|
CINEMA:
BARIWALI
The
Cards Before the Jury
When
a film is entered for competition for a National Award, its producer has
to specify if it has been dubbed in the actors' own voices. In this case,
it is learnt that Kher had ambiguously filled the word "redubbed"
in the form. To add to the confusion Rituparno has said he hasn't yet
seen the final print. "Now, is that not incredible?" asks Kayral.
Sources
within the jury and the Government disclose that the jury was deeply split
over this film. The Bengali speaking members were convinced that it was
not Kiron's own voice, but in the face of a written declaration by producer
Anupam Kher to the contrary they had to take it at face value. There were
some members who held that voice and dialogue articulation were a vital
part of acting. The opposing group (said to have been led by Mumbai director
Saeed Akhtar Mirza) insisted that Kiron's body language and expressions
were of such high quality that dialogue delivery wasn't of much consequence.
They also cited the precedent set by actresses like the Malayalam speaking
Sharda who have been honoured for roles in regional films where their
voices had been dubbed by others.
"Our
work as jury ends with the selections," says Goutam. "The rest
is up to the festival directorate to investigate. If Reeta Kayral can
prove it's her voice, then some steps need to be taken. An easy solution
would be to give a citation and acknowledge the fact that she dubbed for
Kiron. This should not detract from Kiron's acting."
While not
willing to be drawn into the controversy herself, Kiron has told friends
that she had learnt Bengali for six months before doing the film, but
added the rider that even if the film was dubbed, there was a precedence
of actors getting the National Award for roles in films where their dialogues
had been dubbed by someone else.
Indeed,
that is not the issue. The issue is whether the Kher couple gave a misleading
declaration to the jury and the Films Division to the effect that Kiron
had dubbed the film in her own voice. When asked for his reaction, Anupam
Kher is both angry and hurt: "Instead of applauding that a non-Bengali
mainstream actor has spent Rs 40-50 lakh producing a film that has won
several international awards, they are trying to discredit a person who
spent six months learning the language. It's a shame. Obviously, I won't
be producing any more Bengali films."
Kayral on
her part throws a challenge, "Let Kiron read out one page of the
script in Bengali. I have heard her Bengali and it is awful."
Meanwhile
the film has already bagged an impressive list of international awards
including Best Narrative Feature at the San Francisco Film Festival, Netpac
Award at the Berlin Film Festival, an audience rating of four out of five
at Sydney and has also been invited to the London Film Festival in November.
One thing
is certain, for the right reasons or wrong, when it is released in October,
Bariwali is bound to run to full houses both in Bengal and beyond.
-with
Anupama Chopra
Pg.
1
Top
|
The
stock markets are humming, and it's feel-good time once again, writes
INDIA TODAY Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in 
