Udaan applauded, Freida's film screened at Cannes

By Uma D. Ajmera/TNN

India's entry in Cannes, the first after seven years, has gone down well with the festival's audience. Present at its gala screening on May 19 night was its debut director Vikramaditya Motwane with Dipa De Motwane, his mother the executive producer of the film, along with its actors Ronit Roy, Ram Kapoor, and the brilliant young lead, Rajat Barmecha, the cynosure of all eyes, also making his debut in the lead role. The fear at press screenings in Cannes is that viewers walk out in droves if it disappoints them. But, for Udaan the packed hall stayed hushed all through its 137 minutes. As it ended, there came the long applause, a token of appreciation rarely accorded. In the foyer, people with moist eyes came up to say how touching they found the story was on many levels. 

Using a pacing that stays reflective and internalised, Udaan starts in a hill-town boarding school. Four playful adolescent students sneak out late evening to watch an adult movie, where their warden sees them. The four are expelled the following day. As they part and bid goodbye, the underlying fear is one of uncertainty. What will happen to these young, spirited rebels? Where will they head in life? 

The more sensitive among them, Rohan, who is an aspiring poet, is totally in the dark about what awaits him. He is sent to his father, whom he has not seen in the past eight years, who lives in the dull industrial town of Jamshedpur. On arriving, Rohan learns that he has a forlorn eight-year-old brother with whom he must share a room. His father is a bullish misfit carrying massive grudges against life, which he takes out on the two siblings. At first, the openly resentful Rohan accepts his drab life. But when his right to an education and resolve to be a writer are squashed, he revolts by indulging in sly midnight capers. 

The father-son conflict reaches a climax which helps Rohan break free and launch out on his own, showing humanity and courage that is laudable. The casting is brilliant and the actors pitch their roles with conviction. Particularly striking is Rajat Barmecha as the defiant yet dreamy 17- yearold. The child actor Aayan Boradia pulls at heartstrings as the downcast and bereft little son. Udaan in Cannes has made a head start. 

Another Indian actor made her first screen appearance in Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger , screened out of competition. This is Freida Pinto, no less, playing one of the love interests in the many hit-and-miss emotional adventures the film juggles in its ironic tale of upper-class urban life in London (Woody Allen's fourth to be shot in England). Freida holds her own and her role commendably, even if it is slight and meandering in the film. Anupam Kher makes a brief appearance as her father. 

Mrinal Sen was visibly moved as he attended the tribute Cannes Classics paid to his 1983 film, Khandahar at a well attended screening, with Festival Director Thierry Frémaux introducing him on stage. His son, who accompanied the master, wrote an emotional letter to the organisers saying how moved he was on seeing the film restored to its new pristine quality. The same section showed another restored print, Ritwik Ghatak's Titash Ekti Nadir Naam , but disappointingly, this screening went without any presentation or fanfare.