Watching
Gangs of Wasseypur, the opening film of the London Indian Film Festival (LIFF),
it was not the lyrics of the Bihari folk song which translates as: "You'll
know my name when I fuck you dry … Ain't I nice, I just fucked you twice"
that stayed with me; nor the portrayal of the bigamist gang-leaders who
casually bump each other off in dusty gullies; or even the fascinating backdrop
of an arid landscape ruled by the politics of mining coal. No, what caught my
attention was the refreshing characterisation of the ‘strong Indian woman’ who
stands up to the extended circle of men she encounters with nerves of steel.
While the likes of Hunger Games have announced the arrival of the strong
butt-kicking female protagonist, Bollywood still loves its women as the
stereotypical desi girlfriend, long suffering mother, holier than thou wife or
the sultry vamp who is loved and left behind. As Tannishtha Chatterjee (Brick Lane,
2007) bemoaned, “In mainstream Bollywood films, women are but objects of sex.”
In contrast she plays the feisty, outspoken, female lead in Dekh Indian Circus
which also showed at the festival. The film holds up a mirror to an everyday
reality where politicians twist villagers’ lives to fulfil their own selfish
ambitions. In the unique dichotomy that is India, the villagers don’t have
enough to eat but they all carry mobile phones. Interestingly the character of
the husband in this film is mute, by dint of which the woman—played by
Tannistha, takes on the role of the voice of the family. On the one hand, the
movies at LIFF—now in its successive
third year—seemed to indicate a coming
of age of the spirited Indian woman on screen, a more honest portrayal of the
pivotal role they play in everyday life. On the other—the most telling
question, came from a young man in the audience of Wasseypur, who asked the
director if he did not feel that he had portrayed a face of India which is
likely to reinforce the impression of a country plagued by dacoits &
lawlessness. The question itself was not
new, yet it was startling to hear it from someone so young—in his
twenties—based in the UK earning a living outside India. Someone I assumed who
would have developed the confidence to move beyond the what will they think of
us Indian middle class routine. So even as the new Indian Indie films are
forging a beacon for female emancipation, we the Indian viewers it seems, are
yet trapped in the unseen morality chains which Indian society passes on with
great relish to successive generations. Will we Indians never get past the
being judged by the world syndrome? It’s a sentiment of which I am the first to
be guilty of, being as I am the product of both—a conservative middle class South
Indian upbringing, and a strict convent school student life in the outer
suburbs of Bombay. Just as I wearied of all this inner soul gazing, along came
a little film which stole my heart.
 |
| Gattu |
Fresh from showing at the Berlin Film
Festival—Gattu—made with miniscule budgets has a simple premise which yet carries
a multilayered story successively on its small shoulders. Without the aid of
sex, guns, violence or four letter words, director Rajan Khosa, weaves a
delicate tale, told through the eyes of the five year old lead character and
his passion for kite flying, a popular sport in that part of India. The kites
themselves become powerful characters playing out the age old theme of good vs.
evil with great effect. Gattu’s lead actor Samad Mohammad—an unknown with no
prior acting experience, lights up the screen in every frame and is the
undoubted discovery of the festival.
When it comes to India nothing is
simple or as it seems—as witnessed by the sea of emotions evoked by the films
at the London Indian Film Festival—some of whom have made grown men in the
audience cry (no kidding!). LIFF 2012
has delivered the much anticpiated Indian summer to London. Its heady cocktail
of the hottest Indie Indian cinema is a window to the arresting conflicts which
will forever tie us—the diaspora—back to the motherland. What do you think? Do
you agree?
London Indian Film Festival runs till July 3
at various venues across central London.
http://www.londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk/.
