INDIA is the ‘guest country’ at this year’s Cannes Film Festival which runs from May 15-26, as the country marks 100 years of feature film production.
Interestingly, it was the French, who introduced moving picture to India, when the frères Lumiere made an appearance at the Watsons Hotel, Bombay on July 7, 1896 and displayed their ‘marvel of the century’ to the local elite.
The Indians took to this invention like a duck to water, and have been producing features films since the first one, Raja Harishchandra by DadaSaheb Phalke in 1913.
The relationship between the French and the Indians has been as enduring and Indian films have had a presence at the Cannes Film Festival since the inception of the festival in 1946, with Neech Nagar, by Chetan Anand (Winner Grand Prix Best Film), a loose adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s The Lower Depths, exposing the division between rich and poor.
In 1951, there were several short films, by Mohan Dayaram Bhavnani while it was in 1956 that Satyajit Ray made his international debut with Pather Panchali, and winning the ‘Best Human Document’ prize.
In 1949, Ray had met filmmaker, Jean Renoir, when the latter was in India scouting for locations for his film, The River. Ray worked on it as an assistant, and also met his cinematographer, Subrata Mitra on the set. Renoir encouraged him with his own film debut.
Indian cinema has had an ongoing representation at Cannes with both, Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen having being selected seven times each. Ray’s films were Pather Panchali (restored print also shown in 1995), Parash Pathar (1958), Devi (1962),Ghaire Bhare (1984),Ghanashatru (1989) &Uttoran (written by Ray and directed by his son, Sandip, 1994).
Mrinal Sen – who made an appearance at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, when his 1984 film, Khandar (The Ruins), was shown as part of Cannes Classics – first went to the festival with his film, Bhuvan Shome in 1970, which was shown in ‘Directors’ Fortnight, followed byPadatik (1974), Oka Oori Katha (The Outsiders, 1978), all in the same category.
His competition films were Ek Din Pratidin (1980),Kharij (1983), which won the Jury Prize and was nominated for the Palme D’Or; Khandar (1984) andGenesis (1986).
Fast forward to 2013 where India is to be feted for four days with parties along the Croisette, part of which will be transformed into Chowpatty beach courtesy of the talent of Nitin Chandrakant Desai.
Bollywood legend, Amitabh Bachchan walked on the Red Carpet to the Grand Theatre Lumiere as part of the team of The Great Gatsby, by Australian director, Baz Luhrmann, to open the 66th Cannes Film Festival.
The Gala Screening, ‘Tribute to India’, is Bombay Talkies, a portmanteau film by four directors, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee, Karan Johar and Anurag Kashyap, while emerging director, Amit Kumar, presents his debut feature, Monsoon Shootout, the story of a rookie cop facing a gangster at a dead end street, and has to decide to shoot or not, at another Midnight Screening.
Film-maker, Anurag Kashyap, has his new feature,Ugly, showing in Directors’ Fortnight, which is the story of ten yearold, Kali, whose parents Rahul and Shalini are divorced. Kali now lives with her mother and her step-father Shoumik, who heads the police detection squad in the city of Mumbai. One particular Saturday, when Kali is out with her father Rahul, she disappears…
Critics Week 2013 features,Dabba (The Lunch Box) by Ritesh Batra starring Irrfan Khan, Nawazudin Siddiqui & Nimrat Kaur, about a mistaken delivery of the famous Bombay lunch boxes.
Another film, Chenu by Manjeet Singh, (has been selected for the L’Atelier coproduction market, Cinéfondation), a story of a Dalit boy, who is drawn into violence, when his sister’s fingers are chopped off by a landlord for picking mustard leaves from his farm.
Actress Vidya Balan joins the main jury, headed by Steven Spielberg, while actor-director, Nandita Das is part of a separate jury for short films.
In Cannes Classic, Charulata (1964) will be showing. Made by the legendary Ray, it is regarded as one of his masterpieces, though far less well known than the films of the Apu trilogy. Many of Ray’s works are now being restored and digitally remastered in India.
(See Eastern Eye May 17 for special issue on Cannes-India Connections.)
