Namaste India (Hello India)
Indian cinema is a voyage…
India, a vast country and subcontinent of some 1.21 billion people, with 23 official languages and 3000 dialects, carries with it an equally vast number of images:
poverty, the caste system, Rajas, the Taj Mahal, the Bengal Tiger, Gandhi, the Sadhus, Bollywood, the monsoon, Salman Rushdie, saris, Vishnu, Krishna, colors, Goa, the world’s largest democracy, non-violence. The reality lies somewhere in the middle of all these images in a country that constantly keeps us guessing.
Painted rainbow by Gitanjali Rao (India – 2006)
This year’s programme dedicated to India will try to break free of a restricted view of India by featuring a generation of young directors – some forty films of the past decade.
2013 is no random date. Starting in 1899, Indian cinema slowly begins with short newsreels and documentaries on religious or traditional festivals. In 1913 in Bombay, the first Indian narrative feature film, Raja Harischandra, was screened. It was a silent film with Hindi and English subtitles. The female parts were played by men, since the job of actress was considered akin to prostitution. This film based on a story from the Mahabharata*, was directed by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke. He is considered to be the father of Indian cinema. Our retrospective commemorates one hundred years of Indian cinema.
In the West if we talk about Indian cinema, two names come to mind: Bollywood and Satyajit Ray. Since the 1970s and 80s, Bollywood has been a regional (Bombay) industry of mainstream films in Hindi that mix love, humor, drama, action… and usually conclude with a happy end. Specific codes govern these films: the source material (reworking or adapting mythology), the plot, a taste for the spectacular, songs and dances, a certain type of film grammar, a loud soundtrack, and overacting. Satyajit Ray symbolizes Indian auteur cinema as it is appreciated in the West. In 1956, he wins a prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his film Pather Panchali (The Song of the Little Road). Some forty films would follow, features as well as shorts. Ray, who died in 1992 at the age of 71, was a man of a country, a culture – Bengal, and of a city – Calcutta.
From these two examples, we gain a sense of the complexity, the unbridled creativity, and the diversity of this cinema. It’s not just one Indian cinema. There are many. We now speak of Indian cinemas, including the regional films, most often shot in local language. There are 6 or 7 huge production hubs in India.
Thread by Leonard Lilium (India – 2009)
The Clermont selection takes these historic, cultural, and geographic considerations into account. By showing films from film schools (Film and Television Institute of Pune, the Satyajit Ray Film Institute of Calcutta, the L.V. Prasad Film Academy and the MGR Film Institute de Chennai…), but also independent productions, we notice a diverse set of themes: the city, the country, native and religious communities, prostitution, theater, tradition, borders, poverty… A world in constant mutation – searching for values in its past or its future. This selection will spotlight exemplary directors like Umesh Kulkarni**, perhaps the most well known, but also Geetu Mohan Das, Shilpa Munikempanna, Samimitra Das, Torsha Banerjee…
These short films will sometimes take you into complex imaginings, very obscure on this side of the globe. You may feel challenged. So leave your preconceived ideas at the door, let go and let yourself be swept away by this journey through this selection of shorts… You may not immediately feel something conclusive, but so many emotions and atmospheres will, we hope, leave you with subtle and lasting effects in how you see the world and how you understand people. Subh yātrā (Have a nice trip in Hindi).
* The Mahabharata is an epic of Hindu mythology in Sanskrit.
** Member of the International Jury of Clermont-Ferrand 2013. A retrospective of his short films will be a spotlight programme. His 3rd feature film Deool recently won Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Dialogues at the 59th National Film Awards.
