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Dancing to a different tune

Independence day festivities bring Bollywood to the Vltava
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By Brooke Edge
For The Prague Post
August 8th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
The Bolly Natyam dancers will join enthusiasts from around the country for an outdoor celebration of Indian culture.
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Indian Independence Day

Dance performance and screening of Lagaan
When: Wednesday, Aug. 15, starting at 8
Where: Střelecký ostrov
Tickets: The event is free

Last year, organizers of Prague’s annual Bollywood festival hosted a movie night as part of the summer outdoor film series on Střelecký ostrov. One of the festival’s founders, Sangita Shresthová, laughs while recalling that, as often happens in Indian culture, she and some friends arrived at the event late. But their tardiness afforded them an amazing sensation as they walked across Legions’ Bridge to the island.
“There was something very funny, arriving and hearing Bollywood all around,” says Shresthová, pictured on the cover. “We just loved it.”
So when plans began to take shape for honoring the 60th anniversary of Indian independence Aug. 15 this year, Shresthová knew just where to celebrate — on the river, in the heart of this international city.
“What better place to show that India’s arrived?” she says.
Now in its fifth year, the Bollywood Film Festival has grown from what Shresthová calls a “modest” event put together by three friends into a four-day marathon of Indian films, dances, parties and meals. To continue the momentum, organizers began introducing smaller events throughout the year leading up to the large autumn festival. “We’re trying to expand the experience,” Shresthová says.
So far this year, the group has held a lecture and put in an appearance at the Colours of Ostrava festival. Next week, the 60th anniversary of India’s split from the United Kingdom provides an ideal opportunity to further the festival’s goal of entertaining and educating via traditional Indian culture. A dance performance will precede a screening of the 2001 hit Indian film Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India.
Lagaan tells the story of a northern Indian village in the 1890s confronted with an oppressive tax burden by British overseers, who agree to forgive the tax if the villagers can beat them in a game of cricket. The 224-minute epic was a worldwide sensation, nominated for the 2002 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.  
“We’re celebrating what the film is about,” Shresthová says, describing it as “a rewriting of Indian history” in that it portrays colonialism from an Indian, rather than a Western, point of view. Beyond the politics, Lagaan also embodies what makes Bollywood films so popular, with colorful dance numbers, romantic subplots and rousing speeches.
That entertainment factor is what Shresthová and her friends want to share with Prague as a warm-up for the Bollywood Film Festival in October.
“We really want to make watching a Hindi film an experience,” she says, explaining that, in India, families set aside entire days to enjoy a film, talking, eating and dancing throughout. “That’s what I think of when I think of Bollywood,” she says.
This won’t be an all-day affair. But before the film begins, Shresthová will lead a 45-minute presentation of Indian dance troupes. “It’s a showcase of key groups in the Czech Republic dancing dances related to India,” she says. “As far as I know, it’s the first time these groups have performed together.”
Most of the dancers in the troupes aren’t Indian, but rather Czech. They are drawn to Indian dance for various reasons, Shresthová says, ranging from its religious aspects to its “exotic appeal” to a simple love of dancing.
Shresthová’s ancestry is Czech and Nepalese, which has caused her some discomfort in Prague. “I’ve always felt I didn’t have a place here,” she says. She and her friends founded the Bollywood Film Festival “to create a space” for themselves, as well as educate the public about Indian culture.
It’s been amazing, Shresthová says, to watch Czechs, Indians and people of other nationalities experience a dance or film event together. “The segregation here just sort of falls apart when they sit in the same audience.”
That’s why the celebration is being held outdoors, in the middle of the river — so that the sounds and images of Indian independence will reach as many people as possible.

Brooke Edge can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (8/08/2007):

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