Cannes'09-Day 3: Fortissimo Acquires Two Indian Films story

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At last, Indian cinema has struck a really big business deal. Global distribution giant Fortissimo Films has acquired Dev Benegal's under-production Hindi film "Road, Movie". This is the first Indian feature to be acquired by the Netherlands-based company, if we leave out Deepa Mehta's Canadian production Bollywood/Hollywood and the re-sell rights of Mira Nair's "Salaam Bombay" that it had taken earlier. Fortissimo co-chairman Michael J Werner is upbeat about the acquisition. Says he, "This film (Road. Movie) has universal sensibilities with a unique Indian backdrop, which makes it a very interesting project. With its backdrop of how the magic of cinema works on people, it could be something like ‘˜Cinema Paradiso'." The deal between Fortissimo and The Indian Film Company (TIFC)/Studio 18 would be formally announced on Saturday.

Fortissimo has also acquired the rights of The Children of the Pyre, the much-awarded independent documentary made by Delhi-based Rajesh Jala on children working in cremation grounds in Varanasi. "Road, Movie", by Benegal who has earlier made films like "English, August" and "Split Wide Open", was part of the L'Atelier programme in Cannes last year where the festival helps interesting scripts find producers. Starring Abhay Deol, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Satish Kaushik, the film presents a visually-stunning canvas of the Kutch region of Gujarat and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. The story has Deol's character driving an antique Chevy with two old film projectors showing films in remote areas, and in the process discovering love, life and laughter.

Jane Campion, the only woman to have won the Palme d'Or (for her The Piano, 1993), believes her Bright Star would rekindle global interest about the poetry of John Keats. As we know, the film brings on to the screen the passionate love story between Keats and his neighbour Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by the poet's tragic death at the young age of 26. "It's a love story using letters of Keats and other material. What was important for me was to tell an intimate story and keep it very, very simple. In those times there was not much opportunity for women to express themselves. They sewed and waited. Needle in, pull, needle out, pull. For me it is poetic," she says.

Bahman Ghobadi's Kasi Az Gorbehayeh Irani Khabar Nadareh (No One Knows About Persian Cats), which opened the Un Certain Regard section, is a brilliant piece of cinema. The Kurdish director, whose girlfriend and American journalist Roxana Saberi has just been released from jail by the Iranian authorities (she was arrested for trying to buy alcohol in Iran - women are banned from doing so in the country), has come up with a completely different theme this time, if one sets it against his earlier Half Moon and Turtles Can Fly. Using a docu-feature format, he has woven a fantastic tale about the underground music scene in Iran, specifically Tehran. The outstanding music of the film, all performed by real underground musicians in this film also made "underground" (that is without permission from the authorities, secretly), makes it a great movie-viewing experience.