PARTY TIME: Surina Narula with her husband, Harpinder

Larger than life

The London hostess, Surina Narula and her husband, construction magnate, Harpinder, were “at home” this year on board their yacht in what has become an annual Indian ritual in Cannes.

What these parties require ? hers began at an Irish pub situated opposite her docked yacht ? is the presence of Bollywood stars.

“Since our stars are so unreliable, I brought along my own,” said Surina, pointing out cardboard cut-outs of several legends from the past, including Guru Dutt, Nargis, Shashi Kapoor and Dilip Kumar.

It certainly helped that the cardboard cuts appeared to have more life than some of today’s big names.

An honourable exception was Surina’s guest, the actress Poonam Dhillon, who gave up the big screen some years ago ? she starred in Noorie ? but has recently been to Pakistan where she was wanted for a television soap. Her film, Soni Mahiwal, was the first Indian film taken by Pakistan.

Poonam, who now spells her name Punam, later bumped into Samuel Jackson Jr, who did not realise who the Indian lady was.

According to Bhuvan Lall, a film writer: “Preity Zinta is today’s Poonam Dhillon.”

Bhuvan told me he came to Cannes because his father did. And this year, Bhuvan has brought his little son, Satyajit. “He’s the third generation at Cannes,” Bhuvan said proudly.

IN GOOD COMPANY: Ashok Amritraj

Mistral man

Another annual fixture is the party thrown by Hollywood producer Ashok Amritraj, who gave his, as usual, on board a yacht. This year it was the Titan. On this occasion, the sea off Cannes was exceptionally choppy, since a “Mistral” ? gale force winds that apparently originate from Africa ? chose to blow through the Croisette that very night.

Guests queue at the quayside opposite the Carlton, where Ashok always chooses to stay, and are then picked up by small boats for transfer to the massive yachts that suddenly appear on the waterfront during the Cannes Film Festival. Once you get on board, you do a very Indian thing ? you take off your shoes. Ashok’s guests included Preity Zinta and Karan Johar ? the latter wore a bright red shirt with his cuffs undone. That is meant to be stylish. His new film, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (KANK), merited full page colour ads in the Cannes press.

Unlike Ashok, there are some Indians who don’t have to hire boats. One of Ashok’s guests was a young Englishman who introduced himself to me as a Mr Tim Morley.

“I’m a yacht broker,” he said, explaining his job is to increase the numbers of wealthy people, including Indians, with their own vessels.

He need not bother with Srichand Hinduja, who replaced Param Jamuna I (named after his father) with Param Jamuna II and is said to be in the process of acquiring an even larger, three-storey Param Jamuna III.

How to get to Cannes won’t be much of a problem for him, either ? he does not have to depend on Easyjet like the rest of us.

SP was absent from Cannes this year, since urgent work in India demanded his presence. But one close to him said: “He now has his own Falcon jet.”

Some Indians have jets. Others have yachts. A few have a jet and a yacht.

A different tune: Norah Jones

Norah to Nicole

There is another thing that Norah Jones has done that her half sister, Anoushka Shankar, hasn’t ? she is to star in a film. And an important one at that, since she is to be directed by the great Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai. He previously directed 2046 and Fa Yeung Nin Wa, which were both nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

Norah stares down from posters for her first film, My Blueberry Nights ? “a beautiful young woman explores the road to true love”. Wong is also set to direct Nicole Kidman in Lady from Shanghai but production has been pushed back to 2007.

My Blueberry Nights, which is being produced by Studio Canal, is “a hip, romantic exploration of the sensual link between love and food. In atmospheric diners and evocative locations, its captivating heroine encounters a series of enigmatic characters on a quest to discover her true love.”

Passing through: Indian tourists in Cannes

Indian pavilion

It is good news that the Indian Pavilion is back on a prime location on the Croisette.

The pavilion is used as a meeting point by Indian directors, government officials, journalists, businessmen, socialites, distributors as well as people from other countries interested in Bollywood.

Over the pavilion, the Indian flag flutters in the Cannes breeze, along with the flags of dozens of nations. The back of the Indian pavilion offers an excellent opportunity to enjoy the sea, the sun and the sand.

At certain times of day, the place is crammed with filmmakers, who have this feature in common: they have all won prizes, however obscure, and none has anything good to say about the work of their fellow directors.

The back of the pavilion is used for interviews ? this is where journalists from a dozen countries turned up to hear something about Bollywood from Rakeysh Mehra, director of Rang De Basanti, and received a lecture on why he hates the word, Bollywood.

The American film industry is well represented by daily issues of The Hollywood Reporter, which brings over a team of journalists from the United States, Screen and Variety.

Similarly, the cause of the Indian film industry would be better served if there was something like a daily Bollywood Bulletin. At the moment, news of events, screenings and press interview is acquired mainly through word of mouth.

The notable Bollywood party this year was given by a distributor, Avinaash Jumani, who had well over 1,000 guests. Some of them asked to keep the orange envelopes, which had a golden Ganesh embossed on it.

Not all Indians at Cannes are here for the films. I found a group wandering the streets, looking baffled by the crowds.

“Are you here for the film festival?” I asked the group’s leader, who clutched a placard marked, “INDIA”.

“No,” he said, “we are tourists from India, just happened to be passing through.”

Tittle tattle

In the pursuit of duty, I went to see The Da Vinci Code a second time. This was to make up for the people of Punjab and elsewhere who won’t get the chance to see it even once because a few people have decided they and others will be offended by a film they have not seen.

I cannot really say what I thought of the film a second time because the credits were rolling when I woke up. This is not a reflection on the film but the daily routine pursued by most journalists just to keep up with the many things, all happening at the same time.

My day, in common with that of most others, went from the wake up call at 6.45 am to lights out at 3 am.

Incidentally, the reaction of Sony Pictures to negative press reaction was revealing.

The $125 million film took $224 million worldwide in its first week. The reviews were irrelevant, it was suggested.

I am clearly a victim of hype for I will have to see the film a third time to discover its redeeming qualities.