Bite The Mango
From Reuters:
An Asian film festival kicks off on Friday with a controversial Indian movie that has been blocked by the courts back home and features a Pakistani star who provoked fury for steamy on-screen scenes.
The 11th annual Bite the Mango film festival in the city of Bradford is out to highlight the problems faced by filmmakers and actors in South Asia’s prolific cinema industry, which is seen as conservative and politicised.
The opening movie will be “Black Friday”, directed by 33-year-old Anurag Kashyap, which centres around the 1993 bomb attacks across Mumbai that killed more than 250 people.
An Indian court has blocked its theatre release while a legal case is ongoing, but Kashyap believes there is a wider problem of general unease about hard-hitting, factual films dealing with controversial subjects.
The festival has also invited Pakistani screen siren Meera to represent her country at the festival in recognition of her efforts to break down the taboos of South Asian cinema.
Meera was the first Pakistani actress to star in an Indian film, taking advantage of a thaw in relations between the rival nations, but a kissing scene caused uproar among Islamic groups in her native country who issued threats against her.
“The hardliners in Pakistan were after her blood,” said Ajeeb. “I think it’s brave of an actress to go over to India and do these daring roles. Religion, politics and culture always come into it in South Asia.”
Meera shrugged off the outcry.
Friday 23 Sep 2005 | Paul | India, UK
