The Prague Indian Film Festival 11-16 Oct.

India’s films used to be dismissed in the West as being overly long, full of inexplicable dance sequences (often in Switzerland) and unabashed genre-bending. With the ever-increasing lengths of Hollywood blockbusters, the genre-bashing of commercial auteurs like Tarantino and Rodriguez, and the undying attempts to resurrect the musical, it would seem that the jaded, fickle Western audiences are inching closer to an appreciation of Indian cinema. It will be like two tectonic plates of culture crushing into each other, with America’s films having the most notoriety and reach but with India being the world’s largest producer of films, churning out thousands every year.

We spoke about the festival and its program with Sangita Shresthová, one of the festival’s founders, while also being a Czech-Nepalese dancer and media artist with a Ph.D. (her dissertation is on Bollywood dance). She started the festival with Hanka Havlíkova and Radim Špaček to “create a multicultural space for us to watch and enjoy Indian cinema.” They are Indian cinema fans from different backgrounds – Hanka is an Indology scholar and Radim is a film director. Sangita described why she likes Indian cinema this way: “I have always been drawn to the intercultural, selective pastiche that has defined commercial Hindi film making.  New trends are quite easily welcomed and embraced (as long as they sell, of course). At the same time, there has always been a strong connection to India’s theatrical and performative traditions. As a dancer, I am, of course, particularly drawn to the use of dance in storytelling, something we only rarely encounter in Western cinema.”

The festival selects its program by consulting with “contacts in the film industry, artworld and academia to determine what films would work well.” For the past few years, they have also worked with a specialist curator Karan Bali (upperstall.com) “to access more specialized cinemas.  In the end, it all comes together in a program that we then carefully balance and supplement.”

This year, they specifically focused on expanding the scope beyond just the Mumbai-based Bollywood, which is the most glamorous and largest film producer in India, creating often-spectacular films opuses brimming with beautiful women and macho men. The film festival’s name in Czech is actually “Bollywood Film Festival” while it’s name in English has been changed to “Prague Indian Film Festival”, reflecting the highlight on pictures that represent the full tapestry of Indian film, with films from regional language cinemas (Bengali, Marathi, Tamil). Look for the romantic Tamil drama “Children” and Marathi “Harishchandrachi Factory” about the making of the first Indian film in 1913, thus beginning this soon-to-be-enormous film industry.

The festival also presents a very robust documentary film program, examining the plight of Indian farmers in “Dark Times” and telling a story of four children living in the slums of Mumbai in “Slumdog Children of Mumbai”.

Bollywood action drama fans should look for the recent boys-with-guns blockbusters “Karthik calling Karthik”, “Wanted” and “Don”.

It wouldn’t be a festival of Indian cinema without great relationship stories. “Love Aaj Kal/Love these days” is about a diasporic Indian couple living in Britain rekindling a romance.  Other romantic titles include “Honeymoon Travels Ltd”, as well as comedies “Milenge Milenge/We will meet, We will meet” and “Kambakkht Ishq/Incredible Love”.

The films present a great variety of plots and genre-mashups. There’s a comedy about cricket – (“Dil Bole Hadippa/Heart Says Hurray”), an indie drama about groom kidnapping (“Antardwand/Inner Fight”), and a comedy about suicide (“Damned Rain/Gabricha Paus”).

Classic directors  are also represented. The festival shocases Satyajit Ray’s “The Stranger” and “Enemy of the People” as well as Ritwik Ghatak’s “Meghe Dhaka Tara/The Cloud Capped Star”.

Sangita’s personal recommendations include “Gabricha Paus”, “Andtardwand”, the doc on the slumdog children of Mumbai, Bollywood’s “Love Aaj Kal” and “New York” – a drama about three young Indians who end up living in New York right before 9/11.

There are many accompanying events planned in addition to those taking place in the theater (with cooking programs and guest appearances).

Arrive early! Indian culture events are traditionally well-attended in Prague. Sangita is also one of the organizers of BollyTruck and Indian Independence Day program which always draw large turnouts. A record 800 people attended the India’s 50th Independence Day celebration on Střelecký Ostrov in 1997. The film festival has regularly sold out films. 

Please note that while some of the trailers do not have English subtitles, the films screened at the Prague film festival will be subtitled.