Screen
Studies
P.Ramakrishnan
When Lagaan (Land Tax) picked up a nomination at the Academy Awards last year, in the Best Foreign Film category, a lot of ink was spilt in the Indian and American media about Bollywood finally making its presence felt in the international arena. Enter the age of "crossover'' styles and cinema, they said, as the musical genre found a mini-revival. Though the film failed to win any trophies at the Golden Globes or the Oscars, it generated enough buzz to be picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for international release.
Re-released in the US and Europe after making it to the "Best of the year'' movie lists among a number of critics, the film still did abysmally at the box office. As Americans can barely feign an interest in cricket, let alone an all-singing, all-dancing film about the sport itself, the film fizzled out within two weeks of release and was quickly packed off to video-store shelves.
Loaded with six of the biggest names in Bollywood, Kaante (Thorns) premiered in New York last December, with much pre-release hype and repeated affirmations on how only international technicians worked in the movie to give it the "Hollywood finish''. Well, finish it did - really quickly in the States, as a New York Times critic concluded that: "Bollywood is essentially a non-narrative art form, in which coherent storytelling plays a distinctly secondary role to the purple pleasures of the moment.''
Devdas, Bollywood's most expensive film ever made, was India's entry to the Oscars this year, brocaded with much hooplah and Asian box-office success - but it couldn't even garner a nomination from the powers that be at the Academy.
So if Indian movies can't capture the hearts of the world's cinema-goers, then why not one of its stars? Enter former Miss World and current Bollywood craze Aishwarya Rai (see pic above). She has just been cast in Gurinder (Bend It Like Beckham) Chadha's next flick, Bride And Prejudice. After the unprecedented success of Chadha's comedy (the modestly budgeted film collected over $31 million and counting in the US), the director zeroed in on the most photogenic actress in Asia for her ambitious musical and re-telling of Jane Austen's tale.
Fellow director Karan Johar saw Rai's appeal well before Chadha did. Johar was part of the Indian film fraternity two years ago at Cannes, and he noticed the audience's immediate fascination with the light-eyed beauty, "There were all these stars dressed in their Valentinos and Armanis, but when Ash stepped down from the horse-driven carriage at the premier in her mustard-colour sari, everyone else faded away. If there's any Indian star who can make the cross over, it's her.''
And this year, Rai who was even asked back to preside on the Cannes jury. Art-house critics in Mumbai guffawed out loud, "What does Aishwarya really know about acting? She was invited to Cannes because she was the Asian model for L'Oreal, and the cosmetic brand was a sponsor for the festival. The same reason why Sharon Stone gets invited to the festivals - because she's press and photo-friendly,'' said one.
Hong Kong audience can see what all the fuss is about this weekend when Rai's film Kuch Na Kaho (Say Nothing) enjoys a brief showing in town.
She joins a line of Indian actresses who have been lured to the bright lights of Hollywood, only to see their careers falter in foreign shores. In the 1980s Shabana Azmi, the most felicitated actress in India, landed a part in Madam Sousatzka (1988) with Shirley Maclaine. After that, she went on to character roles in Immaculate Conception and City Of Joy, followed by an appalling cameo in Son Of The Pink Panther, which she bluntly stated she did for the money.
Then there was Persis Khambatta (Miss India 1965) who skipped Bollywood altogether and made an appearance in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), followed by B-grade brigade appearances in Nighthawks, Megaforce and Deadly Intent. In 1986 she was seen briefly in MacGyver and by 1996 - two years before she succumbed to a heart attack in Mumbai - she was doing two-bit-roles on TV as "the Indian ambassador'' in Lois & Clark and other shows on cable networks.
Maybe, though, Rai should take a leaf out of Rekha's book. At an international film festival in Italy last year, the siren of 1970s Indian celluloid, was asked with her perfect English and pulchritude, why she didn't give Hollywood a go. She simply said, "Why go to the West and be treated like a maid, when I can be the Queen in India?''
Picture Caption: Beauty & the East: Hollywood has its eyes on former Miss World Aishwarya Rai. Image Courtesy of L'Oreal.
Kuch Na Kaho, with Aishwarya Rai and Abishek Bachchan (In Hindi, with English subtitles). Saturday, September 6, 8.30pm. Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Wan Chai
Sunday, September 7, 3.30pm and 7pm. HK Arts Centre, 2 Harbour Rd; Wanchai
Ticket hotline 31 288 288 (For 2 shows at HK Arts Centre), www.hkticketing.com. Tickets: $80, $120, $150
Originally published in South China Morning Post,
Thursday, Sept 4, 2003
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