Satyajit Ray still lights up Cannes

Cannes and India go together, in the sense that next year when the 70th film festival is held, India will also be celebrating 70 years of being an independent nation.

Perhaps 2017 would be an appropriate time to reflect on Indian connections at Cannes.

A friend, Bhuvan Lall, shows me an evocative black and white photograph of Satyajit Ray from 1982 when the festival paid homage to him.

1982 was a vintage year, Bhuvan learnt from his father, S.B. Lal,"at that time serving as secretary, information and broadcasting".

In fact, Bhuvan was much taken with the anecdotes his father brought back from Cannes, especially of his chats with Ray while they walked by the sea.

In 1982, to mark its 35th birthday, the festival invited Ray and 12 other filmmakers, including Billy Wilder, Akira Kurosawa, John Boorman, Andrei Tarkowski and Michelangelo Antonioni.

Mrinal Sen was on the main jury, along with Gabriel Garcia Marquez, not yet a Nobel laureate.

From his father Bhuvan heard that on the opening night, the 35th Anniversary Trophy signed by Igor Mitoraj was presented to Satyajit Ray and an Hommage à Satyajit Ray was hosted in his honour.

"Ray was dressed in a traditional Indian kurta and shawl."

The film historian, Penelope Houston, once said: "Until somebody else comes along to change it, Satyajit Ray's Bengal will remain cinema's India."

Bhuvan, who now runs his own entertainment company, is himself a Cannes regular.

Incidentally, when he and his wife Aarti had a son, he was named Satyajit.

French affair

The Paris-based Indian filmmaker, Vijay Singh, has made a docu-drama, Farewell My Indian Soldier, which tells the story of the 1,50,000 soldiers from India who served on the Western front during World War I from 1914 to 1918.

Some 9,800 of them were never to return home. But some of them who did, left behind babies born out of brief romances with French women.

We have all heard of numerous romances involving American GIs but I must admit I had never before heard of relationships between Indian soldiers and French women. However, having done a lot of research on the subject, Vijay assures me that children were born from acts of intimacy during wartime but society drew a veil over these affairs.

Vijay, who made Jaya Ganga in 1998 and One Dollar Curry in 2004, has focused on one French woman's search for the identities of her great-great grandparents.

The film, which premiered in Cannes yesterday, was shot in Paris, Marseille, Neuve-Chapelle, Béthune, Ablin-Saint-Nazaire, Saint-Floris, Saint-Venant, Lillers and several villages in the north of France.

In Belgium, he went to Ypres, the scene of heavy battles. In Britain, he visited Brighton where the Indian war wounded were taken.

In India, Vijay went to Chamba, Rishikesh, Hardwar, New Delhi, Gurgaon and Jaipur. He has relied on extensive archival material, including 600 letters written home by Indian soldiers.

Vijay hopes to show the film in Delhi on June 15, before he holds screenings in Paris, London and New York.

In France, the film is called Mademoiselle, The Indians are leaving, Miss France is in tears.

But for India, he had to insert "Indian" into the title. Part of the money for the film came from Rajya Sabha television.

Devdas retold

It is always a relief to see Sudhir Mishra alive and well and coming to Cannes, but above all, alive and well.

Years ago he was stepping onto Surina Narula's boat for a party when he missed his footing and dropped into the water and disappeared under the vessel.

Divers plunged in and my hea-rt was pounding when they could not locate him for what seemed like an interminable period.

When he was finally pulled out alive, he suddenly remembered he had fallen with his cloth bag (the sort young men once carried on Calcutta trams).

Sudhir's first words were: "Where's my script?"

The script was readable and so Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi got made. He has also made Dharavi and Chameli .

This time he tells me his new film, Daasdev , is in post production, and will be ready for release by September.

He has taken the three main characters from Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's famous novel but changed them around to make it into a power play set in a semi-rural part of Uttar Pradesh "where 50 to 60 per cent of the people still believe in feudal dynasties". The movie was shot in Faizabad.

He has cast Rahul Bhatt, whose Ugly came to Cannes in 2013, as Daasdev; Richa Chadha, of Gangs of Wasseypur and Masaan fame, as Paro; and Aditi Rao Hydari as Chandramukhi.

"The tale is told by Chandramukhi," he says.

"I have dedicated it to Sarat Babu and to Shakespeare - I have taken the themes from Hamlet , Julius Caesar and Macbeth ," reveals Sudhir.

Woody's work

What should be our attitude to Woody Allen?

That the man is a genius, of that there is no doubt. He has made 49 movies and is a regular at Cannes, where his Café Society opened the festival last week.

His dialogue and his direction are near faultless.

But in an article in The Hollywood Reporter, his son, Ronan, by Mia Farrow, revived allegations that the director, now 80, had abused his daughter, Dylan, when she was seven.

Ronan also claimed that Allen's powerful PR machine had cowed journalists into submission.

When the issue came up for informal discussion, most journalists appeared to support Allen.

Reaction ranged from "What has his private life got to do with his film, which I like very much?" to "Who are we to sit in judgement on him?" and "It could all be a bunch of lies."

But the climate has changed in Britain, at least, after the Jimmy Savile affair.

The truth probably is that Allen has given so much pleasure to millions throughout the world through his movies that most people are inclined to overlook certain troubling aspects of his private life.

Indian scene

One encouraging feature about the crowd that gathers at the India Pavilion is that alongside established veterans such as Bobby Bedi are young filmmakers who are just starting out.

It bodes well for the future.

The Indian government does want foreign filmmakers to use locations in India. But I am told that a project cleared by the Centre will often be held up by the state government "just to make it awkward".

Tittle tattle

The festival authorities will be greatly relieved if Cannes passes off without incident.

Journalists rushing to catch the 8.30 screening in the morning often carry fruit, sandwiches and a bottle of water in their bags.

This year we are being relieved of all these items, as though we were about to board a flight.

Poor Anupama Chopra, behind me in the queue, had a pretty Indian bag with her snacks taken away. But her charm worked and exceptionally her bag was returned - "I told them I had food allergies."

Quite right, too - after all she was a member of the Un Certain Regard jury in 2008.