MIAAC ’10: Lahore

Nothing says “goodwill” like kick-boxing. Unfortunately, when Dheeru Singh the new young Indian national champion is killed by Noor Muhammad (the Drago-like great Pakistani hope) in the Asian Games, it casts a pall over the upcoming Indian-Pakistani goodwill match. When the games proceed as announced, Singh’s brother Veerender may have some goodwill of his own to spread in Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan’s Lahore (trailer here), which had its U.S. premiere at this year’s MIAAC Film Festival.

India and Pakistan share quite a bit of difficult history together, some of which involves the Punjab capitol of Lahore. Holding the good will games there would evoke certain historical rivalries under the best of conditions. However, emotions are inflamed after Muhammad kills Singh in the ring with a cheap shot. Neither the international kick-boxing authorities nor the Indian government press the matter though, so as not to jeopardize all that goodwill. Of course, Veerender has different ideas.

Originally a kick-boxer as well, he became a cricketer instead, because he lives in India and that is where all the prestige is. He still has a lot of the moves though, as we see when he lays a beat-down on a gang of toughs hassling his brother’s girlfriend Neela. Can brother Veeru get back into fighting shape fast enough to make the national team and return Muhammad’s good will with interest? He has the support of the esteemed Indian national coach S.K. Rao, as well as Ida, the patronized psychiatric intern with the Pakistani team.

Lahore’s debt to Rocky IV and The Best of the Best is blindingly obvious. Still, it mostly works as a martial arts film thanks to the completely credible fight choreography of Hong Kong action director Kuang Hsiung. Anyone with any familiarity with real world martial arts will be able to buy into his fight sequences. Singh’s tentative Romeo & Juliet romance with the Pakistani Ida is also executed relatively painlessly. Frankly, if the energy is there, the revenge-in-the-ring convention works just about every time. Yet, Chauhan deliberately tries his best to undermine it with an eye-rolling Kumbaya conclusion.

All too conscious of geo-political realities, Lahore tries to have it both ways, emphasizing Pakistan’s enormous human-dwarfing mosques and showing their kick-boxing team training in the mountains in scenes that seem to intentionally call to mind al-Qaeda camps. Yet, it also wants to assure us of our universal brotherhood, which evidently becomes clear after a few rounds of bruising combat.

Aanaahad and Sushant Singh are more or less adequate as the battling Singh brothers. Fortunately, the Pakistani villains supply the necessary color. Mukesh Rishi seethes malevolently as the hulking Muhammad and Sabyasachi Chakraborty chews the scenery with relish as the insidious Pakistani coach, who seems to have more hush-hush political clout than George Soros. He is nicely matched by Farooq Shaikh as the media-savvy Indian coach Rao.

There was a time when it would be unthinkable that India, the de-facto leader of the non-aligned nations, would receive such shabby treatment from any international body. Arguably though, Islamic Islamabad probably trumps the increasingly capitalistic India these days. Given such fundamental differences, whether or not they really can all just get-along remains to be seen. Despite its simplistic moral, Lahore brings plenty of crowd-pleasing fighting, making it a good potential fit for Magnolia Pictures’ Magnet slate of international genre movies. A big hit in India, it seems a more likely Hindi film to eventually score American distribution. While the official selection screenings of this year’s MIAAC have concluded, the Smita Patil sidebar continues at the Walter Reade Theater through Thursday (11/18).

MIAAC ’10: The Japanese Wife

It is hard to find a Japanese translator in rural Bengali. The converse is not so easy in Japan either. Somehow two pen-pal-lovers are able to make do with English, their halting second language, in Aparna Sen’s The Japanese Wife (trailer here), one of the best received films of this year’s MIAAC Film Festival, which is already available on DVD.

Unassuming does not begin to describe Snehamoy Chatterjee. A school teacher in a remote West Bengal village, he makes a mere $100 a month. His only joys are the letters and packages he receives from Miyage, a pen pal he found through a magazine classified. Also quite shy, she recognizes a kindred soul in Chatterjee, but is anchored to Japan and the sick mother she cares for. Nevertheless, she proposes a marriage of the spirit, consummated by the post. For fifteen years, they remain faithful to each other, even as fate brings Sandhya, his aunt’s attractive god-daughter widowed at a tragically young age, to test his fidelity. While their idealized love might endure jealousy and temptation, there are more ominous clouds on the horizon.

Wife is an unabashed, heartstring-tugging tearjerker in the tradition of Il Postino. It might be manipulative as all get-out, but it works in spades. Dubbed a “love poem by Aperna Sen” in the trailer, there is indeed something poetically beautiful about their chaste love and the emotional support they lend each other across geographic and cultural boundaries. Frankly, it seems like its DVD release was premature, because if there was ever an international film tailored made for breakout American art-house success, it would be Wife.

Ironically, Rahul Bose and Chigusa Takaku really do not have the chance to develop chemistry as a couple, but they are both sweetly endearing as Chatterjee and his title wife, respectively. On-screen nearly the entire film, Bose finds the right balance, portraying the schoolteacher as oh-so mild-mannered and withdrawn, yet never to the point of freakishness. Though Takaku is an ethereal presence during most of the film, she is radiantly beautiful and emotionally devastating in her final scene.

Sen grounds viewers in the realities of West Bengal, where the idea of jetting off to Japan is as unrealistic as hitching a shuttle ride to the moon. The viscous mud oozes through her lens, yet ultimately her imagery of the traditional white sari mourning dress defines the tenor of the film.

