IndiaSplendorCover_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:45 AM
Page 2
FOLDS IN, 5.875
W
hile India is recognized as an emerging new technologies innovator and international leader, less known is their rich diversity of creative talent in film, fashion and fine art. On the 60th anniversary of India’s independence, UCLA welcomes you to India Splendor as we build bridges to one of the world’s oldest cultures and newest economic powers.
ROBERT ROSEN, DEAN, UCLA SCHOOL OF THEATER, FILM AND TELEVISION
Film Festival AUGUST 10 THROUGH 15, 2007 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
IndiaSplendorCover_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:45 AM
Page 2
FOLDS IN, 5.875
W
hile India is recognized as an emerging new technologies innovator and international leader, less known is their rich diversity of creative talent in film, fashion and fine art. On the 60th anniversary of India’s independence, UCLA welcomes you to India Splendor as we build bridges to one of the world’s oldest cultures and newest economic powers.
ROBERT ROSEN, DEAN, UCLA SCHOOL OF THEATER, FILM AND TELEVISION
Film Festival AUGUST 10 THROUGH 15, 2007 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 1
INDIA SPLENDOR
Film Festival AUGUST 10 THROUGH 15, 2007 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
Friday, August 10, 7:00 p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CHAK DE INDIA, Dir. Shimit Amin Saturday, August 11, 1:00 p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A Tribute to RAJ KAPOOR Saturday, August 11, 3:00 p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . .GANDHI, Dir. Richard Attenborough Sunday August 12, 5:00 p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .KING OF BOLLYWOOD Book Launch Sunday August 12, 7:30 p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .EKLAVYA, Dir. Vidhu Vinod Chopra Monday August 13, 7:30 p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .LIFE IN A... METRO, Dir. Anurag Basu Tuesday August 14, 7:30 p.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .GURU, Dir. Mani Ratnam
8/7/07
11:45 AM
Page 1
ESSAY
INDIAN POPULAR CINEMA
Alam Ara (1931), the first Indian talkie, already featured seven songs.
Indian film has been shaped by traditions centuries old that include ceremonial daylong stagings of the national epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and the British blood ‘n’ thunder melodramas that influenced urban Indian theater companies of the early 20th century (the troupes that furnished the early Hindi movie industry with most of its creative personnel). It was this expansive theatrical tradition that gave rise to the distinctive Indian pop cinema format known as “masala,” a cooking term indicating a teeming mixture of strong flavors. By the mid-1950s the structure was all but set in stone: six songs and three dances, interwoven melodramatic plots full of peril and betrayal, a sentimental love story interrupted at regular intervals by pummeling action scenes, and a gratuitous “comedy track” with interludes of blatant slapstick. And always, there was an element of family conflict and melodrama. Hindi movies are among the most generous crowd pleasers on earth: the idea is to give people a little bit of everything, an overstuffed evening of entertainment with a running time of at least three hours. The production process of Indian films was often as ad hoc as their narratives felt, and the two phenomena were closely related. It was only in 1998 that the Indian government finally granted its national cinema official “industry status,” allowing producers to apply for aboveboard sources of financing such
Jamuna with K.L. Saigal in the title role in P.C. Barau’s Devdas (1935), a trend-setting romantic tragedy with music.
CHAIRMAN, MGOBAL TRUST: Doctor M CULTURAL AMBASSADOR: Ashok Amritraj CHAIRMAN, PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Krishan Lal Chugh, Former Chairman, ITC
Ashok Kumar as the prodigal-son thief in Kismet (1943), which solidified many key conventions of Hindi cinema.
GLOBAL INDIAN SPLENDOR AWARDS COMMITTEE: Robert Rosen, Dean, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Kashi N Memani, Former Chairman, Ernst & Young Robert L Friedman, Former President, AMC Theaters and Former President, Columbia Pictures Distribution. Tom Levyn, Former Mayor of Beverly Hills Ambassador Bhisham K Agnihotri
as bank loans. And top producers eager to adopt more orderly business practices have moved to adopt more orderly creative procedures. Synch-sound recording and a carefully crafted script, completed before the start of pre-production, were among the innovations that made the most characteristic films of the industrial era, such as the Oscar-nominated Lagaan (Land Tax, 2001), feel like “real movies,” solid and professional enough to hold their heads up at international festivals. Now, rules that for decades seemed to be chiseled in stone are in the process of being set aside, or at least modified. According to the innovative
required for promotional reasons, for example, they are
making movies, a contribution to global film culture as unique as
producer Ronnie Screwvala, the founding chairman and CEO of UTV Entertainment, “The changes that have happened in the last three years in Indian cinema have not happened in the last 100 years.” There is some irony in the fact that fundamental changes in narrative strategy are setting in just as Hindi cinema is beginning to be embraced around the world by non-Indian audiences. While song sequences are still
now just as likely to be presented in Westernized “mood montages,” rather than as musical set pieces in which glamorous stars lipsynch to playback. There are people inside as well as outside the industry who argue that it is the hallowed conventions of the nation’s popular cinema, the interwoven multiple plots and comic and musical interludes, with their deep roots in national tradition, that represent the only distinctively Indian way of
the Western. One thing is certain: There could be no more interesting period in the history of Indian popular cinema to begin observing its on-going transformation. Come back in five years. The products of the Mumbai industry may be all but unrecognizable. We can’t wait to see what these gifted writers, directors, actors and musicians will come up with next. —David Chute
NATIONAL FILM ARCHIVES INDIA/HYPHEN FILMS COLLECTION
NATIONAL FILM ARCHIVES INDIA/HYPHEN FILMS COLLECTION
at the Crossroads
Ever since India’s commercial cinema achieved maturity in the years following World War II and Independence, it has been steadily evolving — and absorbing influences from every corner of the globe. But at the same time, Indian popular cinema, dubbed by one critic “the movie industry that is also a genre,” was developing a unique narrative idiom based on music and pageantry, which has been constant though all its major historical phases: the “Golden Age” of master entertainers and melodramatists such as Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt in the 1950s, to the brightly colored pop musicals of Dev Anand and Shammi Kapoor in the 1960s, to the explosive emergence of the “Angry Young Men,” led by all-time superstar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, to the tuneful and optimistic “yuppie romances” of the 1990s and beyond.
