Switzerland: A bouquet of films from India, from different genres and regions, is being showcased at the 64th Locarno International Film Festival here in an effort to dispel the notion that the Indian film industry, one of the largest in the world, means just Bollywood song and dance.
“The aim was to familiarise the Locarno audience and give them an overview of the development of Indian cinema. Now that’s very difficult when you think of what a vast country we are and to do it in about 13-15 films,” said Uma Da Cuna, programmer for the Indian films at the Open Doors section at the ongoing fest.
“So I started with silent cinema ‘Prapancha Pash’ (1929) by Franz Osten and from there we went progressively to Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor. It can’t be a very comprehensive programme, but just enough to show over the decade what we were doing,” Da Cuna told IANS.
Open Doors focuses on Indian cinema and the interesting list boasts of variety as it includes Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar (1946); Raj Kapoor’s Aag (1948); Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa (1957); Ritwik Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara (Bengali, 1960), Jahnu Barua’s 1987 Assamese movie Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai; and Shyam Benegal Manthan (1976).
The list also has Aparna Sen’s Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002); Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Malayalam movie Nizhalkkuthu (2002); Rajnesh Domalpalli’s Telugu movie Vanaja (2006); Marathi film Valu (2008) by Umesh Kulkarni; Vikramaditya Motwane’s Udaan (2010); and last year’s Kannada film Kanasemba Kudureyaneri by Girish Kasaravalli.
A retrospective of Satyajit Ray is also being held here.
Adoor Gopalakrishnan, who is here as a part of Open Doors, feels it’s high time foreign audiences should be told that Indian movies are not just about Bollywood masala movies.
Adoor feels typical masala Hindi films are not only creating problems for the regional movies but are doing a disservice to other better Hindi films. (IANS)