Wife is international cinema for people who hate foreign films. It will make grown men bawl like babies. Highly recommended, particularly for fans of films like Departures, Wife is currently available at Netflix. It also scored a major hit last night at MIAAC, which continues tomorrow (11/14) at the SVA Theatre.

MIAAC ’10: Ashes

Indo-Americans seem to be under-represented in New York’s seedy drug world. This is a good thing. However, one son of Indian immigrants tries to earn a quick crooked buck while caring for his emotionally unstable older brother. As one would expect, something has to give in Ajay Naidu’s Ashes (trailer here), which had its New York premiere last night at the 2010 Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival.

Ashes is in major denial. He insists his drug dealing is temporary and only “herbal” in nature. Yet, he just helped broker a major deal to facilitate the distribution of opium imported from India, almost inadvertently. Like it or not he is up to his neck in some serious business. At the same time, his chemically unbalanced older brother Kartik shows signs of relapsing. However, with major power plays going down, he reluctantly accepts his brother’s less than persuasive assurances. He is also neglecting his own girlfriend, suspiciously paying more attention to the machinations his patron’s mercenary lover Jasmine (played by Naidu’s fiancé producer Heather Burns).

Naidu seems to be going for an early Scorsese-style street-level morality tale customized to reflect the Indo-American experience. It doesn’t quite get there, but it gets the grittiness right. Frankly, the brother’s keeper drama is surprisingly strong, with Naidu and Faran Tahir looking and acting quite convincing as the second generation brothers, Ashes and Kartik respectively. In contrast, the intentionally murky criminal subplot does not work as well, as various gangsters wash in and out of the film without effectively establishing an identity or their place in the underworld hierarchy.

An intense screen presence, Naidu really outshines most of his cast. As director, he makes the most of his BKLN locations, without overdoing the Coney Island backdrops. Frankly, it has an evocative pre-Giuliani vibe of ever present menace and hopelessness. Yes indeed, times are changing.

While imperfect, Ashes is a promising directorial debut, rough around the edges in an old school New York kind of way. Those who dig indie crime drama should find its spirit to their liking. A somewhat outside-the-box selection for MIAAC, Ashes goes global with its UK premiere this coming March as the closing night film of the London Asian Film Festival. Here in New York, the MIAAC Film Festival continues this weekend with official selections screening at the SVA Theatre and the Smita Patil sidebar underway at the Walter Reade.

MIAAC ’10: Smita Patil Sidebar

Perhaps no actor embodied the challenges of India’s “Parallel Cinema,” or non-Bollywood filmmaking, better than Smita Patil (1955-1986). Though she made commercial movies as well, she is more closely associated with more independent art-films from the likes of Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal (who discovered her). Yet, one of her best-loved performances was a Bollywood-style Marathi actress. A pioneering Indian feminist, Patil’s daring work, controversial life, and tragic early death make her a perfect subject for a retrospective sidebar of the 2010 Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival, co-presented with the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

The Patil sidebar offers an opportunity to see truly classic films from India often overshadowed by the glitz and glamour of Bollywood. However, Benegal’s Bhumika (The Role) gives viewers a chance to have their Bollywood cake and eat it too. Exploring gender roles and cultural prejudices in early to mid Twentieth Century India, Bhumika still features many lavish musical numbers from the films-within-the-film that Patil’s Usha reluctantly makes under her screen name Urvashi. She never loved the business, not even as a child star, yet her family’s poverty left her little choice.

Unfortunately, her work as an actress somewhat compromises Usha, or at least the public perception of her. This also leads to strife with her manager-husband Keshav Darvi, even though it is he who originally pushes her into the business. A much older family associate of dubious character, it is hard to understand why Usha stays with Darvi, yet for personal and cultural reasons, Usha keeps coming back to him. Of course, there are plenty of other men who show an interest in the actress, including Sunil Verma, a married director. While he is a person of substance, his philosophical materialism is not particularly healthy for Usha. Though she finds a surrogate family as the more-or-less concubine of the wealthy Vinayak Kale, the inequalities of their relationship are even more extreme.

Bhumika is like A Star is Born for India’s Parallel Cinema, with added elements of scandalous 1980’s mini-series, including abortion, spousal abuse, and plenty of infidelity mixed in for spice. Yet, Benegal gives it all an epic sweep, approximating the look of vintage cinema with his extensive black-and-white flashbacks. A role that clearly hit close to home, Patil projects both intensity and a fragility as Usha.

In addition to Patil, many familiar names and faces can be seen in this year’s MIAAC. Perfect as the old rascally government spokesman in Anusha Rizvi’s Peepli Live, one of the better reviewed and widely screened Hindi imports of the year, Naseeruddin Shah is an intriguing presence in Bhumika as Verma. Peepli also featured a catchy soundtrack performed by the world music group Indian Ocean, who are the subject of the documentary Leaving Home. After the triumph of Slumdog Millionaire, Oscar-winning A.R. Rahman is easily the most famous Bollywood composer of the day, whose new score graces Mani Ratnam’s Raavanan. The Tamil film also features Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, dubbed by 60 Minutes “the world’s most beautiful woman,” recognizable to followers of Bollywood for Bride and Prejudice and Jodhaa Akbar.

The 2010 MIAAC offers an interesting opportunity to compare and contrast the screen personas of Patil and Rai Bachchan, two iconic actresses of Indian cinema, from very different eras. With many films considerable longer than two hours, the sidebar also offers good value for the ticket price. The Patil sidebar runs at the Walter Reade Theater November 11th through the 18th, with Bhumika screening this Thursday (11/11) and the following Wednesday (11/17) and Thursday (11/18). The MIAAC film fest proper begins this Wednesday (11/10) at the SVA Theater.