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'Cinema India!' breaks barriers in Lincoln community

Thursday, Jul 29, 2004 - 06:26:45 pm CDT

l. kent wolgamott column

For years I heard a constant litany of "Why doesn't Lincoln get this movie or that movie?"

With the opening of the Ross Media Arts Center last year, that complaint has largely disappeared.With two screens offering four or five films a month, the Ross is now able to play films that usually bypass cities the size of Lincoln while the Douglas Theatres carry the vast majority of major studio releases.

In fact, Lincoln is now getting pictures that are rarely seen outside major metropolitan areas.

That is the case with "Cinema India!," a festival featuring a half-dozen films from India that begins its two-week run at the Ross today.

Lincoln is one of only 10 cities where "Cinema India!" will play on its U.S. tour and it is, by far, the smallest. Other stops on the tour included New York, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.

I've had a chance to preview the six pictures over the last couple of weeks. I can't say as I watched every minute of them - all are at least two hours long and one sprawls to beyond three hours. But I found the films fascinating as a sampler of what is being released by the world's largest national film industry.

Bollywood, as the Indian film industry is known, turns out 800 films a year. That's two or three times more than Hollywood produces.

Of the six pictures, Iparticularly enjoyed "Waisa Bhi Hota Hai (Anything Can Happen)," a Bollywood picture that is a fast-paced mix of gangster picture, comedy and music that comes from director Shashanka Ghosh, who helped launch MTV in India and has clearly watched his fair share of QuentinTarantino movies.

I'm also a fan of Indian classical music and found the documentary "The Speaking Hand:Zakir Hussain and the Art of the Indian Drum" to be mesmerizing.

Here's a brief description of each of the movies:

"Bariwali (The Lady of the House)" A lonely, middle-aged spinster is forced by circumstances to rent her family's sprawling house to a film crew. This slow-paced but emotionally rewarding 1999 picture won a number of film festival awards in 2000, but has rarely been screened in the U.S.

"Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (The Braveheart WillTake the Bride)" Bollywood's blockbuster, Aditya Chopra's drama about a wealthy Indian man living in London who falls in love with a shopkeeper's daughter and follows her back to India to get her family's consent to marry, is still playing in an Indian theater, nine years after it was released.

"Kandukondian, Kandukondain (IHave Found It)" Set in South India, this adaptation of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" stars former Miss World Aishwarya Rai and is a witty take on the conventions of Bollywood filmmaking, complete with some surreal song-and-dance sequences.

"Maqbool" Bollywood does "Macbeth," setting Shakespeare's famous tale in the contemporary Bombay underworld. This picture is filled with strong performances, and this update of "Macbeth" works thanks to the menacing, charismatic Irfan Khan in the title role.

"The Speaking Hand:Zakir Hussain and the Art of the Indian Drum" This documentary looks at the life of India's leading tabla (hand drum) player. It features extensive concert footage of Hussain in collaboration with Indian classical music masters, including Ravi Shankar.

"Waisa Bhi Hota Hai (Anything Can Happen)" Blending noir, gangster, musical and comic elements, this youth-oriented picture tells the story of an advertising copywriter who saves a hitman's life and ends up causing the downfall of two Bombay ganglords.This one's got Sikh rappers, a tough female cop and plenty of action and laughs.

A complete schedule for "Cinema India!" is available at the Ross or at www.TheRoss.org. It's a rare opportunity for local movie fans to see films which have a large audience on the other side of the globe but rarely screen in the United States.

Reach L.Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@;journalstar.com.