My work not appreciated in India: Murali Nair

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

CANNES, MAY 17., Mr. Murali Nair won an instant recognition at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1999 with his Throne of Death. It won a Camera d'Or Award for the first feature, much like Ms. Mira Nair did with her Salaam Bombay years ago.

However, The Throne of Death, did not go well with the Cannes critics, many of whom felt that Mr. Nair's story of the first execution in Kerala by electric chair of a petty thief - whose crime was stealing coconuts - caught the eye of the jury merely because it had a strong anti-American message. The French have been fighting Hollywood's cinematic invasion for years, a war that often tilts in favour of the big nation.

Mr. Nair capitalises on this sentiment, or call it aversion, to push his second movie, A Dog's Day, which was screened at the Festival (now into its ninth day here) yesterday. Unfortunately, it is a badly crafted work, where even the most basic elements of the medium are missing. The characters appear so stiff that they may well have been posing for a snapshot. Also, the picture's confusion with time - we are shown a ``thamburan'' ruling a part of the State against the backdrop of innumerable colour television sets - which Mr. Nair said, in the course of an interview with The Hindu late last evening, was intentional - adds to a viewer's discomfort. ``I have not approached the script at that level at all. Time is irrelevant for me. If I call my celluloid piece period or contemporary stuff, it will put me at a disadvantage at once. This timelessness has given me refreshing breath of flexibility''.

The tale of a lowly peasant being offered a dog as a prize by the ruler gets into another gear when the animal supposedly turns rabid. Democratic freedom is questioned, the society gets divided between those for the `thamburan' (read capitalism and hence American) and those against him (read Communism).

Mr. Nair averred that he normally would not like to categorise his films, but in the case of A Dog's Day, he would not mind calling it a ``political fairy tale''.

He agreed that there was an underlying statement about American capitalism in his creation. ``I cannot deny the fact that I have a strong bias against this ism. Having grown up in Kerala, it is only natural that I am a political creature, and that I share certain strong feelings against the U.S.''

Is that the secret of his success at Cannes? Mr. Nair felt that there was absolutely no secret. ``I am sincere to myself and to my cinema. I work to the best of my knowledge. I do what I feel like doing. I do not try and please people. I am glad there are some people who understand this, and that is why I am at Cannes''.

Mr. Nair regretted that his efforts were not appreciated back home. ``I do not know why, even though the millieu is very native. I do not get any theatrical release in India. In any case, how many films like mine get released there''.

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