Blogs

The popcorn was splendid, the movie, even better. In fact, though I love my popcorn, there were points in the movie when the constant traffic between hand and mouth came to a sudden halt as I was swept by what I was seeing.

The story itself is pretty simple, love, adventure, the underdog, (a beautiful Nichole Kidman and a very rugged High Jackman) scoring against the top dog… and a touch of aboriginal magic made for great viewing. But what stole the scene for me, was the backdrop of the scenes, the vast canvas of Australia itself.

Rugged cliffs, sweeping seafronts, treeless, beige stretches of semi arid land… it was a series of paintings that left an impression that was indelible.

As I left the hall, and drove home through a silent city, I could not help thinking that India could easily market itself just as wonderfully.

We have everything Nature can give, from snow capped mountains to rugged cliffs, scary ravines to sun touched beaches, waterfalls, rivers, lakes, desertscapes… you name it, India has it. And some of it is touched with the magic brush of history, giving glimpses of a temple here, a palace there or romantic ruins that tell their own stories.

Yet, the world’s largest film industry does one of two things: either it exploits the been there, seen that vistas of hill stations or more common now, packs its bags to shoot in Switzerland, Italy or Australia.

It takes a foreigner to help us discover our fabulous country, few of our own travel writers or film makers have taken up the challenge of tracing the Ganges from its mouth to its meeting point with the sea, or explore the magic of India’s wild life sanctuaries.

All of which are highly marketable properties, and can be channelled to comply with the demands of a film shooting.

Perhaps, the film makers are not to blame entirely. Power shortages, local problems, and political interference are some of the bugbears, and the story of Deepa Mehta’s Water might be one which comes to mind when a rather brave producer thinks of choosing a less exploited site for his backdrop.

But it is not impossible, as examples have shown.

Let me share one. I was shooting a short film on the computerisation of land records for the Madhya Pradesh Government, and thanks to having a low budget had to shoot in a real village near Gwalior.

It seemed a mind bending task, the villagers were curious, suspicious, friendly by turn, and there were many impediments to our 4 day schedule being met safely, without delay and expense.

However, a day of meeting every one and explaining to them exactly what we were doing and recruiting them to play themselves, set the scene for smooth filming.

The actors did their part, and we managed to get the entire village to act its part, It was not easy, but it worked, and when we showed the film after edit to the villagers, they were so proud!

We were rank amateurs. The industry has today so many young directors trying to break the mould, to show that Hindi cinema need not follow a formula. One way they can do that is to exploit the rich variety of India as a backdrop.

It will help create pride in this our wonderful country, and also be a great showcase.

Australia has shown the way… I am sure we can take up the thread and go one or more better! It’s all; there, after all.