Herald 2day, 25 Nov 2009
Goan cinema comes of age
By Vidyadhar Gadgil
With only a small audience, the number of Konkani films produced over the years can comfortably be counted on the fingers of both hands. The first Konkani film was Mogacho Anvddo (1950), followed by Amchem Noxib (1963) and Nirmon (1966), both produced by Frank Fernand. Though Nirmon went on to win a national award, both it and Amchem Noxib were noted more for their musical score by Frank Fernand than for any cinematic excellence. Recent films, including Aleesha (2006) and Sawariya.com (2008), both produced by Rajendra Talak, have similarly had little appeal beyond the core audience in Goa and the Goan diaspora. In this situation, Konkani cinema has remained by and large a backwater.
All this is set to change with Laxmikant Shetgaonkar’s Poltodcho Monis (The Man Beyond the Bridge), which was screened in the Indian Panorama section at IFFI on 24 June. The film has already evoked considerable attention, having won the FIPRESCI award at the Toronto International Film Festival this year.
Poltodcho Monis is the story of Vinayak, a forest guard who has spent 15 years working in a remote forest area. A widower, his existence is a lonely one, and he is, as the title indicates, a man living at the margins of civilization. Into his lonely life comes an insane woman whom he encounters one night scrabbling around outside his hut. His repeated efforts to drive her away are to no avail, and he finally succumbs to pity and begins to give her food. Over time, he begins to take more effort over her, forcing her to bathe and even giving her his dead wife’s clothes to wear. Gradually, their relationship grows, and Vinayak’s feelings for her become stronger, until the relationship also acquires a sexual dimension.
Vinayak begins to cherish his relationship with the woman, who now shares his house with him. He is beset by doubt as to whether he is doing something wrong, but realizes that it is only the human being in him responding to the plight of the woman and seeking companionship and love. But this is not the perspective in which the rest of the nearby village sees this relationship, which condemns him for taking advantage of an insane and helpless woman. Vinayak faces a social boycott from the village, compounded by the opposition evoked by his efforts to bring villagers involved in felling trees to book. Vinayak is advised to let the woman go, and even his requests for them to be married are dismissed, as society is not willing to accept a relationship with an insane woman.
When she gives birth to a child, the prejudices of the villagers come to the fore, and she and the child are driven out of Vinayak’s house. He searches for her frantically all over, neglecting his work and becoming more and more uncommunicative. When he finally finds her and their child, he takes her back home, and in a symbolic act demolishes the bridge which is the only link between them and civilization.
Poltodcho Monis is a simple tale, told without any frills. The triumph of the film is in the human drama, which is told in an understated fashion, with minimal dialogue. Shetgaonkar effectively explores the themes of loneliness, insanity and the social stigma attached to this condition. The performances are good, with Chitranjan Giri in the role of Vinayak being outstanding. Technically too, the film excels, with effective editing and photography. It focuses on a Goa that is rarely seen – the forest areas of the hinterland.
The film is an absolute must-see, not only for lovers of Konkani but for all lovers of cinema.
Given that his earlier films received a positive response, with his short film Eka Sagar Kinari (A Seaside Story) having won the Golden Conch at the Mumbai International Film Festival in 2004, it is surprising that Shetgaonkar did not receive support from the powers-that-be for Poltodcho Monis and that he had to surmount numerous difficulties to make the film at all. With this film we can welcome a fresh talent, deeply rooted in the Goan reality, who has the ability to take Goan cinema to greater heights.
Poltodcho Monis has received only one screening at IFFI. It is hoped that the film is released in Goa, so that Goans in general get an opportunity to view this excellent human document.
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Herald 2day, 26 Nov 2009
A quest to bridge our separations
By Vidyadhar Gadgil
Nandita Das’s Firaaq (Separation) was originally meant to premiere at IFFI 2008, but due to delays with the censors, the film could not qualify for participation, and was only released in March 2009. Apart from receiving a general release, it travelled to over 40 film festivals all over the world. Speaking before the screening of the film at IFFI 2009 on 25 November, director Nandita Das said that with this screening the film had in a sense completed its journey.
