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NRI
film directors have made news with their 'hit list'. Mira Nair's "The
Namesake", based on the novel by prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri,
has set a new record at the box office by raking in over $1 million in
just two weekends this month.
Opening at around 100 theatres in North America, "The amesake"
traces the travails and triumphs of a Bengali family over two
generations after migrating to New York from Kolkata. "The Namesake"
tagline says it all: "The greatest journeys are the one that bring you
home." On its release in India this week, Mira Nair said it was like a
homecoming. Her earlier film "Monsoon Wedding" was the highest
box-office grosser for this genre until this one, and Gurinder Chadha's
"Bend it Like Beckham" also raked in the moolah.
Earlier,
another NRI director, Deepa Mehta, made ripples when her film "Water"
was nominated for the Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. This film had
its full share of controversy when its shooting was disrupted in
Varanasi. It had to be shot eventually in Sri Lanka.
This select
NRI filmmakers club, by no means all-inclusive, has promoted India as a
'soft' power globally. Most NRI directors have naturally reflected
their experiences of migrating to new lands, adjusting to new
environments and trying to establish their new identities. In telling
these stories, they have portrayed their Indian roots and values, thus
promoting the Indian way of life.
The distinguished members of
this club are: the late Ismail Merchant, Gurinder Chadha, Shekhar
Kapur, Tarsem, Ashok Amritraj, Sharad and his son the late Raju Patel,
among others. Merchant, Raju Patel, Tarsem and Ashok Amritraj have
successfully tackled mainstream themes for Western audiences to score
box-office hits.
Merchant, with his partner James Ivory, towers
over them all as the first to be nominated for Oscars in 1961 and
honoured with six Oscars for two of his outstanding films. For over 30
years, Merchant-Ivory partnership offered such sensitive films as "The
Europeans", "Quartet", "Heat and Dust", "A Room With a View", "Mr. and
Mrs. Bridge", "Howard's End", "The Remains of the Day", "Jefferson in
Paris" and "Surviving Picasso". Professional tennis player turned
filmmaker Ashok Amritraj has produced perhaps the highest number of
films - over 60. His film, "Jeans" was nominated by India for Best
Foreign Film in the 1998 Oscars.
Interestingly, three NRI
directors have a strong East African connection. Sharad Patel was born
in Kenya and after making his fortune on the mobile rural cinema
circuit, he produced the first film on the Ugandan dictator "The Rise
and Fall of Idi Amin" in 1981. His son Raju moved to Hollywood, where
he produced a number of films. Gurinder Chadha was also born in Kenya
but migrated to Britain in the early 60s with her family. Mira Nair
married an Ugandan Indian university don and has a second home in
Kampala.
The thread of settling in a new land dominates their
work. Like "The Namesake", Mira Nair's "Mississippi Masala" (1991)
starred Denzel Washington and profiled a family of displaced
Ugandan-Indians in Mississippi. "So Far From India" (1982) presented
the pangs of separation of an Indian immigrant in New York and his wife
and child who remain in India. But her "Monsoon Wedding" (2001) was
rip-roaring comedy of matrimonial capers.
Gurinder Chadha grew
up in Southall, London. She made her first dramatic short film "Nice
Arrangement" (1990) about a British-Asian family on the morning of
their daughter's wedding. Another documentary, "Acting Our Age" (1991),
has elderly Asians living in Southall recounting their experiences of
living in Britain. These various concerns came together in Chadha's
first feature, the comedy-drama "Bhaji on the Beach" (1993). Her most
commercially successful film "Bend It Like Beckham" (2002) told the
story of a young Asian woman trying to pursue her ambitions as a
footballer while accommodating the demands of family and tradition. Her
big budget Bollywood treatment of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice"
as "Bride and Prejudice" (2004) flopped despite ravishing Aishwarya Rai
and big beat 'bhangra' music.
NRI directors have successfully
penetrated the mainstream cinema with their hits. Shekhar Kapur's
"Elizabeth" (1998) dared to penetrate the court intrigues of the
British monarch to score a bulls-eye after the raising eyebrows about
an Indian directing this royal saga. Deepa Mehta's "Elements Trilogy"
of "Fire" (1996), "Earth" (1998) and "Water" (2005) made international
waves. Sharad and Raju Patel scored with "The Bachelor Party" (1986)
and a number of children's films. Tarsem's psycho-thriller "The Cell"
(2000), a largely dreamlike film, the fantastical subconscious thoughts
of a serial killer, was a big hit too. Amritraj has produced
action-thriller-adventure hits like Jean Claude Van Damme in "Double
Impact" (1991) and Sylvester Stallone in "Get Carter" (2000).
With this impressive 'hit-list', the NRI directors have arrived on the global film circuit.
By Kul Bhushan
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