India’s association with the Cannes Film Festival is as old as the world’s most anticipated global film showcase, the 77th edition of which will open on the French Riviera on Tuesday. It all began with Chetan Anand’s “Neecha Nagar” winning the highest award of the time, the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film, in the festival’s inaugural year: 1946. The brave film shared the honor with “Brief Encounters” by David Lean. `.
A little over half a decade later, V. Shantaram’s “Amar Bhoopali” (1952), a Marathi biopic about the poet and musician Honaji Balai in the early 19th century, and Raj’s classic “Awaara” (1953) were released. Kapoor. They were nominated for the Grand Prize, but could not get the coveted prize; Shantaram’s film, however, won the award for best sound recording.
After these near-misses came four consecutive trophies for Indian films that made it to the Cannes competition section: Bimal Roy’s `Do Bigha Zameen` (1954) won the International Award; Baby Naaz earned a special mention as a child artist for “Boot Polish” (1955), produced by Raj Kapoor; Satyajit Ray’s first film “Pather Panchali” won the Palme d’Or for Best Human Documentary; and finally, in 1957, Rajbans Khanna’s “Gotama Buddha” earned him a special mention (short film) as a director (Hrishikesh Mukherjee, incidentally, was the film’s editor).
A prolonged drought followed, although Satyajit Ray’s `Parash Pathar` (1958) and `Devi` (1962) were nominated for the Palme d’Or, followed by MS Sathyu’s `Garam Hawa` (1974), which had been shortlisted for the Grand Prize. Mrinal Sen put an end to this long wait with his film “Kharij” (1983), although he had to be content with the jury prize, despite being nominated for the Palme d’Or. The following year, Satyajit Ray’s film of the same name based in Rabindranath Tagore’s novel “Ghare Baire” was also nominated for the Palme d’Or, but the maestro had to return empty-handed. Since then, Indian films have been making his presence felt, although not all of them may have grabbed the headlines.
In 1988, Mira Nair won the Audience Golden Camera for her first feature film, “Salaam Bombay!”. Shaji N. Karun won a Golden Camera Special Mention for his acclaimed Malayalam film `Piravi` (1989) about TV professor Eachara Warrier, whose college-going son was murdered in police custody during the Emergency.
In 1991, Deepa Mehta won a special mention from the Camera d’Or for “Sam & Me,” although the film was listed as a Canadian production. That year turned out to be doubly special for India after Aribam Syam Sharma’s “Ishanou,” a Meitei-language film, was nominated for the top prize in the festival’s A Certain Regard segment. It was the first time a North East Indian film was made.
Then came the double good news of 1994. Malayalam director Shaji N. Karun’s “Swaham” was nominated for the Palme d’Or, an honor that has come 30 long years later to Payal Kapadia. Satyajit RaySandip Ray’s son’s Bengali film ‘Uttaran’ got the Un Certain Regard award nomination. However, both films did not win the award for which they were nominated. Towards the end of a dry decade in the 1990s, Murali Nair’s `Marana Simhasanam’ (1999), a Malayalam film about India’s first electric chair execution, won the Camera d’Or, an award given to best opera. cousin. .
What followed in the early decades of the 2000s were smaller but not insignificant awards. These were for Manish Jha’s “A Very Very Silent Film” (2002; Jury Prize for Short Film); Gitanjali Rao’s animated film “Printed Rainbow” (2006; Grand Rail d’Or Audience Award); and the famous film starring Irrfan Khan, by Ritesh Batra, “The Lunchbox” (2013; Grand Rail d’Or Audience Award). Karan Johar’s `Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Yeh (Bombay Talkies)`, the four-in-one package of short films celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema, was unsuccessfully nominated for the Queer Palm in 2015.
In recent years, Kanu Behl’s neo-noir crime drama “Titli” was nominated for the Camera d’Or in 2014, but did not win. The following year, 2015, Neeraj Ghaywan’s acclaimed film “Masaan” starring Richa Chadha and Vicky Kaushal (it was his debut feature), won the FIPRESCI Prize in the Una Certain Mirada section. Gurvinder Singh (`Chauthi Koot`; 2015) and Nandita Das (`Manto`; 2018) were nominated but did not return home with the Un Certain Regard Award.
Payal Kapadia, who is competing for the Palme d’Or this year for her first feature film “All We Imagine is Light”, won the Golden Eye for her documentary “A Night of Knowing Nothing” in 2021, and in the following year, Shaunak Delhi’s Sen went home with the same award for “All That Breathes,” which also made the Oscar shortlist.
As the curtain rises on Cannes, all eyes will be on Kapadia’s film about two nurses who are tortured by their relationships and what they discover when they take a road trip to a beach for a vacation. It has been 30 years since an Indian film was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or. Shaji Karun was unsuccessful in 1994. Will Payal Kapadia write history in 2024?
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