[Assam] From Tehelka

[Chan Mahanta]

How true!
cm




REFLECTED GLORY

After chasing Deepa Mehta out, India smells an opportunity to take credit.

Sonia Faleiro

India is never shy of claiming successful Indians - even those who 
hold citizenship elsewhere - as entirely her own. It's not surprising 
then that filmmaker Deepa Mehta's Water is seen by some as our best 
hope at the Oscars. Never mind that Mehta is Canadian, and that Water 
was literally chased out of, and blacklisted, in the nation that is 
now intent on bathing in its accolades. In 2000, Hindu 
fundamentalists stormed the sets of Water in Varanasi, threatening to 
beat Mehta "black and blue". She postponed production, and two films 
later, completed the final episode of her trilogy in Sri Lanka. India 
supported Mehta with death threats, warnings of arrest, and mutilated 
freedom of expression.

However, now that it's time to revel in reflected glory, India seems 
to have forgotten that it failed Mehta when she needed it most. 
Should she win, as Canada's entry to the Oscars, there will be, no 
doubt, boasts of how Bollywood is conquering the world. Contrast that 
with the fact that until recently Water had neither a distributor nor 
a confirmed release date here. Let's hope that any euphoria over 
Mehta's "Indian" achievement is matched with equal support of her 
work being peacefully seen, and that she understands and forgives our 
schizophrenic reactions.