Cannes Musings

Over the past three decades, Indian cinema’s track record at the Cannes Film Festival has been particularly miserable, if not a matter of national disgrace commensurate with our performance in the Olympics. It is not that it is any better at the other A-level festivals (Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Toronto) but despite the deep-rooted eurocentric bias, Cannes certainly has an ability to discern quality films from any part of the world irrespective of  the scale of film production in that country. Granted that the Cannes Festival is fiercely competitive, a country with a production of 900 films a year should fair better than Sri Lanka or a country like Brazil with 40 films a year which manages to get an average of two films selected every year.

How do we explain the misery of Indian cinema? We rub our noses so much in the dirt trying to keep our films ‘popular’ and ‘commercial’ that we hardly ever manage to make them any more memorable than yesterday’s newspaper. American cinema has the same intentions but it still manages to produce a few films every year that transcend their time. Since 90% of our popular films fail even at the box-office, they cannot actually be called either popular or commercial. Another lame excuse is that our film language is so unique (songs, dance, melodrama etc) that no one else in the world is capable of appreciating us! Why should we lionize Cannes or Venice as the true upholders of quality cinema? Why should we judge ourselves based on others’ criteria? Belligerence apart, it is a classic alibi that is tantamount to justifying our 132^nd position on FIFA world rankings on the ground that we could get entry into the World Cup only if the whole world played soccer according to our rules, whatever that may be. As a nation we are so deeply ensconced in our mediocrity that we have either refused to look at the larger picture of our position in the world (contrary to our aspirations to be part of the global village) or constantly need justifications based on jingoistic claims to uniqueness.

 

In that sense, Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap may have redeemed some degree of our cinematic self-respect though the selection of Udaan  at Cannes was in the Un Certain Regard category and not in the prestigious competitive section.  The last Indian film to get into competition was Murali Nair’s Pattiyude Divasam (A Dog's Day) in 2001 and the last film in Un Certain Regard was also Murali Nair’s Arimpara (2003). The last Indian film to get an award at Cannes competition was also a Murali Nair film, Marana Singhasanam (Throne of Death, 1999). Since Nair is based in UK and also financed from there, these cannot be considered ‘Indian’ achievements not unlike Chandrasekhar’s Nobel Prize but this is just the other face of globalization. Where does all this leave us? Twenty five years of solitude!

The 2010 Cannes edition, however, had two more Indian films in its selection. They take us back to 1983 (Mrinal Sen’s Kandahar - The Ruins) in the ‘Cannes Classics’ section and to 1973 (Ritwik Ghatak’s Titash Ekti Nadir Naam – A River called Titash) in the ‘World Cinema Foundation’ section. It is an irony that we still have to live off Ray, Sen, Ghatak and Gopalakrishnan for many more years to come.

The really sad part of the story is that the best of Indian cinema rarely gets seen in India. Let us first learn to respect our own selves before we can demand respect from others. World cinema can never be a substitute for our own cinema because it is from there that our filmmakers have to draw sustenance. As Gandhi said, ‘I want to open up all the doors and windows of my house so that the wind from all directions can blow into it on the condition that  I am not uprooted’.

NFDC has done a great disservice to our nation by making some of the most adventurous and landmark films in our history and then allowing them to rot in the cans without getting distribution. These films are not yet available even on DVD so that they may enter into our contemporary debates or shown in film classes. They have forced those films to be forgotten and thereby failed to make them contribute to the consolidation of a more substantial film culture. Even Satyajit Ray’s films are rarely seen in our country beyond Bengal and the only watchable DVD copies of Ray or Ghatak that exist come to us from UK or USA. We have had to wait for Martin Scorsese to restore Uday Shankar’s Kalpana (1948), the most extraordinary film made in India before Pather Panchali (1955)!

In other words, we reap what we sow. No country in the world is so disconnected with its own cinematic past and at the same time burdened by the baggage of film memory. I could not agree more with Anurag Kashyap whom I heard recently saying that more than innovative screenwriters, what we need in our country are creative producers. ‘Creative’ in this case means producers who are driven not solely by the dream of profit but also informed by film culture with a strong desire to push the bandwith of Indian popular cinema, making films with passion and conviction that any story can sell which has a ring of truth in it.   

Film Appreciation Course at NCPA, Bombay

Here are the outlines of the lectures that I shall deliver at NCPA through the month of August. In case you are interested in attending them, please register directly with NCPA by writing to Kavita Ogale kogale@ncpamumbai.com.

