3rd annual Indian Film Festival Stuttgart, Germany
12.-16.07.06Day 1Today I’m planning to watch three films, all are announced as 35mm copies. Three very different films from 1951 (AWARA), 2006 (MILK AND OPIUM) and 2005 (APAHARAN).
Unfortunately there’s bad news at the beginning as there’s no film copy of black&white flick
AWARA (1951) instead there’s a beamer presentation. Bad enough the DVD is mediocre, maybe there isn’t any good print of this film left. Anyway the sound is bad and the left speaker is dead most of the time. For a 160min film it’s quite annoying trying to follow the story in a foreign language despite having English subs when the sound is so bad. What’s not so bad is the story of Raj, a young fella who goes the wrong path becoming a criminal as he wasn’t given a choice in the past. The film’s interest lies in the fact that one of the greatest Indian filmmakers not only directed this film but also played the part of Raj. Raj Kapoor was honored during this festival with two more films namely BOBBY (1973) an SHREE 420 (1955). Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see the other two.
My next film is
MILK AND OPIUM (2006), a story about a boy and three musicians who are on their way to a wedding in a neigbour town to perform their music. The film is a semi-documentary, a roadmovie where the music, the great landscape and New-Delhi plays a more interesting role then the actors themselves which seem to be no professionel actors. Still with under 90 minutes it’s still worth a look especially for the numerous music acts.
For the last film of the day I had high hopes but these have been ruined. There was no film print just another DVD presentation and the film itself sucked. The kidnapping issue depicted in
APAHARAN (2005) was told with no heart, strange behaviours of the characters - and the worst thing - the film starred Ajan Devgan in a lousy performance .Way more interesting speaking of the kidnapping scenario was recent south american film SECUESTRO EXPRESS. Thank god APAHARAN was only 160min (the festival book listed it with 245 min !).
So, day 1 was a mixed bag and not that joyful. Hopes are still there for …
Day 2Due to the heat wave I decide to start my festival day in the evening with
AITHE (2003), a gangster film. But there’s trouble again. There’s a film print without English subtitles. After a few minutes even the last of the audience recognizes this. Not much later one of the organizers of the festivals enter the room – lights on – and they tell us what we already know. They got the wrong print! As nobody in the room is fluent in Hindi or any Indian dialect this screening is officially over and I hurry to catch some Indian shorts not to waste any time. What I see is from a beamer projection (which was announced as) but there are still technical problems so that the director of the two shorts
HOLLY BOLLY and
VIVA LIBERTY has to help the tec guy out so that we can see the films. The audience is relieved as we finally see those two funny films of Dishad Husain, an Indian director who was raised in the UK and currently lives in London.
HOLLY BOLLY is a story about two wannabe directors, young guys, one of afroamerican background, the other guy an Indian, but both raised in the UK . They get the chance to make a film which is like a crossover of Brit-gangster.flick and traditional Bollywood film. But their employer has lots of ideas the two have to include. This short film, so the director tells us, was his entrance ticket for being able to make his next short film for a TV station about the fear of terrorism after 9/11. VIVA LIBERTY exaggerates the terrorist paranoia as the main character – an Indian – travels to the US as a tourist but gets caught with a water pistol on the plan which leads to immediate imprisonment. Although the way Husain tells the story is very humerous you never forget the seriuous issues behind it. Husain himself tells us that he was inspired for the story by his own airpoirt- experiences as he as Indian was treated differently than his English collegues at the security checks.
The next film should be something very different opposed to the humourous shorts.
MANASAROVAR (2004) is what I would call the Indian Arthouse movie as it ows much to the European cinema in structure and content. In 90minutes you won’t get the typical Bollywood content with lots of music and dancing and rich colors but you get an interesting story about a woman who gets to know two brothers over different periods of time e.g. for a long part of the film you get flashbacks when she reflects the moments with one brother while she gets to know the other brother in the present. It’s a more real approach of becoming friends, being in love and being rejected. It’s an interesting exploration of Indian arthouse which could have its followers in European cinemas also if it ever gets a release there.
A great film to finish the day.
Day 3Weekend – time to get up early to be ready for the 10 a.m. screening of
FAMILY – TIES OF BLOOD (2006). Finally the kind of Bollywood film which should attract the masses. And this time there’s no complaint as a good film print is there, no sound problem and the screening is in the best theatre of the festival. And after 20 minutes in the film finally ‘Big B’ – Amitabh Bachchan appears on the screen which results in a great film moment. ‘That’s’ Bollywood’. Wow , this guy has a screen presence it’s a joy to watch. And the film itself doesn’t dissappoint although for the Western viewer it’s a little bit odd having this uneven mix of comedy/romance and action and the strange way how the main characters share their on-screen presence (first it’s the comedy show of Akshay Kumar then it’s more and more the bitter game of Amitabh Bachchan and Aryeman Ramsay). Anyway the film looks good, has a good visual style and pretty good action scenes which are more fun to watch then in one or the other Hollywood-film. And ‘Big B’ as the mastercriminal who gets rid of everybody who touches his family is fun to watch.
Next film on my list is again more mainstream but not as convincing and entertaining as FAMILY.
LAKSHYA (2004) uses its 3hrs to put everything possible between the first minute of the film and the end credits – from the Highschool-Puberty-Genre to Militarycomedy to the serious patriotic war movie. As the spoiled brat it’s Hrithik Roshan who enjoys himself in the first hour before becoming a fighter, a soldier for India against Pakistani terrrorists and finally saving the day. As Roshan’s superior we see Amitabh Bachchan, this time ‘Big B’ not so convincing. Maybe I should have watched RANG DE BASANTI instead which was in a parallel screening.