Better known for her power-packed performances in films like Bawandar, Fire and 1947 Earth, Nandita said that she more or less strayed into script-writing and direction. Actually, she was working on another script but ended up directing Firaaq. Gujarat was a story waiting to be told, and the story found Nandita rather than vice-versa.
And that’s a stroke of luck for us. The horrors of the Gujarat 2002 communal violence are a difficult subject to tackle, and the only other notable effort in this direction has been Parzania, directed by Rajat Dholakia. While Parzania had graphic scenes of violence, Firaaq is a quiet tale, which chronicles the events over a period of 24 hours in the lives of people on different sides of the communal divide, with their lives ripped apart by the violence in one way or another.
The only scene in the film which directly focuses on the violence is the opening sequence in which piles of corpses are being buried in a common grave. Moving on a month forward in time from this totally unnecessary scene – which does not fit in with the mood of the rest of the film, and should have been dropped – we follow the lives of several ordinary people affected by the riots, some as victims, some as perpetrators, and some as silent if horrified observers.
The film has an ensemble cast, which includes a bigoted Hindu (Paresh Raval) and his abused wife (Deepti Naval); a rich mixed-religion couple (Sanjay Suri and Tisca Chopra); an elderly Muslim musician (Naseeruddin Shah) and his faithful attendant (Raghuvir Yadav); Muneera (Shahana Goswami), who has had her home burnt during the riots and suspects her Hindu friend (Amruta Subhash) of having a hand in the deed; and Mohsin, a Muslim boy who has been orphaned during the violence. There are also Muneera’s husband and his friends, who are seeking an outlet for their rage, and whose quest for revenge only ends in his tragic death. These stories briefly interconnect and overlap, drawing you into their lives and inner conflicts. Without any overt scenes of violence, Firaaq convincingly draws the picture of a society torn apart by the horror of communal violence and hatred.
The performances by the lead actors are good, but the stand-out performance is that by Deepti Naval, who is torn by guilt over having failed to save people who came to her for succour during the riots, and whose husband has been an active participant in the looting. She befriends Mohsin, hoping for expiation of her guilt, but he runs away when Paresh Raval beats her for having questioned his friend over his participation in gang rapes during the riots. In a final act of defiance, she defies convention and walks out of her house.
Firaaq is by no means an easy film to watch, but it must be seen to understand what the horrors of communalism do to each of us, including those who only observe. As Nandita Das told the audience at IFFI, the two meanings of Firaaq (separation and quest) are both appropriate, as what her film is in a sense a quest to find a way to bridge the separations between human that have engulfed our society.
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Herald 2day, 28 Nov 2009
The futility of war
By Vidyadhar Gadgil
One of the most fascinating special sections at IFFI 2009 is the special section on ‘War and Peace’ consisting of six films: No Man’s Land (Danis Tanovic), Capitaine Conan (Bertrand Tavernier), Haqeeqat (Chetan Anand), Turtles Can Fly (Bahman Gobhadi), Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg) and The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin). While Schindler’s List and Great Dictator, and of course Haqeeqat, will have been seen by many in India, the other three films come as a particular treat for audiences at IFFI.
Most of these films showcase the futility of war and the way it dehumanizes combatants and civilians alike. The Great Dictator focuses on the megalomaniac dictator (based on Hitler, and played by Charlie Chaplin) who wants to rule the world, while Schindler’s List deals with the plight of Jews during the Holocaust and the efforts by German Oskar Schindler to save at least some of them by turning his factory into a refuge for Jews.
Capitaine Conan is set in the First World War and its aftermath. While often seen as anti-war film, it defies such easy categorization. Turtles Can Fly deals with the American invasion of Iraq as seen from the Kurdish side, and while having a moving story line, has attracted much criticism for going soft on the American invasion of Iraq – understandable when one is telling the story from the Kurdish point of view. Haqeeqat, unfortunately, does not fit very well into this section. Produced immediately after the 1962 war, it takes a strongly nationalist and even jingoistic line.