1^st Session: 7^th Aug, Sat, 2pm to 6pm – The Landscape of Cinema

Though certain kinds of cinemas have greater visibility than others, there is a vast diversity in the films made around the world. The general character of Hollywood cinema, ‘Bollywood’ and its relationship with ‘Indian Cinema’ and concepts such as ‘independent’, ‘parallel’, ‘regional’ and ‘world’ cinemas would be understood as stepping-stones for celebrating cinema in relation to the cultures and contexts from which they emerge.

2^nd Session: 8^th Aug, Sun, 2pm to 6pm – Visual Storytelling: Time and Space in Cinema

What is it in cinema that makes it unique from other forms? Is it a language with a certain grammar which we learn innately? Perhaps the better films are those that use this grammar more effectively by telling their stories visually rather than through words. If cinema fragments time and space and then brings them together, how does it manage to give us a coherent vision of an imaginary world seen through the window of the film screen?

3^rd Session: 14^th Aug, Sat, 2pm to 6pm – Evolution of Film Language and the Early Comedies

From its embryonic form in the closing years of the 19^th century, we trace the emergence of cinema through the early 20^th century until it grows into a dominant cultural form, both as art and industry. Some of the great filmmakers of the early years were comedians, many of whom have now been sadly forgotten. Films that we once saw as just hilarious are now perceived as works of great artists who explored and expanded the expressive power of cinema.

4^th Session: 15^th Aug, Sat, 2pm to 6pm – Understanding Story Structure in Films

What makes some stories more compelling than others? What dramatic devices do films often use to give ‘structure’ to a human experience that transforms character? There seem to be some general principles that work for films across cultures and these conventional notions of structure are referred as ‘classical’. However, wherever there are rules, there are exceptions. Is there any specifically ‘Indian’ way of telling stories? How does the Indian popular cinema draw upon the storytelling traditions in India?

5^th Session: 21^st Aug, Sun, 2pm to 6pm – American Cinema: Hollywood and the ‘indie’ film

Though film language was creatively explored in France, it was in USA that the cinema developed into a huge industry as early as 1919. While a few big corporations monopolised filmmaking and developed their own signature styles and dominated the world, the studio system gradually declined and took a different form. In resistance to the studio-system, there developed in America an off-Hollywood independent cinema tradition that subverts the mainstream and yet, it is from this alternative cinema that Hollywood continues to draw its fresh blood.

6^th Session: 22^nd Aug, Sat, 2pm to 6pm – Major European Film Movements

While in USA, cinema was primarily seen as an industry and films as consumer commodities, in Europe it has often been perceived as an art form and an expression of culture and history. Thus films often grew out of vibrant social, political and artistic movements that explored new avenues and deepened cinema’s engagement with the world. These pioneering movements had tremendous impact not only on Hollywood cinema but on cinemas around the world, including India.

7^th Session: 23^rd Aug, Sun, 2pm to 6pm – Mise-en-scène and Film Styles

Mise-en-scène refers to the articulation of cinematic space and defines the style of individual filmmakers. It involves almost everything that goes into the making of a shot: composition, movement of camera and characters, lighting, set design and sound design. Some films drive the story forward with every element in the frame contributing to that end while others invite viewers to pause and reflect on the compositional spaces of the narrative.

8^th Session: 30^th September, Sat, 2pm to 6pm – Concepts of genre and auteur

The idea of genre has defined Hollywood film production to a large extent where films are targeted at specific audiences who have certain expectations. Indian popular cinema, however, addresses its audience differently though it is increasingly embracing the concept. While the supremacy of genre obliges filmmakers to work within certain conventions, master filmmakers (auteurs) manage to transcend them and leave their signatures in terms of style and content on every film they make.

INDRANIL CHAKRAVARTY is Professor of Film Appreciation at Whistling Woods International in Mumbai’s Film City. He graduated in Film Direction from International School of Film & TV(EICTV) in Havana (Cuba) where he studied under the Nobel Laureate, Gabriel García Márquez. He was screenplay consultant for the European Union Cross-Cultural Programme. He has taught screenplay-writing and Film Appreciation at several universities and institutes in India and abroad. His book on Latin American cinema is now a reference text at several universities. He has also published a study of the Indian film industry and several essays in English, Spanish and Bengali. He was Manager of the Osians’ Film Archive and Convenor of the First All-India Screenwriters’ Conference held at FTII, Pune and has been on the jury of film festivals in Brazil, Mexico, Cuba and Spain. He is also the director of a foundation called ILACI (Indo-Latin American Cultural Initiative) which has exclusive collaborative arrangements with UNESCO and IberMedia and is currently producing a documentary series.