NEW THEATRES/HYPHEN FILMS COLLECTION
IndiaSplendorCover_2e.xp
INDIA SPLENDOR ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Navin Doshi Rekha Bejria Mira Advani Honeycutt Sanjay Kachuria John Osborne Nirupa Sejpal Parmar Jai Pathak Krishna Shah Prof. Sardesai Robert L Friedman Ken Silverman Prof. Sanjay Subramaniam
FESTIVAL AFFILIATES A B Corp Eros Entertainment Kaleidoscope Entertainment Madras Talkies National Film Development Corporation of India Sony Pictures Entertainment Trueso UTV Motion Pictures Vinod Chopra Productions Yash Raj Films FILM DISTRIBUTORS Columbia Pictures Madras Talkies UTV Motion Pictures Vinod Chopra Productions Yash Raj Films
8/7/07
11:45 AM
Page 1
ESSAY
INDIAN POPULAR CINEMA
Alam Ara (1931), the first Indian talkie, already featured seven songs.
Indian film has been shaped by traditions centuries old that include ceremonial daylong stagings of the national epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and the British blood ‘n’ thunder melodramas that influenced urban Indian theater companies of the early 20th century (the troupes that furnished the early Hindi movie industry with most of its creative personnel). It was this expansive theatrical tradition that gave rise to the distinctive Indian pop cinema format known as “masala,” a cooking term indicating a teeming mixture of strong flavors. By the mid-1950s the structure was all but set in stone: six songs and three dances, interwoven melodramatic plots full of peril and betrayal, a sentimental love story interrupted at regular intervals by pummeling action scenes, and a gratuitous “comedy track” with interludes of blatant slapstick. And always, there was an element of family conflict and melodrama. Hindi movies are among the most generous crowd pleasers on earth: the idea is to give people a little bit of everything, an overstuffed evening of entertainment with a running time of at least three hours. The production process of Indian films was often as ad hoc as their narratives felt, and the two phenomena were closely related. It was only in 1998 that the Indian government finally granted its national cinema official “industry status,” allowing producers to apply for aboveboard sources of financing such
Jamuna with K.L. Saigal in the title role in P.C. Barau’s Devdas (1935), a trend-setting romantic tragedy with music.
CHAIRMAN, MGOBAL TRUST: Doctor M CULTURAL AMBASSADOR: Ashok Amritraj CHAIRMAN, PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Krishan Lal Chugh, Former Chairman, ITC
Ashok Kumar as the prodigal-son thief in Kismet (1943), which solidified many key conventions of Hindi cinema.
GLOBAL INDIAN SPLENDOR AWARDS COMMITTEE: Robert Rosen, Dean, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Kashi N Memani, Former Chairman, Ernst & Young Robert L Friedman, Former President, AMC Theaters and Former President, Columbia Pictures Distribution. Tom Levyn, Former Mayor of Beverly Hills Ambassador Bhisham K Agnihotri
as bank loans. And top producers eager to adopt more orderly business practices have moved to adopt more orderly creative procedures. Synch-sound recording and a carefully crafted script, completed before the start of pre-production, were among the innovations that made the most characteristic films of the industrial era, such as the Oscar-nominated Lagaan (Land Tax, 2001), feel like “real movies,” solid and professional enough to hold their heads up at international festivals. Now, rules that for decades seemed to be chiseled in stone are in the process of being set aside, or at least modified. According to the innovative
required for promotional reasons, for example, they are
making movies, a contribution to global film culture as unique as
producer Ronnie Screwvala, the founding chairman and CEO of UTV Entertainment, “The changes that have happened in the last three years in Indian cinema have not happened in the last 100 years.” There is some irony in the fact that fundamental changes in narrative strategy are setting in just as Hindi cinema is beginning to be embraced around the world by non-Indian audiences. While song sequences are still
now just as likely to be presented in Westernized “mood montages,” rather than as musical set pieces in which glamorous stars lipsynch to playback. There are people inside as well as outside the industry who argue that it is the hallowed conventions of the nation’s popular cinema, the interwoven multiple plots and comic and musical interludes, with their deep roots in national tradition, that represent the only distinctively Indian way of
the Western. One thing is certain: There could be no more interesting period in the history of Indian popular cinema to begin observing its on-going transformation. Come back in five years. The products of the Mumbai industry may be all but unrecognizable. We can’t wait to see what these gifted writers, directors, actors and musicians will come up with next. —David Chute
NATIONAL FILM ARCHIVES INDIA/HYPHEN FILMS COLLECTION
NATIONAL FILM ARCHIVES INDIA/HYPHEN FILMS COLLECTION
at the Crossroads
Ever since India’s commercial cinema achieved maturity in the years following World War II and Independence, it has been steadily evolving — and absorbing influences from every corner of the globe. But at the same time, Indian popular cinema, dubbed by one critic “the movie industry that is also a genre,” was developing a unique narrative idiom based on music and pageantry, which has been constant though all its major historical phases: the “Golden Age” of master entertainers and melodramatists such as Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt in the 1950s, to the brightly colored pop musicals of Dev Anand and Shammi Kapoor in the 1960s, to the explosive emergence of the “Angry Young Men,” led by all-time superstar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, to the tuneful and optimistic “yuppie romances” of the 1990s and beyond.
