Bollywood bonanza

A film fest celebrates one of
greatest national cinemas

MUSICAL MELODRAMA: Devdas

by MATTHEW HAYS

From the coverage it gets in the Western media, one would never guess that India has one of the largest, most robust popular film cultures in the world. The figure of 800 movies per year dwarfs that of even America’s, which averages about 400.

Attitudes about popular Indian film fare, or Bollywood, usually veers into condescension. Those weaned on American mainstream fodder mistake the over-the-top, genre-mishmash flourish of Bollywood films as ineptitude. It’s anything but—and real buffs can only pity those who don’t know what the hell it is they’re missing.

This week, the Cinéma du Parc unreels a superb selection of some of the best of Indian cinema with the Bollywood Films Festival. Highlights include Devdas (2002), the lush musical melodrama based on the 1917 Chatterjee Bengali novel. The film delves into India’s class divide, as the wealthy heir Devdas falls for his neighbour Pavati, the daughter of a lower-caste couple. Starring Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai, this film proved a breakout hit among Western audiences as well as Indian ones. The Great Mughal (1960) is regarded as a classic of the golden age of Bollywood cinema. Director K. Asif’s epic story of love between a prince and a courtesan features one of the most praised soundtracks in Indian film history. Prithviraj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar star in this sumptuous film, and this fest presents a rare opportunity to see it as it should be seen—on the big screen.

The 1995 film Bombay explores India’s religious divide. The Tamil director Mani Ratnam shows us the love between a Muslim woman and a Hindu man, who marry and settle in Bombay. When she gives birth to twins, they decide to raise one as Muslim, the other Hindu. But in 1992, violence breaks out between the communities due to religious extremism, pitting sibling against sibling. The film proved controversial upon its release, but garnered universal acclaim for its sensitive treatment of religious divisions and family strife.

Om Shanti Om (2007) is the latest from the most prominent woman filmmaker in Bollywood, Farah Khan. Talk about genre mix-ups: here, Khan effortlessly pours romance, comedy, suspense and even the supernatural into the masala pot. With its loving ode to Bollywood styles of the ’70s, Om Shanti Om manages to blend both parody and admiration into one feature. The overcoming of seemingly impossible barriers is again the stuff of wish fulfilment in Veer-Zaara, about the romance that develops between a prisoner and a human-rights lawyer. Veer has been incarcerated for 22 years, and Zara is the Pakistani lawyer who champions his case. Director Yash Chopra fleshes out a tale of true love and commitment to freedom and equality for all. The popular Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar performs many of the film’s songs. (Note that Veer-Zaara will screen with French subtitles.)

THE BOLLYWOOD FILMS FESTIVAL
SCREENS AT THE CINÉMA DU PARC
FROM THIS FRIDAY, SEPT. 26, TO OCT. 2