by Alex Deleon

Deepa Mehta, Canadian based Indian director

The 2013 edition of the Los Angeles festival of Indian Film closed shop with a brace of films on successive evenings by two of the best known Indian woman directors, Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta.  The films in question were  respectively Nair's recent "Reluctant Fundamentalist" and Mehta's newly minted "Midnight's Children" based on Salman Rushdie's latest novel of the same name. 

The former is a treatise on Terrorism Paranoia leading to the unwitting (i.e., "reluctant") creation of a terrorist in the wake of 9/11 hysteria, while the Mehta opus, shown here as a Sneak Preview, is a somewhat mystical tale of two boys, one from a rich family, the other from a poor one, born at midnight, on the very eve of Indian  independence in August 1947, but consciously switched as an act of protest by a hospital nurse (Seema Biswas). Because this was a sneak preview full reviews are held in abeyance until the end of the month.  For the moment what can be said is that the film rambles through the main events of Indian history since then with lots of metaphysical spin.  Being a prestige film both from the point of view of director and writer the predominantly Indian audience viewed it with proper respect giving it a round of subdued applause that was more polite than appreciative at the end.  Director Mehta introduced the film personally but did not stick around for a Q and A afterward. 

Deepa Mehta (63) is known for handling touchy subjects and the references to Indira Gandhi, focusing on her suspension of democratic institutions during the State of Emergency (June '75 to March '77) was particularly objectionable to certain elements in India's majority Congress party.  Ms. Mehta is best known for her Fire, Earth and Water trilogy all of which addressed controversial aspects of Indian society such as child marriage, prohibition of widow remarriage, and lesbianism, and were critically acclaimed world wide.    

Mira Nair (age 55) is more of an international director with such coproduction's as Mississippi Masala (1991, with Denzel Washington) and "Vanity Fair" (2004, starring Reese Witherspoon) in her kitty, but she is better known for such films as Salaam Bombay (1988) and "Kama Sutra, a Tale of Love" (1998), and "Monsoon Wedding" (2001) which has been till date the most successful Indian film internationally outside of the NRI market.  Wedding won the Golden Lion (Best Film prize) at the Venice Film Festival making her the first female recipient ever of this award. Her film "The Namesake" premièred at Rome in 2006 and was an international critical success.  "Amelia"   the story of American aviatrix Amelia Earhart portrayed by Hilary Swank, came out in 2009 and was met with mixed reviews but demonstrated the director's versatility and ability to handle all-American as well as Indian subject matter. Among those who praised Earhart was noted American critic Roger Ebert (recently deceased) who described it as "a perfectly sound biopic, well directed and acted", an opinion with which this writer completely concurs. 

 "Nair's "Reluctant Fundamentalist" opens  in Lahore, Pakistan  (actual location) with the kidnapping of an American diplomat and an interview by an American journalist with a young American-Pakistani college professor, Changez, suspected of inciting anti-American terrorism.  The scruffy looking journalist, actually an undercover CIA agent who is fluent in Urdu, is a close friend of the kidnapped American and is hoping to get information that will secure his release. Changez agrees to be interviewed under condition that the journalist listen to his entire story through to the end.   Agreed. We now learn in flashback that Changez (Genghis?) was  an outstanding student at Princeton and then held down a top job in a leading New York financial firm.  He had everything going for him except for his name and looks when 9/11 hit.  Forced to undergo humiliating racial profiling at airports and slurs from former colleagues he gradually transforms from a staunch believer in the American dream to a die hard opponent of the system that is degrading him.  He returns to Pakistan as a university professor in Lahore where he incites his students to anti-American activities. 

Through this dialogue in the threatening atmosphere of a crowded Pakistani cafe we begin to see the other side of terrorism -- how our own prejudices can turn a faithful American citizen into a disillusioned "reluctant" terrorist.  There is consistent tension in the film and it ends with a rousing shootout, but it leaves you asking lots of questions.  Nair herself says that her purpose was to do just that --create a dialogue on a subject nobody has the answers to but everybody has an opinion on.

In a lengthy talk after the screening Nair revealed that her father was actually a Punjabi from Lahore who had to move to India after partition, which makes her feel especially close to this story and enabled her to get permission to shoot on real locations in Pakistan, most unusual for an Indian filmmaker.  Changez, on the cusp of two conflicting cultures, is played convincingly by British Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed, the journalist by Liev Schreiber, Kiefer Sutherland Changez's corporate mentor in New York, and Changez's American love interest by Kate Hudson. 

The fact that such prominent Indian directors as Nair and Mehta as well as current Bollywood hotshot Anurag Kashyap whose "Gangs of Wasseypur" opened the week, were willing to come all the way to LA to introduce their films is evidence that IFF of LA is now regarded as perhaps the leading showcase for Indian films outside of India. Panel discussions between Indian visitors and Hollywood studio personnel is another attraction. Festival founder Christina Marouda who introduced all these directors personally was obviously pleased with the day to day progress of the festival.  The only question now is can she keep up the pace or top it next year?    

Mira Nair, Ace Indian overseas director, is based in New York