Cannes 2013 is not quite an India show

The 66th Cannes Film Festival is officially celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema, but that does not mean that the country that produces more movies than any other will make the kind of big splash at the Riviera that one might have expected. So don't believe the hype.

Amitabh Bachchan did walk the red carpet on a rain-soaked opening day for the screening of Baz Luhrmann’s 3D adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. But neither the actor’s role in the film nor the lukewarm manner in which the international media here responded to the presence of one of Bollywood’s most popular actors was anything to write home about.

The damp, lukewarm opening act in India’s much-hyped campaign in the latest edition of the Cannes jamboree has probably set the tone for what is to come.

A huge delegation of officials from India checked into the JW Marriott on the Croisette but not much meaningful noise is likely to emanate from that corner over the next ten days.

As if on cue, it continued to drizzle for the second morning. The sun shone through the clouds by the afternoon. However, but the brightness in the air had no effect on members of the Indian delegation as they listlessly flitted in and out of the India Pavilion in the hope of seeing some action.

The scene might change for the better as the Indian films in the Official Selection – Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout and the four-in-one Bombay Talkies – are screened in the festival later in the week.

In addition, India has a film each in Directors Fortnight (Anurag Kashyap’s Ugly) and Critics week (Ritesh Batra’s Lunchbox). Given that none of the Indian entries here are star-studded films, the focus is now expected to deservedly shift to the likes of Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, while Vidya Balan quietly goes about her job as a jurist.

Both the Mumbai actors are in Lunchbox, while Nawazuddin also has roles in Monsoon Shootout and Bombay Talkies. Never before has an Indian actor been in as many films screened in the official sections or the parallel events in Cannes.

Significantly, Nawazuddin had two films in Cannes last year – Ashim Ahluwali’s Miss Lovely in Un Certain Regard and Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur.

Old-time observers of Indian cinema are a little surprised that the only Indian films in Cannes are Hindi-language ones, if one discounts Satyajit Ray’s Charulata, to screened in Cannes Classics. Many are missing the linguistic and cultural diversity that Indian cinema was once feted for.