India and Cannes: A Reluctant Courtship
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“India embraces the cinema of the whole world…In a future issue, I shall show why India is the creation of the whole world.”
Jean-Luc Godard
It has been 14 long years since an Indian Film has made the Competition Selection of the Cannes International Film Festival. And that particular Competition Selection, Shaji Karun’s second feature Swaham (1994), happens to be the only instance for the decade of the 90s. Around the time, some of Shaji Karun’s well wishers, prompted by Andrew Robinson’s comparison of the debut features, pompously declared that “there are only two Indian films – Pather Panchali (1955) & Piravi (1988). Period.” What is common to both the films, & the probable reason for the latter film’s exaltation, is a certain institution that has consistently, for the last six decades, managed to play world cinema’s official conscience-keeper & harbinger of the evolution of cinema itself – the Cannes International Film Festival. Satyajit Ray’s debut feature Pather Panchali (1955) was showcased at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival, in the Competition section where the film won the Best Human Document Award, while Shaji Karun’s debut, Piravi, made in 1988, premiered at Cannes 1989 in the Un Certain Regard category & walked away with the Camera D’Or Special Mention (for Best First film).
With Pather Panchali’s selection to Participate in the Competition section, & the subsequent feting of the film, Satyajit Ray discovered Cannes Film Festival for Indian Cinema, and consequently, the Cannes International Film Festival discovered Indian Cinema for the world. Not at all the case that Cannes was unaware of Indian Cinema before 1956; in fact 1950s is the most prolific decade as far as Indian films’ presence in the Cannes Competition section goes. India had entries in every single year of the Festival in the 1950s (see Appendix 1). But what distinguishes Satyajit Ray, & his Pather Panchali, is not much unlike a reading of Orson Welles’, & the Nouvelle Vague’s, importance in the cinematic pantheon. Film practitioners, before Welles debuted on the marquee, were born before the invention of cinema. They practically discovered the medium, & continually yearned to evolve the medium as they went along. Whereas, Orson Welles had a small archive of cinema to contend-with, be aware of, re-search, & partake to be influenced-by. The same is true of the Young Turks of the Nouvelle Vague who indentured at the Cinematheques, & Film-Clubs, while sharpening their cinematic skills analyzing and critiquing cinema of their times.
Indian cinema’s beginnings were marked with Mythologicals, & increasingly pre-occupied with the Nationalist Movement under the British Colonial government. This pre-occupation translated into having to make seemingly non-offending films that might get strangulated at the British Censors. It was only with the post-independent filmmakers that Indian Cinema was liberated from having to make socially relevant films under the guise of, what was considered harmless, Mythologicals. Satyajit Ray came from an awareness of world cinema, & its latest achievements, during his travels abroad & with his proximity with the Renoir-helmed The River in & around Calcutta. But filmmakers before Satyajit Ray aspired to belong to the mainstream that was brewing in the country’s commercial capital of Bombay.
Abruptly, with Satyajit Ray’s subsequent films, after the spectacular debut of Pather Panchali, Indian Cinema’s & Cannes Festival’s courtship went through troubled times. Ray chose to showcase his films at the other, equally prestigious, film festivals of Venice and Berlin where he consistently won Top Prizes through the rest of his illustrious career. This period in the 60s also coincided with the inception of India’s premier Film School, the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), in Pune. FTII graduates, over the years, were successfully able to bring into being the country’s New Cinema. Whatever went wrong, these films hardly managed to garner international film community’s attention. Does this development question its makers’ aspiration itself, or if it was a gross misreading of the barometer of cinematic acceptance, somebody need answer someday. It is no surprise that the first generation of New Indian Cinema filmmakers were mentored by Ray’s contemporary Ritwik Ghatak, who himself went un-noticed for his contribution during his lifetime. It is ironical, on the part of the Cannes Film Festival, that posthumous retrospectives of Ritwik Ghatak & Gurudutt adore the Cannes sidebar screens while no interest was shown in them when they came out of the times these films were articulating. To exaggerate, Cannes Film Festival has about 200 awards up for grabs annually, instituted in the names of prominent filmmakers from around the globe. But none, amongst the multitude of prizes, happen to exist in an Indian Filmmaker’s honor.
It is even more surprising, again on the part of the Cannes Film Festival, of the desperate courting of Bollywood in the last few years, purely as a cosmetic value for their sidebar events, as if to threaten that this insult shall be meted out until such time we practice a genre of films we seem to be suspect at – Truly Brilliant Films. Not to be left out, Bollywood has equally been requiting of Cannes’ gesture by showing-up for the events and misleading an already irresponsible Indian Media whose self-image hasn’t warranted that it demand, encourage, & appreciate raising the bar for Indian cinema.
