"FILMISTAAN" a Comedy with a Message Named Best Indian Film at Stuttgart Indian film festival, 2013 FILMISTAAN, the debut feature of director Nitin Kakkar, a brilliant comedy with a serious message, was named best film at the 10th Stuttgart Indian film festival. This fictional tale of an Indian assistant director who is kidnapped by Pakistani terrorists on a border shoot in Rajasthan and finds that his jailers love Bollywood films as much as he does was awarded the "German Star of India" prize with a cash consideration of 4000 Euros as well.
While Filmistan has no major movie stars and none of the ad-hoc dance numbers typical of Bollywood films it was nevertheless highly appreciated throughout India where Mr. Kakkar seems to be part of a very dynamic New Wave of innovative directors in a rapidly changing Bollywood film scene.
So-called Bollywood films made in Bombay (Mumbai) in Hindi, the National language, serve as a powerful unifying cultural force and Lingua Franca in a country with 23 official languages and some 200 regional dialects. Since many of the top Bollywood stars such as The Three Khans — Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, and Amir Khan — and the leading sex-symbol, Katrina Kaif — are all of Moslem background, this film industry is a sub-conscious salve for the wounded feelings of Indian Moslems who have all too often been pitted in mutually destructive conflict against the Hindu majority and still have to endure all kinds of vicious discrimination.
In India's next-door neighbor Pakistan, a 99% Moslem country carved out of the body of India (Hindustan) through the bloody Partition of 1947 and basically at war with India ever since — the Bollywood films of India are every bit as popular there as they are in India the supposed enemy. Thus, very much as was the case in East and West Germany and is still the case in North and South Korea, India-Pakistan is like one giant extended family divided into warring camps by an arbitrary line drawn in the sand. What the film "Filmistan" does is draw attention to the absurdity of this tragic political division with bold strokes of faultlessly rib- tickling comedy while never losing sight of the underlying tragedy of the political issue – in short, a Masterpiece. In the context of the present political situation, the implication of the title FILMISTAN is that Pakistan and Hindustan (India) are actually a single country united by the Stan of cinema.
The opening title sequence is already a dazzling rapid-fire collage of things to come. A wannabe actor and worshiper of Bollywood films by the name of Sunny manages to get a gig as an assistant director on a foreign film being shot in the desert on the Indo-Pakistan border in Rajasthan province. Cross border Islamic terrorists abduct him thinking he will be a useful American hostage. When their leader wearing an outrageously outsize turban realizes he is just a small fry Indian he describes him as "not worth a sparrow's fart". It turns out, however, that one of his captors is a traveling vendor of pirate DVDs of Bollywood movies who takes a shine to him. An interesting comment on film piracy in passing!
While our disheveled hero Sunny is not much of a screen actor he has an amazing ability to imitate famous actors and total recall of film dialogues — and the tale takes off from there. The kids in the poor Pakistani border village where has been taken to are immediately enthralled by him and adopt him as a kind of grown up pet. The nightly entertainment in this border village is an outdoor screening of a pirated Bollywood DVD. One night the film on view is an old Salman Khan vehicle, "Main Pyar Kiya hai" (I have been in love) from back when a young Salman looked like an Indian version of Tyrone Power. Halfway through the sound goes dead (whaddya expect from a pirate film!) — to the dismay of the audience and Sunny is released from his improvised cell to fix the glitch. It is technically unfixable, but — Aha — Sunny know all the dialogues by heart, and proceeds to supply all the familiar Salman Khan deliveries as a live performance! The Villagers cheer wildly and from then on he is a captive hero entertainer. Eventually Sunny and a new Pakistani friend escape but run into deadly serious obstacles trying to get over the heavily patrolled border back into India. Breathtaking suspense! -- Will they make it or not ...?
The comic touches, even from the way the local camels are presented, are simply brilliant and occur every few minutes, however there are also dramatic moments throughout, a perfect blend of elements unlike most Indian slapstick comedies aimed at the unwashed masses. Comments on the basic unity of Pakistani and Indian culture are also woven into the script everywhere like silver thread into a colorful Sari. Actor Sharib Hashmi who plays the sly hostage Sunny, will probably emerge from this film as a new Indian screen star. This guy is "100% Entertainment" as one of his captors describes him after his Salman Khan stand-in performance.
Some of the comedy will undoubtedly be lost on outsiders unfamiliar with Bollywood names but the overall effect will have no trouble coming across to any audience. Yes, this is a great comedy on a deadly serious theme that turns into an unexpected tear-jerker at the end — tears of joy mixed with tears of sorrow for a painfully divided people. How director Nikitin Kakkar has achieved this is a minor miracle from Indian Film Country "FILMISTAN".