Next disappointment following. No film print of
THE RISING (2005) available so it’s back to beamer-DVD-screening. A shame as this colorful, interesting and suspenseful film deserves better then a crappy blown-up beamer-pojection. Aamir Khan as Mangal Pandey is impressive as the Indian soldier and the voice of the surpressed Indians and the leader of the uprising against the Brits. Although this might not all be based on historical events the story makes for a great film and gives an insight view about the situation in the former century. And of course the film itself with the costume design, sets, the production value is high with a strong cast including Toby Stephens who’s way better in here as opposed to his performance as the Bond-villan.
Last film of the day is the philosophical
THE LAST MONK (2006) which has not much of a story – a women travels to Ladakh to finish her studies for a university degree – and finds her inner self. Kind of. It’s up to your own interpretation. Anyway more fascinating then the story or its execution are the great and very impressive moments of nature, of Ladakh. Fascinating ! For those images alone it’s worth the ticket. And as you guessed this is more for the arthouse crowd then for the popcorn-munchers. No dances and music bits here.
Day 4Final day starts with a film you expect a Bollywood festival to screen.
PARINEETA (2005) has all the typical ingredients which fans all over the world love about Indian films. A love story, betrayal, arranged weddings, greed, misunderstandings, tragic moments, great-looking dance scenes and classy music tunes with lots of emotions. All delivered by Bollywood-Stars Sanjay Dutt and Saif Ali Khan superbly supported by the lovely newcomer Vidya Balan. Nice one !
Anybody here missed Shahrukh Khan ? I’ll come to that guy now. No Indian Film Festival can be without him, the superstar himself. Well he wasn’t present in the flesh but the organizers brought in a special treat, the breakthrough film of Mr.Khan –
BAAZIGAR (1993). Khan plays a bitter, revengeful badass who at first seems to be a nice charming guy. Shilpa Shetty and Kajol both fall for him without knowing about the dangerous game he’s playing. BAAZIGAR is a strange film starting off as cheesy comedy with sugar-coated romatic scenes plus a brainless butler who can’t remember anything and resulting in a bloodspatter you normally see in 80’s crime-dramas from Hong Kong. What the fuck was this
One thing is for sure – this is no family movie !
Moving on to more sugar-coated areas in
NA TUM JAANO NA (2002). Too much for my taste, a naive uninspiring story about a girl, played by Esha Deol, waiting for her dream prince, Hrithik Roshan, whom she only knows thru letters, hell at first she even doesn’t want to know how he looks like. A story idea which they drag thru the whole 2 ½ hrs. To make things worse I had to endure another DVD-Beamer-presentation.
Now the last film –
PAHELI (2005) a fairytale about a ghost who impersonates a husband and enjoys marriage while the real husband is away, going for the money. The ghost is played by Shahrukh Khan as is the husband, the beautiful wife is Rani Mukherjee. The story is simple and not with many surprises, but somehow not satisfying despite a funny cameo of Amitabh Bachchan near the end of the movie.
So that’s it from the films. The festival itself offered other events too including discussion rounds about the status quo of the Indian film industry as well as a Bollywood Boogie Night and an Indian Food Festival. Also one reason for the filmfestival is the city partnership between Mumbai and Stuttgart. Stuttgart wants to become the greatest Indian film festival outside India – so far 7500 visitors for the events – but I kinda doubt that this happens soon if they can’t even secure the prints for the film screenings.
I didn’t regret visiting the festival. It was very interesting. I just had bad luck that my screenings suffered from so many technical problems. It still sucks.
Most interesting films:FAMILY - TIES OF BLOOD (2005)
by Rajkumar Santoshi
with Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar,
Aryeman Ramsay, Kader Khan
MANASAROVAR (2004)
by Anup Kurian
with Atul Kulkarni, Neha Dubey
Zafar Karchiwala
PARINEETA (2005)
by Pradeep Sarkar
with Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan,
Sanjay Dutt, Raima Sen
THE RISING (2005)
by Ketan Metha
with Aamir Khan, Rani Mukherjee,
Toby Stephens, Amisha Patel
Average:AWARA (1951)
by Raj Kapoor
with Prithviraj Kapoor, Raj Kapoor,
Nargis
BAAZIGAR (1993)
by Abbas-Mastan
with Shahrukh Khan, Kajol,
Shilpa Shetty, Johnny Lever
LAKSHYA (2004)
by Farhan Akthar
with Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta,
Amitabh Bachchan, Om Puri
THE LAST MONK (2006)
by Sudipto Sen
with Rachna Shah, Jimeesh Gandhi
Sonam Stobgias, Dheeraj Kushwa
MILK AND OPIUM (2006)
by Joel Palombo
with Swaroop Khan, Nizam Khan,
Mohamad Khan, Manjoor Khan
PAHELI (2005)
by Amol Palekar
with Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee,
Anupam Kher, Amitabh Bachchan
Stay AwayAPAHARAN (2005)
by Prakash Jha
with: Ajay Devgan, Bipasha Basu,
Mohan Agashe, Nana Patekar
NA TUM JAANO NA HUM (2002)
by Arjun Sablok
with Hrithik Roshan, Esha Deol,
Saif Ali Khan, Alok Nath
Posterwall
Main theatre
Indian Food Festival
Indian Food Festival
Festival logo
