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Toronto's interest in "Pudupettai"

Cameron Bailey, Film Programmer, Toronto International Film Festival for South Asia and Africa, talks about "Pudupettai" and other Indian films that might make it to the festival

CRITICAL ACCLAIM Cameron Bailey

Cameron Bailey is blown over by the recently released Tamil film "Pudupettai." "I was interested in the film because I was told it is a little bit like `City of God'. I could see some of that in it. I could see a little `Scarface' in it. But, it had its own distinct style. Dhanush reminded me of younger Al Pacino of the 1970s... small, wiry but intense sort of presence on screen. The look of the film is amazing. It's more stylish than I expected it to be. I would compare it to `City of God', `Amores Perros'. Very expressionistic colours. Very nicely done visuals."

That coming from the Film Programmer of the Toronto International Film Festival for South Asia and Africa is enough reason for Selvaraghavan to smile, after most local critics pulled up the film for violence, gore and a sloppy second half.

"Yes, the first half was better than the second but because the film is so stylish, has an unusual visual appeal and Dhanush was quite good, I think the film still has a lot of merit. I wouldn't say it's the perfect film but it has a lot of merit," Bailey defends the film going on to add: "I would consider this film for the Toronto Festival as long as it does not play at other festivals."

He saw it at Sathyam and was quite taken in by the audience response. It must be said here that he watched it without subtitles.

"I didn't have any problem following the story," he insists. Bailey has been short-listing films for the last ten years. He is also a film critic and been choosing films from India for the last two years.

Is all praise for the recently released Tamil film "Pudupettai"

Short-listing films

"Last year I had four films, Buddhadeb Dasgupta's `Kaalpurush', `Amu' by Shonali Bose, Ritu Sarin's `Dreaming Lhasa' and `John and Jane', a documentary by Ashim Alhuwalia, about call-centre workers. I chose those out of 60 films last year. I will be watching more this year."

Bailey has already seen about 12 during his trip to India and had watched a few DVDs of Indian films he received in Toronto earlier. This time too, he's looking to arrive at four or five films from Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Trivandrum to represent India among 330 films that will be screened at the festival.

"I'll be done with viewing by June 16, done with short-listing in two weeks after that, when I get back to Canada. By last week of this month, I would have seen most of the significant films," he says.

One would think "Rang De Basanti" would rank high on his list. "`Rang De Basanti' is a little old for us. But we have programmed it in our Aamir Khan retrospective for Cinematheque Ontario. Our first preference is for brand new films that we can premiere or international premieres of films not released outside India. We have a luxury of being a festival of premieres. So primarily we show North American premieres."

The film festival premiered "Brokeback Mountain" and "Walk the Line" last year and "Crash" in 2004. The Toronto festival does not have a competitive section but does gala premieres with grand red carpets.

What exactly is he looking from India?

"We are looking at more interesting directors. Indian commercial cinema is such a strong force in the world cinema. If we can find a very good example of a mainstream Indian film that works on both the popular and aesthetic levels... If Rajnikant's `Sivaji' was going to be ready, we would be all over town with it," he laughs.

Premiering films at Toronto

Do filmmakers need to pay or get paid when their films premiere at the Toronto festival?

"There is no money exchanging hands either way. If your film premieres in Toronto, you get splashed across newspapers all around the world."

There are about 800 to 900 from the media and about 4000 industry delegates.

"Last year, the deals made at the Toronto Film Festival amounted to 52 million dollars of sales."

Ask him about the challenges of choosing across different kinds of Indian cinema, the Hindi and the regional and he acknowledges the difficulty.

"They are all different and not only that, the mainstream films are different from the art. Some of the most beautiful, sublime nuances I've seen are in Bengali and Malayalam films. Fantastic filmmaking. But I wouldn't expect the same things from a Shah Rukh Khan film or a Rajnikant film. If you are making a mainstream film, I want to know if you are entertaining? Is it achieving the demands of the genre? From someone like Buddhadeb, (I look for) sophisticated artistic expression, some innovation in film and something new about the way human beings live. I ask different things from different films. I'm aware that in different regions, the style of filmmaking varies."

Will he represent Indian cinema?

"I can't choose one from each region. I wish I could do that. So I will choose the best. It's always partly subjective. I'm employed for my taste, honestly. So I have to determine what I think is best. It has to represent, it has to have artistic merit. I'm looking at world cinema and I'm looking at what's coming out of India. And Indian films have to be as technically accomplished, as creative as anywhere in the world."

Bailey is one of 12 programmers around the world choosing films for the Toronto festival.

Having been exposed to world cinema, what does he think is good and bad about Indian cinema.

"We could talk all night. But I would say Indian commercial cinema has fully captured its audience. The passion with which people watch movies is unparalleled. What is not successful is Indian filmmakers reaching out to an International audience that does not understand..."

"One of the reasons is that the films are so tuned to the local market that they don't work outside. The distinct thing is the tone. There is a tone of intense sincerity in a lot of Indian commercial films. The emotions are big and heartfelt. And in the West people are used to irony, people are used to watching films with scepticism, with a distance. I think the tone is what separates the audiences."

He believes that factors such as song and dance and length are superficial and do not really put off global audiences.

"`Moulin Rouge' is a Bollywood film made by an Australian with Hollywood money. So I think people are interested in that," says Cameron Bailey.

SUDHISH KAMATH

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