NEW THEATRES/HYPHEN FILMS COLLECTION
IndiaSplendorCover_2e.xp
INDIA SPLENDOR ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Navin Doshi Rekha Bejria Mira Advani Honeycutt Sanjay Kachuria John Osborne Nirupa Sejpal Parmar Jai Pathak Krishna Shah Prof. Sardesai Robert L Friedman Ken Silverman Prof. Sanjay Subramaniam
FESTIVAL AFFILIATES A B Corp Eros Entertainment Kaleidoscope Entertainment Madras Talkies National Film Development Corporation of India Sony Pictures Entertainment Trueso UTV Motion Pictures Vinod Chopra Productions Yash Raj Films FILM DISTRIBUTORS Columbia Pictures Madras Talkies UTV Motion Pictures Vinod Chopra Productions Yash Raj Films
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 2
AUGUST 10
US Premiere
Chak De India (2007, India) Directed by SHIMIT AMIN Any film produced by Yash Chopra, a major force in Hindi cinema for almost forty years, and starring the industry’s top star of the past decade, Shah Rukh Khan, is bound to be a major event. This inspirational sports drama, about a downon-his-luck coach (Khan) who attempts to steer a girl’s field hockey team toward a World Cup victory, displays Chopra’s typical bold confidence: Apart from its star, everyone involved in the production is a relative newcomer. Former editor Shimit Amin has directed only one previous film, the virtuoso police thriller Ab Tak Chhappan (2004), and leading lady Vidya Malvade has acted in only two small roles. Chak De India is also a landmark in another sense: it is the first film to be planned and produced out of the brand new Yash Raj Films Studio in Mumbai, a major step forward toward the full “professionalisation” of the Hindi movie industry. Yashraj Films. Producers: Padam Bhushan, Aditya Chopra, Aashish Singh. Screenwriter: Jaideep Sahni. Cinematographer: Sudeepn Chatterjee. Editor: Amitabh Shukla. Music Directors: Salim-Sulaiman. Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Virya Malvade, Amanda Wilkinson, Arya Menon. In Hindi with English subtitles. 35mm, 152 min.
SHIMIT AMIN, Director Born in Kampala, Uganda, and raised in India and Florida, Shimit Amin grew up watching Hindi films and fell in love with the richness of cinema as a college student. He moved to Los Angeles and without any formal film training was able to launch a career working in every job he could get, from script development to camera assistance. From 1994 he worked as an assistant editor on over a dozen independent American films. He came to Mumbai in 2002 at the invitation of a friend to help with the editing of the hit horror movie Bhoot (2003) and within a year had been hired by the film’s producer, Ram Gopal Varma (Company), to direct a feature, the blistering thriller Ab Tak 2
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 3
Chhappan (2004), starring Nana Petaker as a hair-trigger cop whose take-downs are condoned by the authorities. Shimit Amin was handpicked by one of india’s top producers, Yash Chopra, to direct his second film, the sports drama Chak De India.
JAIDEEP SAHNI, Screenwriter, Lyricist Computer programmer Jaideep Sahni caught the screenwriting bug when he came across a copy of John Briley’s script for Gandhi in a bookshop in his native New Dehli. He began writing in 2000 and has since worked for some of India’s leading filmmakers: producer/director Ram Gopal Varma on Jungle (2000) and Company (2002), and Yash Chopra on Bunty aur Babli (2005) and Chak De India. Upcoming projects include Anil Mahta’s Aaja Nachley (2007), a comeback vehicle for ’90s superstar Madhuri Dixit. Sahni is also a prolific lyricist for Hindi film songs, with credits that include Salaam Namaste (2005), Bunty aur Babli (2005), and Bluff Master (2005). His current project as a lyricist is the animated film Roadside Romeo, a pioneering co-production between Yash Raj Films and The Walt Disney Company.
