Beyond Bollywood

Monsoon Wedding

Think Indian cinema, think Bollywood. Indian film is most famous for its grand parade of musical acts, beautiful women in colourful saris and handsome heroes with deep black eyes. But there is more to India than that, including art-house and indie films along with an increasing presence from female directors.

But Bollywood’s influenece is huge : it’s the biggest and most prolific film industry in the world, with 1000 (not consistently) films produced every year and a worldwide audience of 3 billion –  far bigger numbers than those of Hollywood.  
 
Although Bollywood films have always been popular in Asian countries and for Asians abroad, in 2001 hyperbolic musical Lagaan brought India to the attention of a wider, mainstream European audience.

The film, directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, is set in a village in late 1800 Victorian India: as the villagers ask to be relieved from the cruel land tax that Captain Russell uses to force them to their knees, he accepts - on the condition that the villagers win a cricket game against a team of British players.

Young Bhuvan organises a makeshift cricket team with the help of Russell’s sister; three and a half hours of film later, the villagers triumph.
Lagaan was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film in 2002 and swept prizes from all of the foremost film festivals in Europe.

The year after, melodrama Devdas by Sanjay Leela Banshali -  a classic formula of the love triangle  modernised and painted in lush colours- was the first recent Bollywood film to be screened at Cannes Film Festival and opened Europe’s eyes to Aishwarya Rai’s supreme beauty.

Outside of Bollywood’s feel-good standards is Indian art cinema: a path opened in the 1950s by legendary Satyajit Ray and his moving, compassionate Apu’s Trilogy.

 In The Song Of The Road, The Unvanquished and The World Of Apu the director follows young Apu from childhood to adult life, his adventures mirroring the changes in Indian society.
Apu is born in a poor Brahmin family who strives to survive, then wins a scholarship that takes him to Calcutta, much to his old mother’s chagrin. After finishing college he is looking for a job, but is overwhelmed by unexpected responsibility and tragedy.
In the end he has to climb up to find his place in the world.

In recent years, Indian intellectual cinema has been exceptionally well represented by Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Shadow Kill (2002), a meditation on guilt, forgiveness, justice and the death penalty.

 The complexity of the themes featured in the story is mellowed by a diffused sense of humanity and pity for the victims of State Death. The year after was Manish Jha’s turn with his Matrubhoomi: A Nation Without Women, a dystopian story that stems from the frequent, real-life female infanticide with the Indians’ fear of femininity addressed in the shape of a nightmarish, too realistic apologue.  

But India can also boast a task force of popular female directors who emigrated from their country and absorbed European cinema: Gurinder Chadha who was raised and lives in London, Mira Nair in the USA and Deepa Mehta in Canada.

Of all three, the most famous in the UK is obviously Chadha, who enchanted and entertained the audience with Bend It Like Beckham in 2002 and two years later with comedy Bride And Prejudice.
Nair, who debuted in 1988 with Neorealistic Salaam Bombay!, won the Golden Lion in Venice with family saga Monsoon Wedding in 2001 and has now released The Namesake, set in the Indian community in New York.

As for Mehta, she earned fame with the trilogy Fire, Earth, Water that took from 1996 to 2005 to be realized. Her films are admired for their sharp criticism on modern India and undeniable feminine touch.

There is definitely more than Bollywood to India, and discovering its multi-faceted cinema is a fascinating journey – almost like a real journey to the complex sub-continent.

Vera Brozzoni

See our Movie of the Month : A Passage to India

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