Masaan’s success at the prestigious French festival should be cheered for more than one reason. Apart from introducing the world to new-age, content-driven cinema, it sends across a message to our own people that India’s presence is more than fashion on the red carpet. Its actor Richa Chadha shares her frank views with Divya Kaushik
Did it break the jinxIJ Yes and no. Yes because Masaan is the first Indian film after almost 13 years to have won two awards — FIPRESCI, International Jury of Film Critics prize and Promising Future prize in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. And no because it was still not a part of the Competition section at Cannes. But there is no denial to the fact that India has arrived at Cannes and how!
There was a time when films like Neecha Nagar and Pather Panchali won significant awards at the Cannes festival. But over the years there were hardly any Indian films marking their entry under the Competition section. While there were films like Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur, Ashim Ahluwalia’s Miss lovely and Dibakar Banerjee’s Titli collecting accolades at Cannes in the last few years, here is Neeraj Ghaywan’s coming-of-age story set in Varanasi that wowed the jury, received a five-minute standing ovation and later bagged two awards in its kitty, astonishing the European diaspora that has mostly believed Indian cinema to be synonymous with Bollywood — naach, gaana and tamasha.
Still under the effect of the “dream-like” experience at Cannes, Richa Chadha sounds ecstatic when she speaks about Masaan making India proud at Cannes. The reason, she says, Masaan won the hearts of the jury is because it is a realistic story that does not glorify the ills and typifies the elements that are presented in it. “For example, when we talk about Varanasi, what we usually present to the outside world is the ghats with the littering of sorts and sages. There is no such portrayal of Varanasi in Masaan. So what people saw in the movie was completely different from what they have seen so far. Also, it is a heart-touching story which presents the reality sans make-up, which is very unlike ‘Bollywood’ that Westerners believe Indian cinema to be,” says the actress of the film produced by Phantom.
Masaan (crematorium grounds) is the story of a young orphan (Nikhil Sahni), a low-caste teenage boy (Vicky Kaushal) who falls in love with an upper-caste girl (Shweta Tripathi), her father (Sanjay Mishra) and a woman (Richa Chadha) caught in a sex scandal. “It is a story of relationships that does not fall into a run-of-the-mill category. It is not made with the intention of giving out any message or on the social issues, at the end of the day it is a thought-provoking and an engaging tale. That’s the reason the film was appreciated and honoured at such a prestigious platform. Cannes is all about serious cinema. It is a learning experience to be there and witness the films from across the globe.
Being in India, we feel that Cannes is all about glamour and red carpet, probably because that is what is mostly reported by the media here, but that is not the case. It is a festival that sets a bar for good cinema for the world to follow,” says Richa, who has got an opportunity to attend the festival a couple of times. Not to mention, this was the most special outing considering the accolades that she and the cast of Masaan received. “Also what made this visit special was my meeting with French actress Marion Cotillard. She has been my idol. She was so encouraging,” shares the actress.
Richa believes that international honours and screening do help the movie create buzz at the home ground. “But for Masaan I was always confident that it will be a successful film since it is an example of the good content that is now being widely appreciated in India. The win at Cannes will surely help the film get its due. We hope that it will be as much appreciated and loved here as at the film festival,” she signs off.