SHAH RUKH KHAN, Actor For most of the past fifteen years, Shah Rukh Khan has been the most popular leading man in Indian cinema, and one of its most respected actors. Early successes included the TV series Fauji (1988) and the Dostoyevsky adaptation The Idiot (1991), directed by Mani Kaul. Khan broke out as a major movie star with daring back-to-back “negative roles” in Baazigar (1993) and Darr (1993). Darr was also the first of his many close collaborations with mega-producer Yash Chopra, an unbroken string of winners that includes Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Mohabbatein (2000), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), Veer-Zaara (2004) and Chak De India (2007). Other recent SRK hits include Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Oscar contender Devdas (2002), Nikhil Advani’s Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), Farah Khan’s Main Hoon Na (2004), Ashutosh Gowariker’s, Swades (2004), Farhan Akhtar’s Don (2006) and Karan Johar’s Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006).
3
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 4
AUGUST 11
A Tribute to Raj Kapoor Screening of the documentary Kehta Hai Joker (The Clown Speaks), Directed by BOBBY BEDI (2007, India, 30 min.) There is no more influential auteur in the annals of Indian Popular Cinema than Raj Kapoor, “The Great Showman.” A genius alternately self-indulgent and rigorously disciplined, Kapoor made heartfelt personal films on a lavish scale, flamboyant social melodramas laced with music and comedy that appealed to all segments of the audience — and to the critics, as well. His career as an actor, director, producer and studio chief spanned almost four decades, from 1949 through 1985, in which he appeared in and/or directed a string of box office hits that are still remembered and loved today, among them Barsaat (1949), Awaara (1951), Shri 420 (1955), Sangam (1964) and Prem Rog (1982). After his string of popular successes in the 1950s and ‘60s, Raj Kapoor’s career faltered briefly with the box office failure of his most ambitious production, the intensely autobiographical Mera Naam Joker (1970). Raj then launched his son Rishi Kapoor’s career when he produced and directed Bobby (1973), a teen romance that rose quickly to the top of the all-time Indian box office charts. Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978), which starred his brother Shashi Kapoor and Zeenat Aman, has been described as “Raj Kapoor’s Vertigo,” a revealingly obsessive personal work that stretched the expressive limits of an established genre. Raj Kapoor died of complications related to asthma in 1988, at sixty-three years of age, shortly after visiting the US for a retrospective of his films at UCLA. At the time of his death he was working on the movie Henna (1991), which was completed by his oldest son Randhir.
4
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 5
RISHI KAPOOR, NEETU SINGH, RANBIR KAPOOR
The second of the Great Showman’s three sons, Rishi Kapoor has been one of India’s best-loved leading men for over twenty-five years. He made his debut as a teenager playing his father as a young man in the autobiographical Mera Naam Joker (1970) and became a star when he was cast opposite Dimple Kapadia the candy-colored teen romance Bobby (1973), which became an instant hit. Kapoor has since appeared in hundreds of movies, with career landmarks that include Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Saagar (1987) and Chandni (1989). In recent years he has directed a film Aa Ab Laut Chalen (1999), and played key supporting roles in Hum Tum (2004), Fanaa (2006) and Namastey London (2007). He recently appeared in an independent English language film entitled Don’t Stop Dreaming (2007). Rishi met his future wife, the former child star Neetu Singh, when they were cast as young lovers in Yash Chopra’s Kabhi Kabhie (1976); they became a popular screen couple in several films before marrying in 1980. Their son Ranbir Kapoor is being launched as an actor this year in Saawariya, a new film by the director of Devdas (2002) and Black (2005), Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
5
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 6
AUGUST 11
Special 25th Anniversary Presentation
Gandhi (1982) Directed by RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH A rare historical epic made with passion and conviction that can be felt in every frame, Richard Attenborough’s heartfelt personal statement has the sweep and exhilaration of history unfolding in front of us. It opens with the 1948 assassination of the Mahatma and then tracks back through his courageous career, from the early passive-resistance movement in South Africa, through the Independence struggle in India and the heartbreak of partition. Nominated for eleven Oscars and winning eight, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for then-newcomer Ben Kingsley, Gandhi was also a substantial hit, a “prestige picture” that was also a popular favorite. Columbia Pictures. Producers: Richard Attenborough, Rani Dube, Suresh Jindal, Michael Stanley-Evans. Screenwriter: John Briley. Music: Ravi Shankar. Cinematographers: Ronnie Taylor, Billy Williams. Editor: John Bloom. Cast: Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Martin Sheen, Athol Fugard, Saeed Jaffrey, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth, Om Puri. In English and Hindi with English subtitles. 35 mm. 188 mins
6
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 7
SIR BEN KINGSLEY, Actor One of Great Britain’s most talented and acclaimed actors, Ben Kingsley had been acting on the stage, in films and on television for over a decade when he was cast in the title role in Gandhi in 1982, winning the Academy Award a year later. He has been drawing accolades for his electrifying work in several media ever since, exhibiting extraordinary range and an often startling intensity. Kingsley has won additional Oscar nominations for his work as gangster Meyer Lansky in Bugsy (1991), as an explosively violent hit man in Sexy Beast (2000) and as a beleaguered Iranian-American businessman in House of Sand and Fog (2003). He was also awarded a BAFTA as Best Supporting Actor his work in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993). He was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000 and was knighted in the New Years Honours list in 2001.
