Invisible India

Although Bollywood is now a global icon of India, it is yet to make an impact at the Sydney Film Festival

org.au, under copy to Ms. Virginia Judge, Minister for the Arts, NSW office@judge. minister.nsw.gov.au.)

BY DARSHAK MEHTA

Out of the 33 movies I saw at the State Theatre in 12 days this month, not one was Indian.

It’s the usual story at the Sydney Film Festival (SFF); they hardly ever feature movies from the most prolific film-making country in the world. The SFF screened 157 movies but I just can’t believe that they couldn’t find even a handful of movies to screen out of the 600 to 800 plus movies made in India every year (three times the number churned out by Hollywood).

A country that boasts of directors of the class of Mrinal Sen, Rituparno Ghosh Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Mani Ratnam, Aamir Khan, Girish Kasaravalli and scores of others, goes ridiculously unrepresented year after year.

Over 100,000 Indians probably call Sydney home and one can safely bet that many readers of this paper would have supported the SFF had they featured a few desi films.

If you feel as strongly about it as I do, feel free to email your thoughts to Ms. Clare Stewart (Director of the SFF c/o info@sff.

The NSW government (and thus you and me, dear reader!) do heavily subsidise the SFF which has now completed 57 years.

And the Indian government needs to wake up to this as well – after all, if it is interested in projecting “soft power” and showcasing India’s great cultural diversity, it should get on the front foot and agitate/facilitate.

Anyway, enough of the rage and ranting!

What were amongst the better ones in my 33? Here are what I consider as the best four and I am certain they will be released here soon, so don’t miss the chance to view them:

1 Heartbeats is by 21 year old Canadian prodigy Xavier Dolan, and in just his second movie, promises to have the film world at his feet. The Jan Chapman led international jury voted it as the best of the 12 movies in the competition category. It brought a special smile to my face as I had been tipping it from the minute it screened. Run - don’t walk, to see this edgy, quirky, stylistic movie about unrequited love.

2 The Most Dangerous Man in America is the riveting story of Daniel Ellsberg who leaked the Pentagon Papers in the 1970s, and hastened the end of the Vietnam War.

3 Wasted on the Young is by Australian Ben Lucas, who has made a disturbing first movie - without an adult in sight. It is not a horror movie, but, if you are the parent of a teenager, you will be horrified.…..

4 The Killer Inside Me is Michael Winterbottom’s gritty new movie based on Jim Thompson’s uncompromising 1950s crime novel. The violence is upsetting and the theme misogynistic, but don’t miss it on those grounds! Casey Affleck’s chilling portrayal of a sociopath deputy sheriff in a small Texan town is bound to win him kudos.

After spending up to 10 hours a day in a dark theatre one does have withdrawal symptoms, but the upside is one feels a lot more upbeat and light hearted – nothing depressing, confronting or challenging to worry about all day.

So let’s hope your indignant emails do the trick and in next year’s selection we may see some incredible Indian movies.