Yarwng at Moscow International Film Festival 19.06. - 28.06.2009

Contemporary Indian Cinema
Yuri Korchagov
Indian cinema is getting back on the program of the Moscow International Film Festival. Hopefully this is not episodic (in Russia 2009 has been proclaimed the Year of India). It is common knowledge that India holds the first place in the world in the number of films produced and the second (after China) in population. Though Indian movies do not always live up to the expectations of foreign and – let us be honest – home viewers, yet out of the general subcultural output (about 1 thousand 1 hundred movies a year bring in 2 billion dollars) one can always pick certain movies which are unusual in content and form and which do not comply with the familiar general idea of present-day Indian cinema. One example is the low-budget drama “Yarwng/Roots” shot by a Catholic priest father Joseph Pulinthanath in the language of the Kokborok tribe. It is on our program of modern Indian cinema.

Next to it are the well-known films which have received wide acclaim not only in India, but worldwide. Directorial debut of the number one star of Indian cinema Aamir Khan “Taare Zameen Par/Stars On Earth” is just one example. In Russia Aamir, who debuted in 1988 in a very successful movie “Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak”, is a well known actor. Movie stars do not always make good directors but Aamir outdid himself. His movie “Taare Zameen Par” where he is an actor, director and producer was nominated for the 2007 “Oscar”, was successfully screened in many countries of the world, and won many prizes at international festivals.

Traditionally powerful dramatic storylines are represented by “Chaturanga/Four Chapters” and “Kanchivaram/A Communist Confession”. The young director from Calcutta Suman Mukhopadhyay painstakingly recreates the almost 100-year-old novel “Four Chapters” by the Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore (whose works were brought to the screen several times turned by such Bengali directors as Satyajit Ray and Tapan Sinha). S. Priyadarshan from Madras (currently Chennai) is well-known to the Indian and Russian audience. Some of his films shot in Hindi were shown on TV and were released on video. The director shot “Kanchivaram” in his native Tamil language. Through the prism of time (the action is set in colonial India) Priyadarshan looks at the life and customs of Indian weavers, whose homemade sari are unparalleled in the world.

Program of contemporary Indian cinema would be incomplete without the Indian entertaining box-office cinema. The director K.Vishnuvardhan started his cinematic career as an actor, worked as an assistant to leading Indian directors Santosh Sivan, Mani Ratnam and Ramgopal Varma. His well-made thriller “Billa” (2007) released in Tamil by Madras studio (currently Chennai) was shot in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). It is a remake of “Don” movie (2006, director Farhan Akhtar) made in Bollywood in 2006.

Film “Fashion” of the leading Indian director Madhur Bhandarkar is being screened in the opening of the Contemporary Indian Cinema. Directors of other countries have also shown their interest in the magic of the fashion business. For example, film “Gloss” (director Andrey Konchalovsky) was released in Russia. His view of the world of fashion as a sticky spider web from which one cannot escape without losing one’s self-respect to a large extent is similar to the views of Madhur Bhandarkar. His supermodels either leave this world forever or become soulless dolls.


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