Frowning on Hollywood productions as “manipu-lative”, legendary Dutch-origin Australian filmmaker Paul Cox asserts he would watch “silly” and “innocent” Bollywood flicks rather than those made in “manipulative” Hollywood.
Described as a humanist filmmaker, the Holland-born and Melbourne-settled Cox, is a “huge admirer” of India’s repertoire of independent movies but laments the absence of powerful story-telling and thought-provo-king content that were the highpoints of cinema during the days of masters like Sat-yajit Ray and Mrinal Sen.
However, Bollywood films, despite their glitz and glamour, appeal to him now more than Western ones.
“It was more humanist in those days, like Ray’s films and those of his contem-poraries. Where are those films now? That human element is missing,”, Cox, one of the most prolific and important independent directors from Australia, told IANS in an interview here during the recently concluded 20th Kolkata International Film Festival.
“I know it’s mostly Bollywood now, but I would rather watch silly Bolly-wood any day rather than Hollywood with all their special effects and every-thing,” 74-year-old Cox added.
Cox initially started out as a photographer and has to his credit a rich body of work comprising critically-acclaimed, award-winning features, documentaries, shorts and telefilms span-ning nearly 50 years.
His most recent venture on organ donation, “Force of Destiny” shot in parts of Kera-la, was screened at the fest. Cox’s memoir, “Tales from the Cancer Ward”, detailing his fight with cancer, basis of the film.
Starring “Lord of the Rings” fame actor David Wenham, Bollywood actress Shahana Goswami and National award winner Seema Biswas, it incor-porates a lot of Indian classical music and other cultural influences.
After all, his first documentary in 1971 “Calcutta” was shot in the city and having visited the country, particularly this city, West Bengal and Kerala multiple times, he is at home with the culture and sentiments.(IANS)
