Bringing the indie into Indian cinema

The festivalcrazy nation of ours has gone bonkers over carousels celebrating books and films in the recent years Perhaps as an antidote to our Bollywood frenzy or maybe as a need to vocalise our lsquoeducated sensibilitiesrsquo the country already seems to be saturated with film festivals in Kolkata Kerala Pune Mumbai Delhi Bangalore Patna Cochin and Dharamashala The New York Indian Film Festival NYIFF which kicks in by the end of this month is a festival that has been trying to stimulate a dialogue between Indian and American cultures post 911 Feroz Abbas Khanrsquos Dekh Tamasha Dekh starring Satish Kaushik above will open the festival Aroon Shivadasani the President and Executive Director of the Festival tells us ldquoWe started in 2001 with a small audience still discovering cinema from India The festival has grown in stature in size as well as in reputation over the years We only screen film premieres our programming and our niche of independent diaspora and alternate films allows us to present our films to packed often overflowing cinephiles representing the melting pot of American culturerdquo A still from Baavra Mann by Jaideep Verma Why go beyond mainstream Interestingly the expanse of the programme asks many questions that challenge the very notion of mainstream Indian cinema including its characteristics thereby dissolving the idea of mainstream itself Marking the vivid century that Indian cinema completes this year the restored prints of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro Uday Shankarrsquos masterpiece Kalpana and MS Sathyursquos Garam Hawa will be screened Tracing the art house parallel wave and now oftused and abused nomenclature mdash independent cinema the scheduled features documentaries and shorts abet introspection Still from Much Ado About Knotting directed by Anandana Kapur and Geetika Narang Abbasi Citybased director Rudradeep Bhattacharjee who made The Human Factor shares ldquoIn Gregory Boothrsquos book Behind the Curtain Making Music in Mumbairsquos Film Studios I discovered about the Lord family who have been musicians for over half a century since the silent films and have produced hits like Howrah Bridge Aradhna to Dil Toh Pagal Hai and decided to make a filmrdquo Jaideep Verma the director of Baavra Mann attempts to expose the glimmering faccedilade of Bollywood by tracing the journey of lsquoparallel waversquo film director Sudhir Mishra He says ldquoI find him immensely stimulating as a person and it intrigues why he doesnrsquot fulfill his potential anymore Nandita Das in a scene from Oonga In my opinion he is the only filmmaker in Mumbai today who has lasted 25 years with expectations of a great film from him still having not extinguished While making the film I knew I could also explore a lot of other things mdash like the environments he had been in which had failed to fulfill their promise He was at Sagar University in the 1970s a great centre of learning then now in shambles He was part of the theatre scene in Delhi in the early 1980s going through its most creative phase mdash that didnrsquot last long too He was part of the highly influential parallel cinema movement in the mid1980s which also has faded awayrdquo Poster of The Human Factoru00a0 Exposing the underside of wishywashy romance films of Bollywood Anandana Kapur and Geetika Narang Abbasi have made a ldquocommunity filmrdquo in Kapurrsquos words on ldquoIndiarsquos official pasttimerdquo mdash marriages and matchmaking Kapur shares ldquoAll of us have been asked this common question of lsquowhen will you be getting marriedrsquo if already married the question becomes lsquohow did you get marriedrsquordquo Understanding that filmmaking is all about constructing ldquotruthvaluerdquo she prefers ldquodocumentaries as a piece of entertainment Where the audience is entertained enough to be engagedrdquo The independent challenge This 13th annual affair in the Big Apple will also host features including Feroz Abbas Khanrsquos Dekh Tamasha Dekh Manav Kaulrsquos Hansa Hansal Mehtarsquos Shahid Sabal Singh Shekhawatrsquos Fireflies Devashish Makhijarsquos Oonga and will close with Nitin Kakkarrsquos Filmistaan Makhija through his genrebending narrative constructs a socioeconomic backdrop that blurs the boundary between fantasy and reality through the childprotagonist Oonga He opines ldquoWe have consciously tried to make a film that seeks to entertain as much as it seeks to provoke thought As long as an Indian film can entertain it might find its little spot in the mainstream With Oonga wersquove strived to raise questions about todayrsquos India about its skewed developmental ambitions and the blood that itrsquos leaving in its wake This inclination for the brutal truth might lead some audiences to call our film lsquoindiersquo But simultaneously wersquove also shown a little boyrsquos road adventure packed with music magic mythology and thrill This might lead some other audiences to consider this lsquomainstreamrsquordquo Addressing this precise concern Aseem Chhabra the festival director says ldquoIndia does not have the independent film movement such as the kind that energised the Sundance Film Festival in the USrdquo He feels wary of tagging films that are being produced by Aamir Khan Dhobi Ghat Peepli Live or Balaji LSD Shor in the City ldquoThere are many new films being made in Mumbai and other parts of India which are independent in their spirit Itrsquos not a question of how those films are funded but the passion and the vision behind those Those films excite and surprise merdquo he concludes u00a0 The trailblazer event NYIFFrsquos advisory board consists of pioneering personalities such as Shabana Azmi Salman Rushdie Ustad Amjad Ali Khan Deepa Mehta Shashi Tharoor and Mira Nairu00a0On THE regional front the festival will include four Marathi films Pune 52 and National Award winners ndash Investment Anumati and Dhag Goutam Ghosersquos Shunyo Awnko Bengali and Dr Bijursquos The Color of Sky Malayalam are also a part of the programme Centuryold Indian Cinema gtEchoing the revels of our centuryold cinema India will be the guest country for Cannes this year gtThe Directorate of Film Festivals will be hosting the Delhi Film Festival as a part of the centenary celebrationsu00a0