The Tongues on Fire South Asian Film festival began with a bang this year in London. The festival which started way back in 1999 is now an institution in itself as it brings together some of the finest films and film makers to the south asian diasporas.
This year Jaya Bachchan, the first lady of Bollywood was felicitated for her lifetime performance and a restrospective of her films was screened at the Nehru Centre which included classics liks Guddi, Hazaar Chaurasi ki Maa and Uphaar. This was followed by a question and answer session with Lady Kishwar Desai and Bachchan herself.
The festival also hosted some of the contemporary hits like Mani Ratnam’s Yuva, Karan Johar’s Dostana and Guru amongst many others. Films from Pakistan and Sri Lanka were also screened. There was a special premiere of Shyam Benegal’s film Well Done Abba where the film maker was available for discussion and interviews.
Benegal also conducted a master class on film making at University of Westminster where his film Bhumika was screened and then graduate students of the university were invited to discuss film making techniques with the master film maker facilitated by Professor Rosie Thomas of the India Media Centre.
University of Westminster also hosted this year’s first academic conference on Indian Cinema called ‘Bollywood and Beyond’ where nine academics presented papers on the various facets of Indian cinema. It included Rosie Thomas’ presentation on Arabian Nights in early Indian Cinema, Ira Bhaskar’s paper on sufism and its impact on Bollywood songs and Ranjani Mazumdar’s paper on Travel and eroticism in the 60’s cinema amongst many others.
Mazumdar later commented that London has become a permanent host to Bollywood Conferences. This conference also marked the launch of a new journal- Bioscopewallah, a journal dedicated to South Asian Cinema.
It looks like Bollywood is here to stay and the world has started taking a serious note of it.As Steven Baker, postgraduate student of Indian Cinema puts it "London is rapidly aquiring the status as second city of all things Bollywood. A conference like this with the leading figures in the study of Hindi cinema, is a clear indicator that Indian film has transformed into an area for serious academic study."
