'Cinema cannot change a mind that is already closed'

Indian-American film-maker Nikhil Kamkolkar in an exclusive interview with Hardnews

Mehru Jaffer Vienna

This spring time is like no other for Nikhil Kamkolkar, the new sprig in the colourful garden of cinema. For this spring will see the North American release of Indian Cowboy, the debut feature film of this Indian-born actor, director, writer and producer based in New York. A romantic comedy, made by one who admits to often experience melancholic preludes, Kamkolkar came to the US to study at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He later worked for Microsoft, developing software for film studios on such projects as Godzilla, Shrek and Titanic till a sunny afternoon in Seattle, while he stirred spaghetti, sparked in him the idea to make his own film.
Kamkolkar talks to Hardnews about the state of the world we live in as seen through the lens of one who threatens to continue to tell stories for the rest of his life.

I feel we are being forced to cope with a world full of fear today. As a film-maker how would you describe the world you live in?
Human society is changing thanks to technology. The double-edged sword that it is, technology makes things easy in an agnostic manner. For those who use it to bring back comet dust, and for those who use it to blow up innocent people on their way to work. Societies plodding along with their non-agile mechanisms are trying to comprehend these events, political systems that move slower than a turtle are trying to regain control from an agile and dispersed enemy, and inevitably, fear, a mechanism rooted in our survival instinct, has kicked in.

I feel a great sense of foreboding on days I watch the news, and a great sense of joy and optimism when I turn off the TV and instead play with my beautiful daughter. I wonder if most people are swinging between these extremes of optimism and great pessimism for our collective future? I just can't bring myself to relate to the events I see on the news on TV or the Internet and which are so incongruous with what I know of myself. Can people really do this? Can they really be
this way?

The very same tools of technology I use to create my art and to promote it are being used to spread terror. How can I promote my love-love story on the web, when on another site you can watch a human being get beheaded?

As a powerful medium of communication do you think cinema fulfils its role of lessening misunderstanding between people, societies and nations?

Cinema can serve as a revelatory medium. On my personal website, I have listed Majid Majidi's Baran as a movie to watch. Cinema takes us into other worlds that we may never visit and helps us see the similarities and the differences too. And if its good cinema, it can take us beyond the differences, which, I believe, are merely superficial.

Given the democratisation of its production methodologies thanks to digital technology, now more than ever, cinema has become an extension of human conversations on a mass scale. But ultimately, cinema can seldom change the mind that is already closed and not ready to change.

For me though, cinema is and always will remain a medium for telling the story of a set of characters in their own unique and specific circumstances. If that ends up creating world peace, so be it. But my focus as a filmmaker remains on ensuring the character's story is told well and truthfully.

How would you describe the state of world cinema today?