But the standout film of this section is clearly No Man’s Land, familiar to us in India as the film which beat Lagaan to Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2001. Set within the span of a few hours in a trench in no man’s land during the Serb-Bosnian conflict, it focuses on two soldiers from either camp, Chiki and Nino, trapped together in the trench, unsure whether to cooperate with each other or treat each other as enemies. They cooperate reluctantly, and even find some common ground, but war has riven an unbridgeable chasm between them. Complicating the situation is another wounded soldier, Cera, who has had a land mine placed under him as a booby trap and cannot move lest he set it off.
The film highlights the horror of the situation not by drawing a stark picture but by taking the line of black comedy. The ridiculous aspects of the situation and the laughter that it evokes from the viewer only serve to hammer home the point of how war dehumanizes and brutalizes us all. The film spares neither the combatants nor the UN peacekeepers, and also casts a scathing eye on the media, for whom war is only one more commodity and which measures human misery in TRPs.
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Herald 2day, 30 Nov 2009
Gabhricha Paus – A farmer’s anguish
By Vidyadhar Gadgil
The lot of the farmer has always been a hard one, with tremendous toil having to be put in for very poor return. Dependent on the vagaries of the weather, agriculture has historically been a neglected sector, with unremunerative prices and high cost of inputs, and little government support, as we have seen in Goa too. The situation has been exacerbated in recent years by the forces of economic globalization, which have led to increased farmer indebtedness. Farmer suicides have become commonplace, with areas like Andhra Pradesh and Vidarbha in Maharashtra particularly badly affected. But this problem does not come into public consciousness much, as our urban celebrity-obsessed media is just not bothered about such issues.
‘Gabhricha Paus’ (The Damned Rain), a searing film by debutant director Satish Manwar which is being screened in the competition section of IFFI 2009, takes an unflinching look at the whole issue. Revolving around the issues of rain, debt and death, the film begins with the suicide of a poor farmer. The family of Kisna (Girish Kulkarni), another farmer, is worried that Kisna will take the same way out, and mounts a close watch over him. Kisna’s wife Alka (Sonali Kulkarni) wife deputes his aged mother and six-year-old son Dinu (Aman Attar) to be with him all the time. Kisna struggles hard to manage, but the rain plays truant again, finally turning over-generous and ruining the crop. Kisna tries to rebuild his life, but events move onwards to their inevitable conclusion, the fate of thousands of farmers all over India.
Speaking to Herald 2day, director Satish Manwar, who himself hails from Yavatmal district in Maharashtra says, “This issue has always been on his mind, and I wanted to express my pain and anger. We had a lot of difficulty with finance and it took me four years to make the film, but it was well worth it. The film has been to more than 20 film festivals all over the world.”
But what has been the response of mainstream audiences? “Frankly, a little disappointing,” shrugs Manwar, “it ran fairly well in Mumbai and Pune, but elsewhere it didn’t attract many viewers, not even in Vidarbha. But I am glad that I succeeded in making a point, and the film has attracted tremendous critical acclaim, bringing the issue of farmer suicides to the forefront.”
What about Manwar’s next project? “I am working on a script on the subject of conversions to Christianity in tribal areas. Yes, that is a sensitive, controversial topic, but I am not exploiting the subject for its controversial nature. The point I want to make is that we are now past the days of nature worship, and people have started following one established religion or another. But religion is merely a distraction from pressing socio-economic and lifestyle issues, and my film will be in a sense an anti-religion film.”