7
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 8
AUGUST 12
Book Launch
King of Bollywood ANUPAMA CHOPRA, Film Critic and Journalist Anupama Chopra has been writing about the Hindi movie industry since 1993, as a principal correspondent for India Today, “the Time magazine of India.” She has also written for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Variety and Sight & Sound, and she writes and hosts a weekly film review program, Picture This, on NDTV, a leading Indian news channel. Chopra’s first book, Sholay: The Making of a Classic (PenguinIndia, 2000), won the prestigious National Award (given by the President of India) for the Best Book on Cinema. Her second book was Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (The Bravehearted Will Win the Bride, British Film Institute, 2002.) She is appearing here to celebrate the launch of her newest book, King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema, which will be published this month by Warner Books. Chopra has an insider’s knowledge of the Hindi movie industry. Her mother, Kamna Chandra, is a scriptwriter, and her sister, Tanuja Chandra, is one of the few women directors in Mumbai (Zindagi Rocks); her brother, Vikram Chandra, is an award-winning novelist (Sacred Games) and her husband, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, is one of Hindi cinema’s most respected and successful filmmakers, both as a writer-director (Parinda, Eklavya) and as a producer (Munnabhai MBBS, Parineeta). (See Shah Rukh Khan biography on page 3.)
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 9
Eklavya: The Royal Guard (2007, India) Directed by VIDHU VINOD CHOPRA On the surface writer-director Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Eklavya: The Royal Guard is vintage Hindi cinema melodrama, complete with fratricidal murder plots and a glorious final spasm of revenge. But there are Shakespearean ambitions animating this deep-dish entertainment. The Ranas of Devigarh, an ancient feudal clan of Rajisthani rulers, are a royal family stripped of all but ceremonial authority, and the revelation that drives the plot is diabolically well-chosen: an issue of paternity to gnaw at the vitals of the patriarchal system. The story’s central icon and title character, a bodyguard whose ancestors have protected the royals for nine generations, is a battered human relic played with effortless authority by aging superstar Amitabh Bachchan. Although Eklavya was filmed in two actual palaces the action feels more like an intimate chamber drama, all intense two shots and vehement whispered exchanges. This is robust and engaging storytelling with blood and thunder pumping through its veins. Vinod Chopra Productions. Producers: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Vir Chopra, Anil Davda. Screenwriters: Abhijat Joshi, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Swanand Kirkire. Music: Shantanu Moitra. Cinematographer: Nataraja Subramanian. Editor: Ravirafu. Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Sharmila Tagore, Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan, Raima Sen, Jackie Shroff, Jimmy Shergill, Boman Irani. In Hindi with English subtitles. 35 mm. 105 min.
VIDHU VINOD CHOPRA, Director Vidhu Vinod Chopra is one of India’s best and most respected filmmakers. His most important works include Parinda (1989), a path-breaking Mumbai gangster film, 1942: A Love Story (1993) and Mission Kashmir (2000). He has also produced several movies, including two huge hits directed by Rajkumar Hirani, Munna Bhai MBBS (2003) and its sequel Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006). Vinod Chopra was born and raised in Kashmir. After earning an Economics degree he enrolled at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). His film, An Encounter with Faces, was nominated for an Oscar in the Short, Non-Fiction category. CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE.
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 10
AUGUST 12
CONTINUED ON THE PREVIOUS PAGE.
In the coming year, Chopra will produce and direct his first English language feature, 64 Squares, and will produce Rajkumar Hirani’s Munna Bhai Chale Amerika.
VIDYA BALAN, Actress One of the most admired and distinctive new stars of Hindi cinema, the Tamil-born, multilingual actress Vidya Balan worked as a model and on television serials before making her big screen debut in 2005 in two films, the Bengali Bhalo Theko, for which she won Kolkata’s Anand Lok Puraskar award as Best Actress, and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Hindi production Parineeta (Betrothed), which earned her the Best Newcomer nod at the annual Filmfare awards. In 2006 she worked for Chopra again in the landmark hit Lage Raho Munna Bhai, opposite Sanjay Dutt, and this year graced the multi-star cast of Nikhil Advani’s Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love. Balan has major roles in two film screening during India Splendor, Vinod Chopra’s Eklavya: The Royal Guard and Mani Ratnam’s Guru.
ABHIJAT JOSHI, Screenwriter Born and raised in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Abhijat Joshi received his MFA from the University of Texas, Austin, and then returned home to teach English and to establish his reputation as an award-winning playwright. His Shaft Of Sunlight won the BBC World Service playwriting contest in 1993, and admirer Vidhu Vinod Chopra asked Joshi to help with the writing of his film Kareeb (1998). After completing his work on Chopra’s Mission Kashmir (2000), Joshi returned to the US, pursued his academic career, and currently divides his time between writing plays and scripts and teaching at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio. Joshi shared half a dozen writing awards with director Rajkumar Hirani and producer Chopra for his work on Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006). Upcoming projects include Hirani’s Munna Bhai Chale Amerika (2008) and 64 Squares (2008), Chopra’s first English-language feature.
