Time Out

The beautifully designed flyer highlights the words tragedy, cowardice, courage, love and truth, just the kind of New Age phraseology that should enrapture reformed Gordon Gekkos. In the film, a very sleek Nethra Raghuraman shows her mehndi to two foreign travellers on a train a recurring motif in the Western perception of India. And for all those who rioted in Seattle and for all those in Europe who harbour anti-American feelings, there8217;s just the right touch of demonisation to the Union Carbide employees sitting in the corporate boardroom in Virginia.

Thank you, Shekhar Kapur. Th-ank you, Mira Nair. Thank you, De-epaMehta. In the marketplace of movies, Indian exotica thrives, with just the right element of end-of-century Luddite environmental awareness. Mahesh Matthai, in his search for a subject after 17 years as an ad filmmaker, has discovered the perfect vehicle for his launch at Berlin 2000, a cause with a heart and a web address where you can pour dollars of charity. Callous India, callous America. Welcome European Euros, and if they8217;re of Scandinavian origin, so much the better.

The film, which was screened at a packed hall in the Capital on Thursday, is all set to become a phenomenon in the art circuit. Expect to see it being feted in print and on television. Don8217;t be surprised that Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley has endorsed it, though it is meant to be critical of the State after all, if only 3 per cent of the 15 billion compensation has reached the victims of the Bhopal tragedy 15 years on, it is as much a failure of the government as it is of the public.

An NRI producer looking for ahot ticket couldn8217;t have found a better one than this especially since he just helped Jane Campion in Holy Smoke which peddled Indian spiritualism apart from a new line in couture for Kate Wins-let, comprising blouse and petticoat.

So what8217;s wrong, you may argue. If Shekhar Kapur could sell a child rape, Mira Nair could sell lesbian sex in Rina Dhaka outfits and Deepa Mehta could do more of the same in FabIndia clothes, why not add a Mahesh Mathai to the Di-sneyfication of the Indian movie abroad? Nothing works as well in cineplexes of the world as Amer-ican candyfloss, but there is room for a little garnishing from the rest of the world, sort of like a global food counter. These independent filmmakers, financed mostly from abroad, are increasingly manufacturing an India which suits them.

It8217;s not as crass as Nargis Dutt alleging that Satyajit Ray displayed India in a poor light because he filmed its poverty, but it8217;s close. This is the India where Lodi Gardens can pass off as a Lahore park for DeepaMehta; Vatsayana acrobatics clad in diaphanous dupattas could stand in for the richness of India8217;s heritage for Mira Nair; and the sexual abuse of children is okay for Shekhar Kapur as it is for his one-time most vocal critic Arundhati Roy. This is the India of sweaty sheets, grimy wastelands and aphrodisiac pudiyas a completely unnecessary inclusion in Bhopal Ex-press.

This is the India of cheap liqour, pallu-dropping nautch girls, sari-shedding sex scenes, and ethnic expletives in Bhopal Express as in Deepa Mehta8217;s Earth as in Bandit Queen. But next time Mathai makes a movie, if he could just do it with some technical finesse. The run-in between the hero Kaykay and the train could even do with the kind of technology Aamir Khan in Ghulam sported. But then art8217; cinema can get away with just a cause. Bollywood has to work harder.