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All song and dance

Jury chief Rolf De Heer tells ZIYA US SALAM what ails Indian films

PERSPECTIVE Rolf De Heer

Listening to Rolf De Heer, Chairman of the jury at the ongoing 37th International Film Festival is an education. Surrounded by huge billboards of Kingfisher, Idea and Ritzi, he is untouched by any market compulsions. No wonder his films like Dance Me to My Song, The Tracker and Ten Canoes ask uneasy questions. Though many of his own films are being screened at the festival, the Australian filmmaker remains unflustered. And shares his views with easy candour, not forgetting to use a surgeon's scalpel when it comes to Indian films - his views are important considering two Indian films have entered the competition section.

"Indian films are culturally specific. Musically Bollywood is of interest but there is a sameness, there is an element of fantasy about them that has a limited appeal. You watch the first couple of films and they excite you. After that there is an absence of novelty. There is a predictability that prevents them from interesting non-Indian viewers. Bollywood with its songs does not work. They don't travel well."

However, it isn't that the Holland-born filmmaker, whose ship touched down at Bombay when his family was migrating from Holland to Australia more than 40 years ago, has no respect for Indian cinema. Far from it.

Specific yet universal

"When I was young I watched some of Ray's films. They were so specific and culturally unique in their subject, yet they appealed enormously and were appreciated enormously across the world."

Incidentally, Heer is not on a first visit to the country. "I have been coming here quite frequently. I came for the first time in 1978." The tall, slim, bearded filmmaker recalls, "Back then Indian filmmakers used to have a camera that was like a harvesting machine cutting cane! But that was a cinema of another age. Now, there is much better sound, much better facilities, newer technology. Yet, sound lets Indian films down at the international level. Some 60 per cent of the cinema is made by sound. However, in Indian films there is hardly any attention paid to the sound. There is too much of song and dance. Too much emphasis on studio and dubbing."

So, are the Indian filmmakers ruled out of the honours at IFFI?

"I won't say that at all. There is a complete jury in place to decide. I cannot comment on jury matters. The results shall come out with consensus," the veteran producer-director evades a direct reply, adding for good measure, "The look of the general Indian films is good. The costumes are fantastic. The acting is getting better and there are advances in cinematography."

The sops over, he is more than willing to share his experience as an intrepid filmmaker. "For films like The Tracker and Ten Canoes — both screened at the festival — I got mixed response though I love Ten Canoes the most. The Tracker spoke about black and white relations with a disputed history. After the screening in Australia I was spat on by a white person for making that film. But in general, the Australian public liked it. So I believe the common film lover is not a racist."

Incidentally, though he talks with fondness of these two films, his old film, Dance Me... is still remembered for its skilful and sensitive handling of the disability issue. "The theme was disability but the underlying message was not the limiting part, but the fact that they are also sexual beings. You cannot ignore that reality. Now the film is in educational institutions across the world."

Heer moved from Holland to Australia at the age of eight. He even spent a part of his early years in Indonesia. Does it impact his vision of the world or his craft as a filmmaker?

Migrant impact

"I learnt English quickly, so the transition was easier. I never thought of myself as a migrant in Australia. Being a migrant does impact my cinema but I don't know how. As a child I used to live in the jungles of Indonesia. That comes in useful in featuring jungle shots in the films. However, like any Australian filmmaker, I have lived with the cinematic tradition of the country. That is to make low-budget cinema. Since we have not always had the finances that an Indian filmmaker has, ours has been a small, story-centric cinema. There is a lot of location shooting. Now immigrant cinema is coming to the fore."

Saying that, the soft-spoken man, firm in his conviction, and proud of cinematic tradition, disappears for yet another jury screening at the festival, coming to a close this Sunday.

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