10
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 11
AUGUST 13
Life In A Metro (2007, India) Directed by ANURAG BASU Anurag Basu’s multi-character exploration of various forms of love…in a metro is refreshingly unclassifiable. Is it a commercial movie or an art film, mainstream or “alternative”? Like the recent Mumbai blockbuster Salaam-E-Ihsq (2007) the characters in the various intertwined plots are all searching earnestly for true love. At the same time, like such far-flung films as Magnolia (1999) and Babel (2006), it takes an often grim view of human interconnectedness. In a uniformly strong cast that includes Irfan Khan (The Namesake), Shilpa Shetty (Apne), Kolkona Sen Sharma (Omkara) and Bollywood legend Dhatmendra (Sholay), actor Kay Kay Menon (Black Friday) stands out, finding unexpected layers of ambiguity in a philandering businessman character that could have been a PC cartoon. In a radical departure from standard Indian practice, the popular commercial music director Pritam (Dhoom 2) performs his songs for Metro on camera, with a rock band. UTV Motion Pictures. Producer: Ronnie Screwvala. Screenwriter: Anurag Basu. Music Director: Pritam. Lyrics: Sayeed Quadri. Cinematographer: Bobby Singh. Editor: Akiv Ali. Cast: Shilpa Shetty, Shiney Ahuja, Sharman Joshi, Kay Kay Menon, Konkona Sen Sharma, Irfan Khan. Presented in Hindi with English subtitles. 35 mm. 132 min.
CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE.
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 12
AUGUST 13
Actors Panel AMRAPALI AMBEGAOKAR earned a degree in World Arts and Cultures and Dance from UCLA, and has studied classical Indian dance for the past twenty-five years. She is now the Associate Artistic Director and Choreographer of Anjani’s Kathak Dance of India Company in Los Angeles, and has been the company’s Principal Dancer and soloist for the past 15 years. She performed as the character Oceane, Goddess of Water, in 700 performances of the Cirque du Soleil production Dralion. Ambegaokar launched her film career working as a dancer and choreographer on Ram Gopal Varma’s Naach (2004) and on Varun Khanna’s American Blend (2006), starring Anupam Kher and Dee Wallace. She has since appeared on the TV series Boston Legal, ER and Alias and has a recurring role on the upcoming fourth season of Grey’s Anatomy. NOEL DE SOUZA was born in Hyderabad, Deccan, attended St. Joseph’s College and Wadia College, and obtained a BS in business administration from UC Berkeley. After a short stint working for a British paint company in Calcutta, de Souza returned to the States and acquired a degree in drama from the Pasadena Playhouse. He has since performed in dozens of television series, from That Girl to Star Trek: Voyager, and in over a hundred feature films, most recently Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) and Wedding Crashers (2005). In 1980, de Souza and Polish film-make Yehuda Tarmu launched a company to make educational films. Their productions have won The Christopher Award and The New York Library Award, and one, The Boy of Bombay, was nominated in the documentary category at the San Francisco International Film Festival. De Souza has been a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press since 1957 and works on the production of the annual Golden Globe awards show. GULSHAN GROVER was born, raised and educated in Delhi, India. After receiving his college degree in commerce, he honed his skills in the theatre, and after many stage productions with Delhi’s famed Little Theatre Group he moved to Bombay to pursue a career in movies. Once there, he began his formal training at the prestigious
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 13
Actor’s Studio, eventually becoming a teacher there. Some of today’s leading Indian stars were once his students. In over 300 films over a 20-year career to date, Grover has proven himself to be a versatile professional with a passion for his chosen craft. He has acted in many of India’s most notable films, including Ram Gopal Varma’s Rangeela (1995), Deepa Mehta’s 1947: Earth (1998) and Sanjay Gupta’s Kaante (2002). He can be seen in a major role in Willard Carroll’s Bollywood/Hollywood crossover production Marigold, with Salman Khan and Heroes’s Ali Larter. NAMRATA SINGH GUJRAL is an American actress of Sikh faith whose ethnic mix includes East-Indian, Tibetan and Latin. A 1998 graduate of the University of West Florida, Namrata has been referred to as “America’s Spiciest Sweetheart.” She is best known for her portrayals of Fari Bin Ghori on the CBS series The Agency, Nurse Kathy on NBC’s Passions and Renu Mathur in Kaante. She has also appeared on Desperate Housewives, Dragnet and General Hospital and in the indie films Mitsein and Himalayan Rhapsody. Gujral recently made her singing debut when she recorded the single “Dancin’ in the Clouds,” a never-been-done-before American Country meets Bollywood duet with country star Steve Azar. SHEETAL SHETH was raised in New Jersey and burst onto the scene in her debut movie, Krutin Patel’s NRI indie ABCD (1999), in a risky and memorable leading role as a promiscuous young girl struggling with the ties of family and tradition. Sheth discovered her passion for acting in high school and subsequently enrolled in the esteemed Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. She has starred in many feature films, including Raj Basu’s Wings Of Hope (2001), Anurag Mehta’s American Chai (2001) and Albert Brooks’ Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005). She recently completed filming on I Can’t Think Straight, directed by critically acclaimed novelist Shamim Sarif, in which she portrays a writer struggling with her sexuality and claiming her independence. She also appears regularly on the stage and on television, recently landing a recurring role in the new NBC comedy The Singles Table, with Alicia Silverstone and John Cho.
