The Bollywood whirligig

  Asian countries often bemoan that the West overlooks them, that ignorance of their cultures outside their own periphery curtails their possible influence.
   Even the ubiquitous television has failed to bridge this gulf. The need for expatriate communities in the West to integrate and assimilate partly robs this asset also of its potential as cultural ambassador.
   Japan carried its cultural influence to the West in course of the transfer there of its tech-nologies and working methods. The cultural chasm may not have vanished, but it has certainly narrowed. Japan has partially won the soul of the West with its culture and its cuisine. On account of these, the West now recognises and appreciates Japan’s values: the attention to detail and quality, the concern with colour and style. Japanese restaurants abroad have increased exponentially in the last few decades.
At first they were run exclusively by Japanese. Now Japanese food prepared by a non-Japanese is also kosher, which signifies the absorption of Japanese cuisine into the local culture.
   Acceptance of Indian culture in Britain has long since been achieved through Indian restaurants, perhaps commoner than those offering ‘English’ food. The huge success of Indian film-makers and the wide availability of their products takes this process to the next stage. The UK has become an important stepping-stone for Indian film industry in its quest for universal acceptance beyond its eclipsing of Hollywood both in terms of the number of films produced and the financial returns.    
   Bollywood’s ascendancy in world cinema seems here to stay. Equally significantly, Asia has found a potentially novel way of influencing the West.
   But the next stage, of producing films that will have universal appeal outside the Indian cultural norm, will be more challenging. It would mean finding and pro-ducing a vehicle as compelling as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon — and convincing the world of its merits.
   In theory, in a country with a time-honoured and rich history finding the basic material should be the least difficult. Since the Dark Ages the story of India has been one of the world’s most compelling dramas. Yet it has been left to foreigners to tell some of the most dramatic stories in the most cinematically effective way. It was left to Richard Atten-borough to produce Gandhi. For an Indian director to produce it, perhaps the theme was too politically sensitive; perhaps it was too soon after independence for a culture as deep and sophisticated as India’s to absorb the emotions, tragedy, and the drama of it all and pass judgement on it.
   At Attenborough’s press conference launching the production of the film in Delhi an Indian commented that Attenborough had no business showing an image of the great man, that Gandhi must always be shown with a halo. Attenborough pithily told her what he thought of the idea from the viewpoint of the cinematographer, but perhaps she had a point. That may be why Indian directors like to keep things light, bright, and fast moving. It may also be Bolly-wood’s destiny to entertain the world musically. But to do that it needs to find a way of translating its enthusiasms into a more accessible cinematic language that the rest of the world can adopt as its own.

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