Indian cinema is frequently associated with the catchy tunes and extravagant dance numbers of Bollywood films. India’s most commercialized genre of film, Bollywood is known for predictable and melodramatic plotlines.
While a significant aspect of the Indian film culture, Bollywood’s international popularity has spurred the misconception that it is representative of all Indian films.
The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles has worked for the past six years to bring overlooked genres into the spotlight.
IFFLA, the first and largest Indian film festival in North America, aims to promote a greater appreciation for all genres of Indian cinema.
Screening between 35 and 40 films, the festival will run through Sunday evening and will be held at the ArcLight Hollywood Cinemas.
Sudeep Sharma, a doctoral candidate in the cinema and media studies department at the School of Theater, Film and Television, describes the festival as a mosaic of films. Sharma says it is not limited to showing films about Indians and India.
“The festival highlights different perspectives and people from different parts of the world. The theme is that the Indian diaspora is a broad identity,” Sharma said, also a member of IFFLA’s programming department.
In emphasizing the diversity of India and Indian films, Sharma hopes IFFLA can begin to break away at the stereotype that Bollywood is characteristic of Indian cinema as a whole.
“We want to show that there are other types of Indian films than Bollywood,” he said.
He explained that assuming Bollywood encompasses all Indian cinema is similar to suggesting that action movies are the quintessential Hollywood film.
According to IFFLA’s president, Christina Marouda, there is no specific theme or topic that festival programmers look for when selecting which films to show.
“The theme is that they either have to be films made by an Indian filmmaker or films about India,” she said.
The films selected encompass a wide variety of plotlines, ranging from love stories to stories about the Bombay bombings.
Some of these films include “Shot in Bombay,” a story that deals with the bomb attacks in Mumbai, and “Frozen,” a story about the struggles of a lower-middle-class family.
“Mumbai Cutting … A City Unfolds,” the final film shown at the festival, is a narrative about life in Bombay that has been compared to the recent release “Paris Je T’aime” in format.
“Mumbai Cutting … A City Unfolds” is a combination of 10 stories, each 10 minutes in length, directed by 10 of the most prominent directors from India.
“Though it is fiction, it highlights the actual contemporary life of Bombay,” Sharma said.
While IFFLA works to highlight other types of film, it still recognizes Bollywood as an important aspect of Indian culture. In an attempt to present the community with a complete taste of Indian cinema, IFFLA features a Bollywood film each night of the festival. The series titled, “Bollywood by Night,” screens older Bollywood films to a 21-and-over audience.
The festival does not show films that have been previously screened in Los Angeles or that have been released on DVD. Sharma explains that the purpose of the festival is to screen untraditional films or films that might otherwise not be viewed by a public audience.
“Our goal is to try to help films that need an audience by providing them with a platform,” he said.