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 14
AUGUST 14
Guru (2007, India) Directed by MANI RATNAM. Inspired by the rags to riches story of a real-life Indian petrochemical tycoon, Mani Ratnam's film aims at nothing less than the anointing of a new cultural icon for post-socialist India. Played with an exhilarating mixture of high-stepping relish and focused determination by Abhishek Bachchan, Gurukant “Gurubhai” Desai is a village boy who lays the groundwork for a huge fortune by pouncing on opportunities others miss. We enjoy rooting for this enterprising hero, with his beaming con artist’s delight in working out new ways to fiddle the strangling over-regulation of the era known as the License Raj which ended around 1990. Gurukant is a hero not in spite of the fact that he is a crafty corporate Capitalist but because of it; because the ordinary people he recruits as shareholders have been hoisted out of poverty by his success. By the end, his stockholders meetings have to be held in sports arenas. In the end the movie feels like a more benign and friendly version of an Ayn Rand novel, with glorious song and dance. Madras Talkies. Producers: Mai Ratnam, G. Srinivasan. Screenwriters: Mani Ratnam, Vijay Krishna Acharya, Anurag Kashyap. Music: A.R. Rahman. Cinematographer: Rajiv Menon. Editor: A. Sreekar Prasad. Production Designer: Samir Chanda. Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Mithun Chakraborty, Madhavan, Vidya Balan. In Hindi with English subtitles. 35 mm. 166 min.
MANI RATNAM, Director Regarded by many as India’s most accomplished mainstream film director, the flamboyantly gifted Mani Ratnam has an epic romantic temperament, like a reform-minded 19th century novelist. Working in several of India’s regional languages, including his native Tamil, Ratnam has made movies such a Roja (1992), Bombay (1995), Dil Se (1998) and Yuva (2004) in which the vocabulary of popular entertainment is used to tell stories of social significance. His influential insistence on the highest technical standards has helped Indian cinema to modernize and attract a global audience — and his discovery of composer A.R. Rahman has profoundly changed the sound of Indian film music. All this from a man who became a filmmaker almost by accident. After earning an MBA Ratnam had his eye on a business career until he was lured into filmmaking by his late brother, producer G. Venkateswaran. In a period 14
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 15
when unfettered bombast ruled Indian screens Ratnam had his first success in Tamil Nadu with the gentle love story Mouna Raagam (1986), then broke into the all-India market with the sweeping factbased gangster movie Nayakan (1987), recently named one of the 100 Best Movies of world cinema by Time magazine.
ABHISHEK BACHCHAN, Actor According to India’s most durable superstar, Amitabh Bachchan, the proudest moment of his life was overhearing a mother pointing him out to her child with the words, “Look, that’s Abhishek Bachchan’s father.” In Mumbai, as in Hollywood, many star offspring are launched, but very few are embraced by the audience with the heartfelt enthusiasm that Ahbishek has generated, playing poised and elegant rogues in a string of recent hits, including Bunty Aur Babli (2005), Bluff Master (2005), Dhoom 2 (2006) and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (2007). At the same time he has been winning enviable reviews in more serious, often dark-tinged roles, in films such as Mani Ratnam's Yuva (2004), Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar (2005) and Karan Johar’s Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006). Bachchan won three consecutive Best Supporting Actor Filmfare Awards for his work in those films. Guru marks his second collaboration with director Mani Ratnam and his fifth with his bride of five months, actress Aishwarya Rai.
AISHWARIYA RAI, Actress Aishwariya Rai is the highest-paid and most popular actress in Indian cinema, starring not only in Hindi-language pictures but also in Tamil and Bengali productions. She is also the only Indian performer with a significant star profile in the West, based on her appearances in such Englishlanguage films as Gurinder Chadha’s Bride and Prejudice (2004), Paul Berges’s Mistress of Spices (2006) and Kiranjit Alluwalia’s Provoked (2007). A native of Kartnataka in South India, Rai was studying to become an architect when she won the the Miss World competition in 1994 and embarked on a modeling career. After making her screen debut in Tamil, in Mani Ratnam’s Iruvar (1997), she moved on quickly to roles in major Hindi films such as Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and Subhash Gai’s Taal (1999), which established her as a major star. She also began winning awards from the Filmfare, Screen Weekly and Zee Cine organizations. Rai has successfully balanced critically acclaimed work in prestige projects, such as Bhansali’s Oscar candidate Devdas (2002) and J.P. Dutta’s Umrao Jaan (2006), with glamorous crowd pleasing turn in “entertainers” such as Bunty Aur Babli (2005) and Dhoom 2 (2006). She will be seen this fall with Hrithek Roshan in one of the most anticipated Hindi films of recent years, Lagaan-director Ashutosh Gowariker’s epic 16th century love story Jodhaa Akbar. 15
8/7/07
11:45 AM
Page 1
ESSAY
INDIAN POPULAR CINEMA
Alam Ara (1931), the first Indian talkie, already featured seven songs.
