Cannes: wake up call for India

India, one of the largest filmmaking countries in the world, has again failed to mark its presence in the Cannes Film Festival's main competition section.

While the 60th Cannes Film Festival beginning May 16 is dominated by a European line-up, some impressive Asian works too have managed to enter the competition section. But there are none from India.

"It is entirely up to the jury members to select films for the various competition sections. They didn't find a single Indian film which they felt was up to the mark," said National Award winning film critic Saibal Chatterjee.

"India doesn't produce anything that comes close to the best cinematic works of others," he added.

Two South Korean films - director Kim Ki-duk's "Breath" and Lee Chang-dong's "Secret Sunshine" - and Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase's "Mogari No Mor" have made it to the competition section.

This year's opening film will be Hong Kong-based director Kar Wai Wong's romantic drama "My Blueberry Nights". The film revolves around a young woman who takes a soul-searching journey across the US to resolve questions about love and life, while encountering a series of odd characters along the way.

Denys Arcand's Canadian movie "The Age of Darkness" will be the closing film. The festival ends May 27.

From India, Raka Dutta's 28-minute film "Chinese Whispers" is the only movie that's been selected for the students' short film section by the jury members for Cinefondation - a not-for-profit organisation that promotes the work of student filmmakers in postgraduate programmes.

Dutta is a Satyajit Ray Film Institute (SRFI) graduate.

Meanwhile, the Indian media appears to be quite gungho about seven more films from the country being screened at the prestigious festival, though none of them are being shown in a competition section.

They will be screened at Tous les cinemas du monde (All the cinemas of the world), an independent section and not a part of the festival's official selection.

The films are: G. Vasanta Balan's "Veyil" (Tamil), D. Bijukumar's "Saira" (Malayalam), Mridul Toolsidass' "Missed Call" (Hindi/English), Bhavna Talwar's "Dharm", Mani Ratnam's "Guru" (Hindi), Raj Kumar Hirani's "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" (Hindi) and "Dosar" (Bengali).


"The world has moved ahead. They are making films that are cutting edge. The filmmakers are using new ideas but we are repeating the same old thing. In fact we don't make cinema at all. We make entertainers to please the masses," said Chatterjee.