While Bollywood added to the glamour quotient at Cannes, a 'young' Indian entry was shown in the category called La Selection Cinefondation, which had students of cinema from all over the world, presenting their work. This was a 28-minute feature titled Chinese Whispers, one of the 16 entries in this section, by a student of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata. It was an experimental silent film with no dialogues, and was the only Indian film in a competition category this year......
....While Bollywood has come up with bolder themes in Hindi cinema over the last decade, stereotypes and old moralities haven't disappeared, people continue to be blatantly 'inspired' by Hollywood, and productions border on mediocrity.
Though Bollywood has become an inter-national brand, it is still greatly a desi affair in the diaspora, and more of a circus-like 'attraction' for mainstream audiences in the West.
Cannes 2007 clearly showed this up with Bollywood stars walking the red carpet in all their glamour - talking about post-wedding bliss and diamonds - but there was not a single nominated Bollywood entry, even though the industry now claims to have 'arrived' internationally.....
....The low-budget experimental film had its moment of glory, but do these parallel trends mean that only a small part of Indian cinema is destined to be acknowledged, while the largest body remains a carnivalesque curiosity? Or can we work from within the conventions of the Hindi film to generate an international presence rooted in a South Asianness?
~ Excerpt from Leader Article: Sideshow At Cannes, Times of India, Sharmishtha Gooptu, 2 Jun, 2007.
....While Bollywood has come up with bolder themes in Hindi cinema over the last decade, stereotypes and old moralities haven't disappeared, people continue to be blatantly 'inspired' by Hollywood, and productions border on mediocrity.
Though Bollywood has become an inter-national brand, it is still greatly a desi affair in the diaspora, and more of a circus-like 'attraction' for mainstream audiences in the West.
Cannes 2007 clearly showed this up with Bollywood stars walking the red carpet in all their glamour - talking about post-wedding bliss and diamonds - but there was not a single nominated Bollywood entry, even though the industry now claims to have 'arrived' internationally.....
....The low-budget experimental film had its moment of glory, but do these parallel trends mean that only a small part of Indian cinema is destined to be acknowledged, while the largest body remains a carnivalesque curiosity? Or can we work from within the conventions of the Hindi film to generate an international presence rooted in a South Asianness?
~ Excerpt from Leader Article: Sideshow At Cannes, Times of India, Sharmishtha Gooptu, 2 Jun, 2007.
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