‘Gabhricha Paus’ is a good film, on an important social issue. The direction is understated, and the performances are good, with Girish Kulkarni as Kisna being outstanding. Sonali Kulkarni puts in a brave effort, but she is miscast and does not make for an entirely convincing Alka. The cinematography is one of the strongest points of the film, and the images remain in your mind. The film is in the competition section of IFFI 2009, which is a little surprising, because it is not quite up to that standard. But IFFI moves in mysterious ways its wonders to perform, and ‘Gabhricha Paus’ is certainly a more deserving candidate for honours than the other Indian film in competition – the undistinguished ‘Angshumaner Chhobi’. Here’s wishing Satish Manwar luck in the competition and in his future projects.
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Herald 2day, 1 Dec 2009
As British as chicken tikka!
By Vidyadhar Gadgil
Currently in Goa to attend the retrospective of her films being shown at IFFI 2009, Gurinder Chadha is one of the most respected directors in British cinema. Born in Nairobi, Kenya, the family moved to the UK when she was just two years old. Naturally enough, she has a very British sensibility – with a distinct Indian flavour! This works well in the multicultural mosaic of British society – after all, it’s not for nothing that chicken tikka is called Britain’s national dish. Gurinder Chadha, though herself a Punjabi like chicken tikka, may soon be abandoning this dish in favour of Goan prawn curry, which she claims to have fallen in love with, and even learnt how to cook!
The Gurinder Chadha retrospective at IFFI showcases all her important films, led, of course, by ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ (2002), which is the highest grossing British-financed, British-distributed film ever at the UK box office, a remarkable achievement considering that the protagonist of the film is a British-Indian girl Jess (short for Jaswinder), who pursues her dream of becoming a soccer sensation. Parminder Nagra excels in the role of a young woman who defies the conventions of her family and pursues her talent to its logical end along with her friend Jules, played by Keira Knightley, whose first major success this was. Knightley, of course, went on to become one of the most popular actresses in cinema today, starring in box office smashes like ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean series’.
‘Bhaji on the Beach’ (1992) was the film which first brought Gurinder Chadha into the spotlight. Written by Meera Syal, the film is about a day trip to Blackpool by a group of women from the Asian Women’s Centre. A harmless outing, a bit of fun – but as events unfold, a variety of problems become apparent, including domestic violence and a teenage unwed pregnancy. The characters have to confront their prejudices and work out solutions, and by the end of the day a good deal more has been illuminated than a seaside romp.
While ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ and ‘Bhaji on the Beach’ deal with British-Indian themes, Chadha’s ‘Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008) is a breezy teen comedy, with just one British-Indian character in a supporting role. Based on the best-selling series of books by Louise Rennison, the film takes a light-hearted look at the life of the eccentric and irresistible teenager Georgia Nicholson (Georgia Groome) and her two major goals – to get a gorgeous sex-god as her boyfriend and to throw the greatest 15th birthday party ever.
‘What’s Cooking?’ (2001) is set in multicultural Los Angeles and tracks four households – the Nguyens, the Avilas, the Williams and the Seeligs. As they each celebrate Thanksgiving, matters within each household come to a head, forcing them to confront the issues which they have been trying to sweep under the carpet. The experimental ‘Paris Je T’Aime’ (2006) – set, obviously, in Paris – is composed of 20 five-minute narratives which the audience must weave together.
Finally, there are the two Aishwarya Rai starrers, ‘Mistress of Spices’ (2005) and ‘Bride and Prejudice’. The former, based on Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s eponymous novel, is only scripted by Gurinder Chadha. In ‘Bride and Prejudice’, Jane Austen is subjected to the Bollywood treatment – and ends a wreck! Aishwarya Rai, despite her ethereal beauty, is a wooden actress and has proved to be the kiss of death to many talented film-makers, and she makes a mess of both these movies as well. The fusion of East and West doesn’t come off in either, and what you get is a patchy pastiche, pandering a little too obviously to commercial considerations and trying too desperately to leverage Aishwarya Rai’s box office status. Better avoided by the wise.
Let’s hope that Gurinder Chadha’s newfound love for Goa extends to making a film on Goa or with a British-Goan theme. It will be one more feather in her rich multicultural cap, and it will be interesting to see how she converts Goan prawn curry, vindaloo and khatkhatem into British dishes.