I shall not endeavour with plausible excuses, on behalf of either the festival or Indian cinema. But what I shall, is pick 3 films that were to have been flirted-with vigorously by the festival in question, & at any rate by a conscientious cinema-seeking audience, that were not to be;
1. Devdas, 1935
PC Barua’s original Bengali version, with the director playing the lead, & one Mr. Bimal Roy serving as Assistant Cameraman.
2. Om-D-B-Dar, 1988
Kamal Swarup’s audacious filmmaking, of a childhood reminisced & a future waxed prophetic.
3. Kaalabhirati, 1989
Amitabh Chakraborty’s (in collaboration with DOP Sashikanth Ananthacharya) experimental deliberation, (cinematic) magic-making.
Godard shall be invoked again, as he shall also not go unblamed. It is, in a sense, all his fault. In his days as a film critic, Jean-Luc Godard, while preparing for his first feature A Bout de Souffle, in June 1959 wrote a piece for the Cahiers du Cinema magazine (issue # 96) titled ‘note on India’. He starts the piece by saying “pending a more detailed analysis” he would suffice it with passwords, and ends the piece by declaring, “India embraces the cinema of the whole world” and that “In a future issue, I shall show why India is the creation of the whole world.” I wish Godard did write, in the much-promised ‘future issue’, about the subject that unfortunately was never broached again.
I doubly wish Godard were talking about India (Indian Cinema) as opposed to what he actually was talking about – Roberto Rossellini’s acclaimed 1958 feature India, set in the country of the same name.
Appendix 1 – Complete list of Indian entries in the Cannes Competition section:
1. 1946: Neecha Nagar (1946) – Chetan Anand
2. 1952: Amar Bhoopali (1951) – V. Shantaram
3. 1953: Awaara (1951) – Raj Kapoor
4. 1954: Do Bigha Zameen (1953) – Bimal Roy
5. 1954: Mayurpankh (1954) – Kishore Sahu
6. 1955: Biraj Bahu (1954) – Bimal Roy
7. 1955: Boot Polish (1954) – Prakash Arora
8. 1956: Pather Panchali (1955) – Satyajit Ray
9. 1956: Shevgyachya Shenga (1955) – Shantaram Athavale
10. 1957: Gotoma the Buddha (1956) – Rajbans Khanna
11. 1958: Parash Pathar (1958) – Satyajit Ray
12. 1958: Pardesi (1957) – K. A. Abbas; Vasili Pronin
13. 1959: Lajwanti (1958) – Narendra Suri
14. 1960: Sujata (1959) – Bimal Roy
15. 1962: Devi (1960) – Satyajit Ray
16. 1964: Mujhe Jeene Do (1963) – Moni Bhattacharjee
17. 1974: Garam Hawa (1973) – M.S. Sathyu
18. 1976: Nishaant (1975) – Shyam Benegal
19. 1980: Ek Din Pratidin (1979) – Mrinal Sen
20. 1983: Kharij (1982) – Mrinal Sen
21. 1984: Ghare-Baire (1984) – Satyajit Ray
22. 1986: Genesis (1986) – Mrinal Sen
23. 1994: Swaham (1994) – Shaji N. Karun
Appendix 2 – Complete list of Indian Award Winners at Cannes:
1946: Neecha Nagar (1946, Chetan Anand) – Joint Festival Top Prize of Grand Prix du Festival International du Film
1954: Do Bigha Zameen (1953, Bimal Roy) –(Joint) International Prize
1955: Boot Polish (1954, Prakash Arora) – Naaz (Special mention to a child actress)
1956: Pather Panchali (1955, Satyajit Ray)-
Best Human Document
OCIC Award – Special Mention
1957: Gotoma the Buddha (1956, Rajbans Khanna) – Best Director (Special Mention)
1983: Kharij (1982, Mrinal Sen) – Jury Prize (Cannes’ 3rd top prize)
1988: Salaam Bombay! (1988, Mira Nair) -
Golden Camera (Best Debut Feature)
Audience Award
1989: Piravi (1988, Shaji N. Karun) – Golden Camera – Special Mention (Joint Winner)
[1991: Sam & Me (1991, Deepa Mehta) - Golden Camera - Special Mention (presented as a Canadian film)]
1998: The Sheep Thief (1997, Asif Kapadia) – Cinefondation Award (2nd prize, Short Film)
1999: Marana Simhasanam (1999, Murali Nair) – Golden Camera (Best Debut Feature)
2002: A Very Very Silent Film (2001, Manish Jha) – Best Short Film (Joint Winner)
2006: Printed Rainbow (2006, Gitanjali Rao) -
Kodak Short Film Award
Young Critics Award (Joint Winner)
Small Golden Rail
Appendix 3 – Complete list of India on the Cannes Jury:
1958: Krishna Riboud (India) (short films);
Jury President: Marcel Achard
1982: Mrinal Sen
Jury President: Giorgio Strehler
1990: Mira Nair
Jury President: Bernado Bertolucci
2000: Arundhati Roy
Jury President: Luc Besson
2003: Aishwarya Rai
Jury President: Patrice Chereau
2005: Nandita Das
Jury President: Emir Kusturica
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
man.. i’ve just seen ol archive stills of the film you’re taking about and read some ‘deep focus’ reviews.. and it’s all a bit sad about Shaji Karun.. to see what he started up as and then made his way down to the putrid ‘AKG’
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Good one, Thani. Would like to read that Godard article, does it feature in any of the books on him/essays?
