It’s been 100 years since the first Indian film was made, and the Indian Film Festival celebrated in style for the occasion.
A special touch for the festival’s opening night in Sydney was a screening of the very first Indian feature film ever made – the silent, black and white film Raja Harishchandra (1913). Directed by the iconic Dadasaheb Phalke, it recounts an ancient myth in which the god Shiva tests a king’s purity of character. The score, of beautiful percussion-heavy traditional Indian music was mesmerising, and successfully enriched the grainy retro picture.
Also screening on opening night was a new anthology film, Bombay Talkies, comprising four short films directed by Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Anurag Kashyap, and Zoya Akhtar.
The highlight of these was Akhtar’s Sheila Ki Desai, which told the story of a little boy named Vicky who, while watching a film, becomes so enchanted by it that he decides he wants to become a dancer when he grows up. His father catches him frolicking in women’s clothes soon after, however, and tells him if it ever happens again he’ll ‘break every bone in his body’. Vicky’s optimism and strong spirit is inspirational though; the film has an uplifting Little Miss Sunshine-esque feel to it.
In Ajeeb Dastaan Hain Yeh, directed by Karan Johar, we meet Avinash, a young man who refuses to hide his homosexuality, but is punished constantly for it – most of all by those who are unable to deal with their own deeply buried sexualities.
It’s spectacularly made films like these two that are able to bring some of India’s current social issues to western audiences, in a medium they can understand and really embrace.
The other two films rounding out Bombay Talkies were Star, directed by Dibakar Banerjee, and Murabba, directed by Anurag Kashyap. Both are like exquisite postcards direct from India, telling stories about everyday citizens who love their families and never think about themselves as anything special – but for each of these brief snatches of film, every moment of their day is captivating to watch.
Fittingly in Star, a devoted father and husband whose name we never learn, happens to score a ‘bit part’ in a huge film on his way home from a failed job interview. The ten-second shot, hilariously, turns into a colossal ordeal to get through, and when it’s finally over, our hero doesn’t even wait to get paid, choosing instead to rush home as fast as he can to tell the story to his sick daughter. There’s a brilliant wide shot to end the piece, where the lights can be seen in multiple doorways in the huge, run-down apartment building the little family live in; and amongst women slapping wet clothes on railings and cooking up food, in just one door we see the ‘star’ cavorting like a big child as he retells the tale of his day to his young child.
Murabba, which has garnered the most critical acclaim amongst other critics, follows Vijay’s journey to the big smoke, Mumbai, to fulfill his father’s dying wish. His task is to have the famous actor Amitabh Bachchan bite off and eat half of a homemade sweet treat (Murabba) and bring back the remaining portion for his father to enjoy. It’s a classic story about battling terrible odds to meet someone famous that everyone else wants a piece of too; in the process Vijay gets to know the security guards at Bachchan’s gate very well.
It’s clear from Bombay Talkies that there are many talented filmmakers in India; filmmakers who are passionate about telling important stories, about events which are nigh unimaginable for we privileged Australians.
Indian Film Festival 2013 – Bollywood and Beyond
Hoyts Cinema Paris, Sydney
20 – 26 June
