory, but Mishra’s and Kashyap’s creations are far from that, and will perhaps tell Romans and others what India is capable of. Curiously, the Venice Film Festival ignored Indian cinema this year, and I hope Rome will make up for the loss, and even bridge the chasm between the two ancient cultures.


I saw Loins of Punjab Presents and quite liked it. It is a witty, one-liner gushing movie whose medley of characters speak Indian English, a welcome relief from superficial sounding browns speaking the Queen’s language. There is no background score that is often so intrusive in Indian cinema, nudging, nay pushing, a viewer into a mood the director sets. For his first film, helmer Manish Acharya (who also plays the part of Vikram Tejwani, whose job is about to be outsourced to India) is extremely restrained and steers clear of the obsession among international Indian moviemakers for stereotyping desi characters. During a music competition sponsored by a big pork manufacturer in the USA, Loins of Punjab, a motley group of contestants, parks itself in a New Jersey hotel. Among them is Rita Kapoor (Shabana Azmi), a social butterfly who controls judges and contenders through sexual or other favours. While she takes one of the judges for a romp, she tempts a couple of participants with lucrative assignments in return for them quitting the contest. Young Preeti Patel (Ishitta Sharma) – in tow with her entire family bent on seeing her win the huge prize money of $ 25,000 – however plays tough, not easily swallowing Kapoor’s bait of a fabulous modelling offer. At other times, Kapoor hits hard, like when she gets Bollywood aspirant Sania Rehman (Seema Rahmani) disqualified on a flimsy ground. Even the smallest parts have been intelligently penned, but I had one sneaking suspicion. Was Acharya inspired by the recent Hollywood film, Little Miss Sunshine, where a seven-year-old girl is carted by her family across America for a beauty pageant?