Very nicely summed up the Indian connection, effects of the Raj and the Ray parallel. I was doing some work today on Balraj Sahni and came across the Cannes connection in form of Do bigha zameen & Garam Hawaa. I am yet to see the latter, as with many other films that you have mentioned.
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A lesson indeed !!!
i thot Shaji N Karun’s “vanaprastham” was selected for the cannes competition section !! guess i thot wrong .. and its not 10 but 14 yrs !!!
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@siddharth…
u saw AKG?? that bad huh?
Vanaprastam premiered at Cannes. (if i remember right it was in competition)
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Thani, is your list up to date?
2 of Murali Nair’s films were at Cannes as well. (maranasimhasanam is menitoned in the win list)
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Hey Thani,
These are Murali Nair’s contribution to Cannes (Doesn’t end at Shaji Karun)
“Throne of Death” (Maranasimhasanam)
Official Selection, Cannes 1999 – Un Certain Regard
Winner of Camer D’Or – 1999
“A Dog’s Day” (Pattiyuda divasam)
Official Selection, Cannes 2001- Un Certain Regard
“A story that begins at the end” (Arimpara)
Official Selection, Cannes 2003 – Un Certain Regard
Cheers
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Bitter truth, but the list definitely is up-to-date, as of May 2009, when we look forward to the next edition of Cannes.
prestigeous as they are, the ‘Un Certain Regard’ and ‘Director’s Fortnight’ sections of the Cannes Festival, aren’t the COMPETITION SECTION.
another interesting comprehensive list would be of all Indian Filmmakers who ever attended the Festival, and also of the Indian journos (& what they had to say of the experience).
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Siddharth, am assuming you’re taking about ‘Kaalabhirati’. Deep Focus indeed carried a good piece on the film. I remember the film on Deep Focus’s cover, in a 1990 issue, and if my memory serves right Shrikant Prabhu (FTIIian) authored the write-up on the film.
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I do like Shaji Karun’s films. i thought the ‘Pather Panchali’/'Piravi’ story made a telling anecdote. ‘coz in kerala, to like Shaji’s work is assumed a dislike of Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s, that i haven’t succumbed to.
again opposites, but i absolutely adore the cinema of Aravindan (our greatest poet) and John Abraham’s.
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@thani.. spot on about kaal bharathi and the alllue cover.. i was even refering to om dar ba dar but i slipped on the plural (s).. deep focus had carried an intervew wth swaroop and a review.. regarding Karun, i guess you ju haven’t seen AKG.. it takes the respect out of him for all he’d done.. it’s a complete cop out..
@DPac.. trust me.. i don’t walk out of films.. but this one had me through the door in 30 mins
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@Thani
While ‘un Certain Regard’ is a section of the ‘Festival de Cannes’. The Director’s fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) is a seperate parallel festival. Created in June 1968, the Société des Réalisateurs de Films (Film Directors’ Guild) was set up to “defend artistic, moral, professional and economic freedom in filmmaking, and to participate in the development of new cinema structures”. It was a May 68 reaction against the establishment (Cannes film festival).
There is also the Critic’s week, which is the first « parallel » section of the Cannes Film Festival. Critics’ Week was conceived by the French Union of Film Critics in 1962 to showcase first and second feature films by directors from all over the world.
Selection to any of these festivals do not constitute being ‘In Competition’.
The ‘Golden Camera’ (Caméra d’Or)(created in 1978) is the only prize that crosses all sections (Competition and Certain Regard) of the Cannes Film Festival and the two parallel festivals, awarded by an independent jury to the best first feature film.
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Did you guys see this?
“Mammootty’s first outing with Shaji N Karun, titled ‘Kutty Shranku’ will start its shoot by the mid of June.
The famous story of the movie is set in the 1950’s which also have the weather playing an important part. The movie which is planned to shoot at backwaters and lakes of Kaavalam, Kumarakom and Vaikkom will use the Monsoon season to can most of its scenes. ”
http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/malayalam/article/38510.html
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