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Miracle Workers of Malegaon
By Vidyadhar Gadgil
Malegaon is associated in the public mind with the weaving industry, communal violence and bomb blasts rather than with the film industry. But that is changing, with the products of Malegaon’s fledgling film industry like ‘Malegaon ka Superman’ and ‘Gabbarbhai MBBS’ being screened at IFFI 2009 to rapturous applause. Also screened and highly appreciated was the documentary ‘Superman of Malegaon’ – on the evolution of the Malegaon film industry – by debutante director Faiza Ahmed Khan, which had earlier been a big draw at the Osians-Cinefan Film Festival 2009, and bagged the Audience Prize at the Prague Film Festival.
Bollywood is a passion in Malegaon, serving as an escape from the harsh reality of poverty and the recurrent communal tension. Rising above all this, and making spoof of Bollywood films are ordinary people from Malegaon, led by the young Shaikh Nasir, whose family runs a readymade garments business. And Faiza’s film tells us how this ragtag bunch has performed a miracle of sorts.
Faiza explains how she came to make the film. “I had always heard of Malegaon in the context of bomb blasts or communal violence. When I heard about the hour-long feature films being made in Malegaon, with very limited resources, I decided to visit Malegaon and see things for myself. Once I met the people behind these films, I was overwhelmed by their passion and I just had to make a film on them. They specialize in spoofs of Bollywood films, but when they told me they were planning a spoof of a Hollywood product like ‘Superman’, this was a story I just had to tell. I was fortunate that the ideal theme for my first film, one I fell in love with, came my way in this fashion.”
Faiza has taken on a tricky film-within-a-film format and executed it with panache. Thus her film follows the crew as they shoot ‘Malegaon ka Superman’. It is fascinating to see how they use the most basic, everyday equipment and props to execute their stunts. And the whole package works! As Nasir Shaikh explains, they give a comic twist to the original scene, and certain neat touches – Superman not being able to perform his rescues on certain days because he suffers from asthma – add a liberal dose of satire. And ‘Supermen of Malegaon’ too succeeds in gripping and entertaining as it tracks all this. Faiza agrees, “We had people who would run away at the thought of viewing a documentary enjoying my film tremendously.”
Faiza reminisces, “What prompted me to make this film was the courage of these people. Prima facie, they have nothing going for them. Poverty, industrial sickness, communal tension – you name the problem, and Malegaon has it. But instead of letting adversity triumph over their spirit, they have risen about it all, and succeeded in making films that have drawn international attention. And then I also wanted to help bring the story of the Muslims of Malegaon to wider attention. In this communally divided town, there is lack of knowledge and hence mistrust. This is a humble attempt to bridge that gap.”
One comment made by Faiza sticks in one’s mind: “It is difficult to understand the magnitude of what these humble folk have accomplished.” And this brings to mind another fascinating film that was shown at IFFI 2009, and became a popular favourite: ‘Harischandrachi Factory’. In this film on the life of Dadasaheb Phalke and how he dared to chase his dream despite all the odds and laid the foundations of India’s film industry (the biggest in the world today), there are echoes of what the Malegaon supermen of Faiza’s film are doing today. Told in an engaging, light-hearted style, ‘Harischandrachi Factory’ shows the visionary Phalke and family risking their all to achieve what everybody says is impossible – make films in India. ‘Supermen of Malegaon’ shows the Phalkes of today doing something similar, facing somewhat different but no less daunting problems.
[…] https://fakeer.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/iffi-2009/But this problem does not come into public consciousness much, as our urban celebrity-obsessed media is just not bothered about such issues. ‘Gabhricha Paus’ (The Damned Rain), a searing film by debutant director Satish Manwar which is being … While ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ and ‘Bhaji on the Beach’ deal with British-Indian themes, Chadha’s ‘Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008) is a breezy teen comedy, TWO AND A HALF MEN dvd with just one British-Indian character in a supporting role. … […]
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