Indian film has been shaped by traditions centuries old that include ceremonial daylong stagings of the national epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and the British blood ‘n’ thunder melodramas that influenced urban Indian theater companies of the early 20th century (the troupes that furnished the early Hindi movie industry with most of its creative personnel). It was this expansive theatrical tradition that gave rise to the distinctive Indian pop cinema format known as “masala,” a cooking term indicating a teeming mixture of strong flavors. By the mid-1950s the structure was all but set in stone: six songs and three dances, interwoven melodramatic plots full of peril and betrayal, a sentimental love story interrupted at regular intervals by pummeling action scenes, and a gratuitous “comedy track” with interludes of blatant slapstick. And always, there was an element of family conflict and melodrama. Hindi movies are among the most generous crowd pleasers on earth: the idea is to give people a little bit of everything, an overstuffed evening of entertainment with a running time of at least three hours. The production process of Indian films was often as ad hoc as their narratives felt, and the two phenomena were closely related. It was only in 1998 that the Indian government finally granted its national cinema official “industry status,” allowing producers to apply for aboveboard sources of financing such
Jamuna with K.L. Saigal in the title role in P.C. Barau’s Devdas (1935), a trend-setting romantic tragedy with music.
CHAIRMAN, MGOBAL TRUST: Doctor M CULTURAL AMBASSADOR: Ashok Amritraj CHAIRMAN, PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Krishan Lal Chugh, Former Chairman, ITC
Ashok Kumar as the prodigal-son thief in Kismet (1943), which solidified many key conventions of Hindi cinema.
GLOBAL INDIAN SPLENDOR AWARDS COMMITTEE: Robert Rosen, Dean, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Kashi N Memani, Former Chairman, Ernst & Young Robert L Friedman, Former President, AMC Theaters and Former President, Columbia Pictures Distribution. Tom Levyn, Former Mayor of Beverly Hills Ambassador Bhisham K Agnihotri
as bank loans. And top producers eager to adopt more orderly business practices have moved to adopt more orderly creative procedures. Synch-sound recording and a carefully crafted script, completed before the start of pre-production, were among the innovations that made the most characteristic films of the industrial era, such as the Oscar-nominated Lagaan (Land Tax, 2001), feel like “real movies,” solid and professional enough to hold their heads up at international festivals. Now, rules that for decades seemed to be chiseled in stone are in the process of being set aside, or at least modified. According to the innovative
required for promotional reasons, for example, they are
making movies, a contribution to global film culture as unique as
producer Ronnie Screwvala, the founding chairman and CEO of UTV Entertainment, “The changes that have happened in the last three years in Indian cinema have not happened in the last 100 years.” There is some irony in the fact that fundamental changes in narrative strategy are setting in just as Hindi cinema is beginning to be embraced around the world by non-Indian audiences. While song sequences are still
now just as likely to be presented in Westernized “mood montages,” rather than as musical set pieces in which glamorous stars lipsynch to playback. There are people inside as well as outside the industry who argue that it is the hallowed conventions of the nation’s popular cinema, the interwoven multiple plots and comic and musical interludes, with their deep roots in national tradition, that represent the only distinctively Indian way of
the Western. One thing is certain: There could be no more interesting period in the history of Indian popular cinema to begin observing its on-going transformation. Come back in five years. The products of the Mumbai industry may be all but unrecognizable. We can’t wait to see what these gifted writers, directors, actors and musicians will come up with next. —David Chute
NATIONAL FILM ARCHIVES INDIA/HYPHEN FILMS COLLECTION
NATIONAL FILM ARCHIVES INDIA/HYPHEN FILMS COLLECTION
at the Crossroads
Ever since India’s commercial cinema achieved maturity in the years following World War II and Independence, it has been steadily evolving — and absorbing influences from every corner of the globe. But at the same time, Indian popular cinema, dubbed by one critic “the movie industry that is also a genre,” was developing a unique narrative idiom based on music and pageantry, which has been constant though all its major historical phases: the “Golden Age” of master entertainers and melodramatists such as Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt in the 1950s, to the brightly colored pop musicals of Dev Anand and Shammi Kapoor in the 1960s, to the explosive emergence of the “Angry Young Men,” led by all-time superstar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, to the tuneful and optimistic “yuppie romances” of the 1990s and beyond.
NEW THEATRES/HYPHEN FILMS COLLECTION
IndiaSplendorCover_2e.xp
INDIA SPLENDOR ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Navin Doshi Rekha Bejria Mira Advani Honeycutt Sanjay Kachuria John Osborne Nirupa Sejpal Parmar Jai Pathak Krishna Shah Prof. Sardesai Robert L Friedman Ken Silverman Prof. Sanjay Subramaniam
FESTIVAL AFFILIATES A B Corp Eros Entertainment Kaleidoscope Entertainment Madras Talkies National Film Development Corporation of India Sony Pictures Entertainment Trueso UTV Motion Pictures Vinod Chopra Productions Yash Raj Films FILM DISTRIBUTORS Columbia Pictures Madras Talkies UTV Motion Pictures Vinod Chopra Productions Yash Raj Films
IndiaSplendor_Program_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:40 AM
Page 16
IndiaSplendorCover_2e.xp
8/7/07
11:45 AM
Page 2
FOLDS IN, 5.875
W
hile India is recognized as an emerging new technologies innovator and international leader, less known is their rich diversity of creative talent in film, fashion and fine art. On the 60th anniversary of India’s independence, UCLA welcomes you to India Splendor as we build bridges to one of the world’s oldest cultures and newest economic powers.
ROBERT ROSEN, DEAN, UCLA SCHOOL OF THEATER, FILM AND TELEVISION
Film Festival AUGUST 10 THROUGH 15, 2007 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA