Offbeat to mainstream

Never before in its 60 years of existence did the Berlinale ever screen nine Indian films, including Ray's Charulata
Mehru Jaffer Berlin

Thanks to a fresh crop of filmmakers, audiences at this year's Berlinale were able to get a healthy glimpse into the life of ordinary Indians. It was exciting to hear individuals talk about real, complex conundrums faced by them in their mother tongue.

Laxmikant Shetgoankar, the 35-year-old director from Goa, told the story of Vinayak, a lonely guard on duty in the heart of the forest on the Goa-Karnataka border, in Konkani. Anup Mandal's poetic cinematography in Shetgoankar's The Man Beyond the Bridge revived memories of Satyajit Ray, who was a member of the jury at the 1961 Berlinale. Two years later, Ray participated in a panel discussion with other directors, including Roman Polanski. In 1973, Ray returned home with the Golden Bear, Berlinale's highest prize, awarded for his extraordinary film in black and white, Ashani Sanket. In 1965, the Berlinale played host to the Indian team of Shakespearewallah when Madhur Jaffrey and Jennifer Kapoor draped in satin and silk and wearing high beehive hair dos paraded down the red carpet with the dashing Shashi Kapoor. 

Never before in its 60 years of existence did the Berlinale ever screen nine Indian films, including Ray's Charulata that played to a full house in the homage section.

It is a pity that none of the Indian films won a prize this year, but all of them did enjoy packed multiple screenings in auditoriums. It was impressive to see directors Dev Benegal and Umesh Kulkarni take to the stage with a long line of unknown colleagues in tow, answering endless questions of audiences that seemed deeply involved with the Indian stories.

Kulkarni, 34, led his team of the Marathi film Vihir screened in the Generation 14 plus section. Anna Cheaffer, the German filmmaker, was so charmed by Vihir, a lyrical film capturing the fantasies of a group of children as they come of age in just another Indian family, that she filmed the entire cast of the film all over again for a documentary.

In Dev Benegal's Road, Movie which is an imaginative attempt at self-discovery by ordinary people, critics found an 'immense likeability'. Critic Allan Hunter was impressed with the calm confidence of Benegal: "...this film's engaging spirit and gentle nature render it very approachable for international audiences looking beyond Bollywood for what Indian cinema has to offer," was Hunter's verdict in Screen Daily.

Rituparno Ghosh, better known as 'a director from Calcutta', came with Arekti Premer Golpo or Just Another Love Story. In this film, for the first time, Ghosh faces the camera in the role of a trans-gender director making a documentary on a trans-gender theatre actor of years gone by.

The cast includes Chapal Bhaduri, Indraneil Sengupta, Jisshu Sengupta, Churni Ganguly and Raima Sen. The film is remembered for sensitive portrayals that are even throughout the over two hours taken to unfold the passion involved in this same-sex love story.

Anusha Rizvi's Peepli Live entertained at the historic Paris Cinema in Berlin's Kufeurstendamm district where the Berlinale was headquartered throughout the Cold War when a wall divided the city. This film amused audiences even as it showcased an extremely grim reality of rural India with mass suicides among helpless farmers.

Peepli Live won praise for its high production values and lack of moralising. This debut film by Rizvi, 33, was appreciated for exposing the transparent hypocrisy in Indian society where everyone is made to share the blame for everything that goes wrong.