Ace director Mira Nair, harbingers ‘Bollywood Cinema with Social undertones’. The director, known for her spiky cinematic sense and unusual theme affinity (Mira has worked on movies like Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding and Namesake) has started a project, with other directors, to show short films on Acquired Immuno Deficiency Virus (AIDS).
‘Jaago’or ‘Awake’as the project is called, incorporates 15 minutes short features on the disease with all big names to renovate the idea of the misery of AIDS patients.
Nair assigned one AIDS topic to each director, “and then they had the freedom to do what they needed to do,” she said.
Director Vishal Bhardwwaj’s Blood Brothers, nearing completion, is about the psychological impact of the infection. Santosh Sivan’s film is about the true story of a small boy who was barred from school, his parents being HIV positive. Farhan Akhtar currently is shooting for the movie on the subject.
Nair herself directed a film called ‘Migration’, “about the virus as the great class leveler that links rural, urban, upper class, working class, migrant labour,” she said.
The movies are to be funded by Bill and Melinda Foundation. Actors like Irfan Khan, Siddharth, Prabhu Deva, Samira Reddy, Shiney Ahuja and Reema Sen have been cast in the films.
The strategy is to maximize the exposure of films to audiences across India so that they can understand the gravity of the situation (if unchecked in AIDS, India could equal Africa in few years). The idea is to club the 15 minutes feature later to be clubbed in an one hour special film.
Mira said the inspiration about launching this campaign was the success of 11 minute films on the 9/11 scenario which were clubbed together in a single film to spread the message of tolerance and harmony across the world.
However, social message with a commercial mainstream is not a new idea to Bollywood. Movies like Phir Milenge and My Brother Nikhil were molded in the same cast. But both of the movies didn’t do well at the box-office.
With Hollywood actors like Jimmy Jean-Louis (’Heoroes’ fame), Hill Harper (CSI New York) and many more are taking up the cause , the Bollywood actors seem to do their bit by being a part of such projects.
