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Good way to travel the world in a short span is to make a film that will win at an A-list festival: Deepti DCunha
Late film historian Virchand Dharamsey, known for his extensive knowledge of Indian silent cinema, is being honored at the Jio MAMI Mumbai film festival. The festival will also pay tribute to other behind-the-scenes contributors, including programmer Uma da Cunha, scholar Aruna Vasudev, and author Nasreen Munni Kabir. The festival, which will showcase 250 films, aims to spotlight South Asian cinema this year. The event will take place from October 27 to November 5 at various venues across Mumbai.
MUMBAI: Late film historian Virchand Dharamsey was the one who broke the silence on the silent films of India. Film archives were muted on the films between ‘Raja Harishchandra’ (1913) and ‘Alam Ara’ (1931). But, by interviewing old studio hands, studying trade magazines and discovering the odd nugget of information inside publicity booklets, Dharamsey was able to catalogue 1338 silent films released at the time. “Dharamseybhai was the last word on Indian silent cinema,” says Deepti DCunha, artistic director at the Jio MAMI Mumbai film festival (MAMI). “To preserve his memory, he stopped watching films released after 1960.”
Dharamsey (1935-2023), along with art director Nitin Desai, actor Satish Kaushik and others, is part of the ‘In memoriam’ segment at MAMI this year. “The tribute section has a huge personal touch,” says DCunha. “We want to celebrate the people behind the scenes.” This includes the Lifetime Achievement awardees: programmer Uma da Cunha, scholar Aruna Vasudev and author Nasreen Munni Kabir.
“These women created the infrastructure for Indian films to be shown internationally,” she says. “Da Cunha would take film reels all the way to Cannes to ensure they were selected. And, she did this before I was born. When Aruna Vasudev was living in Paris, she realised that Asian films were not shown at European festivals. So, decolonising the idea of film comes from her. She started an organisation called NETPAC, which is a network for promotion of Asian cinema, and she found different ways to push their visibility. Our third recipient is Kabir, who flies down from London just for two days to subtitle films in English. This year alone, she has worked on ‘Pathan’, ‘Jawan’, ‘Rocky-Rani’, ‘PS: 1’, ‘PS: 2’. When I asked her for her filmography for our catalogue, she said, ‘Darling, I have subtitled 800 films. How can you list them all?’”
With 250 films on the roster, the 10-day annual film festival is going to take place at venues across the city, chief of which is NMACC. “We would wonder if we could ever recreate the Cannes experience in Mumbai,” she says. “Our dream has actually come true, because we have a venue that’s going to rival the Grand Auditorium Louis Lumière in Cannes. This year’s Palme d’Or winner, ‘Anatomy of a Fall’, will be screened at the Grand Theatre at NMACC, which can seat 2,000 people. That’s the one thing that’s going to differentiate this MAMI from all the previous editions.”
In Film City
From VHS to DVD to OTT, DCunha has been tracking films all her life. “I grew up in Versova and you cannot have a more filmy upbringing,” she says. “We would see film shoots everywhere. My mother’s a complete film buff, so Fridays were always an event for us.” This was the 1980s, and video cassettes of ‘Dirty Dancing’ would be taped over with episodes of ‘Mahabharat’ in her house. “Just like your paowala and andawala would come home, the DVD guy would come home every evening.”
With 15-plus years as a programmer, DCunha, with festival director Anupama Chopra and team, has chosen to spotlight South Asian cinema at MAMI this year. Film-maker Mira Nair is the head of jury, and the Indian films in competition include ‘Agra’ (Kanu Behl; Cannes), ‘Shivamma’ (Jaishankar Aryar; Busan) and ‘Against the Tide’ (Sarvnik Kaur; Sundance). Bhutanese film-maker Pawo Choyning Dorji, whose debut film ‘Lunana’ was nominated for an Oscar last year, will screen his second film ‘The Monk and the Gun’. “When we called for entries, we weren’t expecting feature-length films from Myanmar or short films from Nepal,” says DCunha
Since MAMI receives a deluge of submissions each year, their selection committees, comprising hardcore cinephiles and film critics, make the shortlist for each segment. “The cinephiles know more than the programmers,” she says. “When we begin, we track what the auteurs are doing and what the festivals are showing. Film markets such as Berlin and Cannes are where you source these films. The sales agents will whisper to you what will gain traction at Cannes. And, if a film breaks out, let me tell you, the film-maker’s passport runs out. The best way to travel the world in the shortest amount of time is to make a good film that will win at an A-list festival. Just ask Rima Das how many passports she had to go through after ‘Village Rockstars’.”
MAMI’s line-up includes politically-charged films such as ‘The World is Family’ (Anand Patwardhan; Toronto), ‘While We Watched’ (Vinay Shukla; Toronto) and ‘Indi(r)a’s Emergency’ (Vikramaditya Motwane). “We hope a film is something about which friends fight for, at least for some time,” says DCunha. “Programming is not about agreement. Sometimes if a film is causing a discussion, which cannot be controlled and contained, it’s a great film to show. Because art moves ethics, right? It challenges what we believe is right at the time. While we are programming to get trolled, we’re also looking for what is topical or what is forgotten. Because cinema is a great archive of the zeitgeist.”
Regular cinegoers, however, will find few familiar names, such as Manoj Bajpayee (‘Joram’) or Anurag Kashyap (‘Kennedy’). “Independent films aren’t well-known because there’s no distribution. A film can be spoken about only when it is being viewed. Otherwise, it’s a forgotten book on the bookshelf,” she says. “What is great about independent cinema is that what comes out in the mainstream is usually shown in independent cinema two or three years earlier. Because film-makers are like any other artists; they are observant.” She also alludes to the disconnect between movies in the mainstream and the fringe. “More than lovers of cinema, Indian audiences are fans of actors. So, we are serving a fandom. Films, even the marketing, revolve around stars. That sells more tickets, so it becomes more available, and then it becomes a habit. Film festivals are there to essentially break those habits. MAMI is often the first festival many in our audiences experience for themselves. This is where they develop a taste for something new. So, Mumbai is the perfect city for that awakening.”
Jio MAMI Mumbai film festival will take place from October 27 to November 5 at multiple venues.