Bravo! Eleven stars out of ten :) ***********
ALEX, Stuttgart
While Filmistan has no major movie stars and none of the ad-hoc dance numbers typical of Bollywood films it was nevertheless highly appreciated throughout India where Mr. Kakkar seems to be part of a very dynamic New Wave of innovative directors in a rapidly changing Bollywood film scene.
So-called Bollywood films made in Bombay (Mumbai) in Hindi, the National language, serve as a powerful unifying cultural force and Lingua Franca in a country with 23 official languages and some 200 regional dialects. Since many of the top Bollywood stars such as The Three Khans — Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, and Amir Khan — and the leading sex-symbol, Katrina Kaif — are all of Moslem background, this film industry is a sub-conscious salve for the wounded feelings of Indian Moslems who have all too often been pitted in mutually destructive conflict against the Hindu majority and still have to endure all kinds of vicious discrimination.
In India's next-door neighbor Pakistan, a 99% Moslem country carved out of the body of India (Hindustan) through the bloody Partition of 1947 and basically at war with India ever since — the Bollywood films of India are every bit as popular there as they are in India the supposed enemy. Thus, very much as was the case in East and West Germany and is still the case in North and South Korea, India-Pakistan is like one giant extended family divided into warring camps by an arbitrary line drawn in the sand. What the film "Filmistan" does is draw attention to the absurdity of this tragic political division with bold strokes of faultlessly rib- tickling comedy while never losing sight of the underlying tragedy of the political issue – in short, a Masterpiece. In the context of the present political situation, the implication of the title FILMISTAN is that Pakistan and Hindustan (India) are actually a single country united by the Stan of cinema.
The opening title sequence is already a dazzling rapid-fire collage of things to come. A wannabe actor and worshiper of Bollywood films by the name of Sunny manages to get a gig as an assistant director on a foreign film being shot in the desert on the Indo-Pakistan border in Rajasthan province. Cross border Islamic terrorists abduct him thinking he will be a useful American hostage. When their leader wearing an outrageously outsize turban realizes he is just a small fry Indian he describes him as "not worth a sparrow's fart". It turns out, however, that one of his captors is a traveling vendor of pirate DVDs of Bollywood movies who takes a shine to him. An interesting comment on film piracy in passing!
While our disheveled hero Sunny is not much of a screen actor he has an amazing ability to imitate famous actors and total recall of film dialogues — and the tale takes off from there. The kids in the poor Pakistani border village where has been taken to are immediately enthralled by him and adopt him as a kind of grown up pet. The nightly entertainment in this border village is an outdoor screening of a pirated Bollywood DVD. One night the film on view is an old Salman Khan vehicle, "Main Pyar Kiya hai" (I have been in love) from back when a young Salman looked like an Indian version of Tyrone Power. Halfway through the sound goes dead (whaddya expect from a pirate film!) — to the dismay of the audience and Sunny is released from his improvised cell to fix the glitch. It is technically unfixable, but — Aha — Sunny know all the dialogues by heart, and proceeds to supply all the familiar Salman Khan deliveries as a live performance! The Villagers cheer wildly and from then on he is a captive hero entertainer. Eventually Sunny and a new Pakistani friend escape but run into deadly serious obstacles trying to get over the heavily patrolled border back into India. Breathtaking suspense! -- Will they make it or not ...?
The comic touches, even from the way the local camels are presented, are simply brilliant and occur every few minutes, however there are also dramatic moments throughout, a perfect blend of elements unlike most Indian slapstick comedies aimed at the unwashed masses. Comments on the basic unity of Pakistani and Indian culture are also woven into the script everywhere like silver thread into a colorful Sari. Actor Sharib Hashmi who plays the sly hostage Sunny, will probably emerge from this film as a new Indian screen star. This guy is "100% Entertainment" as one of his captors describes him after his Salman Khan stand-in performance.
Some of the comedy will undoubtedly be lost on outsiders unfamiliar with Bollywood names but the overall effect will have no trouble coming across to any audience. Yes, this is a great comedy on a deadly serious theme that turns into an unexpected tear-jerker at the end — tears of joy mixed with tears of sorrow for a painfully divided people. How director Nikitin Kakkar has achieved this is a minor miracle from Indian Film Country "FILMISTAN".
Bravo! Eleven stars out of ten :) ***********
ALEX, Stuttgart