A couple of days back, the mailman brought us the two-DVD set of Phantom India from Netflix.
Phantom what, you ask?
Of course, you schmucks will ask.
All ye morons who genuflect at the altar of Aamir Khan’s crappy film 3 Idiots or insist that Ajith’s Billa is the ne plus ultra of stylistic films what would y’all know about Phantom India.
Phantom India is a documentary from the French film-maker Louis Malle. The documentary is in French with English subtitles.
Produced in the late 1960s over several months, Phantom India gives us a peek into two sides of the Great Indian Story – Eternal India and Changing India.
Originally commissioned by France’s Foreign Affairs Ministry the documentary was later (in the early 1970s) aired by the BBC.
Apparently, the Indian government of the day was so incensed by Malle’s portrayal of the country that it demanded the BBC yank the program off the air. When BBC showed the middle finger to that stupid demand, the government of India is said to have banned the BBC from filming in India for many years.
We’ve watched about 90-minutes of the documentary so far and find it interesting.
Phantom India is not a showing the Taj Mahal or the Vidhana Soudha kind of documentary.
More like random vignettes on various facets of life in India in 1968. As Malle says in the early minutes of the documentary, these are:
images gathered without a script or preconceived concept, a film of our chance encounters.
Still Malle covers considerable ground that we’re tempted to describe the documentary as a microcosm of India in the late 1960s.
There’s a peek into the Tamil film industry (you can watch the filming of the famous Sivaji Ganeshan-Padmini film Thillana Mohanambal), absence of kissing in Indian movies, interviews with well-known personalities like Cho Ramaswamy, glimpses into the life of rural workers outside Delhi, the Kapaleeswarar temple chariot procession in Madras, a young Hema Malini performing the Bharata Natyam dance, a visit to Kalakshetra, Goa, anti-Hindi agitation, rant against bureaucracy, family planning campaigns, a street artiste in Mysore, meeting with hippies et al.
Hey, mind you all this is only from the 90-minutes we’ve watched so far.
We still have another 270-minutes to go.
Malle is neither condescending in his treatment of India nor is he overly in the everything-is-wonderful-in-India camp.
Au contraire, what you see is a candor and a kind of detachment that you quickly begin to respect, accompanied by occasional moments of humor.
Take for instance, Malle’s take on the film stars from their towering billboards:
We always wonder: In a country with such beautiful, delicate people why are most of the movie stars short, fat and thick-featured.
We like that. 😉
Describing the reasons behind the documentary, Malle says:
I made this journey for personal reasons. It was an escape, a break, a sudden detour but the escape quickly became a quest, a need to discover or rediscover.
Malle made several films including Pretty Baby but supposedly considered Phantom India his favorite.
Here’s Malle on Phantom India:
In the autumn of 1967 I was asked by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to present in India a series of eight French films, including THE FIRE WITHIN — films more or less representative of the new French cinema. And I said yes. So I went to Delhi and Calcutta and Madras and Bombay presenting those films. I was supposed to stay two weeks but I ended up staying almost two months….After those two months I realized that although India was impossible to understand for a foreigner — it was so opaque — yet I was so completely fascinated by it that I would have to come back. So I returned to France at the end of 1967, and in a couple of weeks I raised the money I needed, which was almost nothing, and went back in early January with two friends of mine, a cameraman and a sound man. My proposition was that we would start in Calcutta, look around and eventually shoot. No plans, no script, no lighting equipment, no distribution commitments of any kind…. The interesting aspect of those documentaries for me was that I took one month just to examine the material, and then stayed in the cutting room for a year, until the end of 1969 practically. I was in Paris, I was going to the editing room every day and it was as if I was still in India…It’s been like a big chunk of my life. It was enormously important for me, and I’m still trying to make sense of it today.
— Louis Malle, in Malle on Malle, edited by Philip French
Be warned, the documentary is long. Slightly over six hours.
You may expect us to update this post after we finish watching the documentary.
Watching Phantom India – The Documentary that Made India Mad at BBC added by SearchIndia.com on
View all posts by SearchIndia.com →
Hi Dude,
Jyoti Basu gone. A Philosophical turmoil has started in me. Should I be happy that a brain less leader who transformed West Bengal in to the shit it is now has died OR Should I feel sad as a human that another human has died?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
The great virtue of Communism is its espousal of equity in society (that every human being is entitled to a decent living standard) but unfortunately the ideology has exacted a heavy toll either in human lives (Soviet Union/China) or development (West Bengal/Eastern Europe).
How do we reconcile equity with development – That is the big question of our era because both in India and the U.S. income disparities are widening dangerously where some people get access to all the juicy fruits leaving only the dried peels for the majority.
We are not optimistic that things will get better any time soon for the majority.
Hmm, yet another documentary by a foreigner! As usual, the Indian Government gets shocked and tries to ban a documentary, yet again, India gets in the news for all the wrong reasons!!!
I wonder what was so controversial in this commentary that made Indian Government ban BBC in India for decades. Having said so, I am not so sure how folks can “Understand” India and its people by just staying for a few months or years. True, you can understand parts of India to perfection if you happen to mingle with the local folks, but to understand India as a whole is not only difficult, but impossible!!!!
Sire, this is a nation with a lot of extremes. On one side, you have the Tatas, Murthis, and Ambanis, and on the other end you have lot of BEMANIS(Scoundrels). India is the home to atleast 20 most richest billionaires on Earth, while millions of its population live in poverty.
The extremes are many. For a country, blessed???? with idiots oops brilliant people, belonging to 14 different religions, 809 castes, 20+ national languages, 29 states etc, it takes a lot to understand it.
I am not sure what exactly has been documented in this film, but I am sure it contains less than half a picture of what India really is!
Waiting for your update on this post!
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: I am not so sure how folks can “Understand” India and its people by just staying for a few months or years. True, you can understand parts of India to perfection if you happen to mingle with the local folks, but to understand India as a whole is not only difficult, but impossible!!!!
As if people living in India for decades can make sense of the land. 😉 The country defies explanation.
That said, history offers proof that some of the finest works on countries are often produced by outsiders.
For instance, it’s universally acknowledged that one of the best books on America is the Frenchman Alex De Tocqueville’s Democracy in America written about 170 years ago.
Also, Indians, particularly the small class of politicians and bureaucrats wielding power, tend to be very prickly about the honest depiction of the rampant poverty, exploitation and injustice in the country. Their fury is aroused their when the ugly, unpalatable truth about the gross injustices, inhuman exploitation and abject misery of hundreds of millions in India is exposed to a wider audience.
SI Wrote:
As if people living in India for decades can make sense of the land. 😉 The country defies explanation.
Yes, you’re right! That’s precisely what I am saying dude! I am living in this country for the past 25 years. Although, my knowledge is restricted to the people of the south, I can never say I know Tamilnadu nor understand it. That’s why I find it silly, and to be harsh ‘STUPID’ when people take a few reels of documentary and say this is India??
Although I am skeptical about this documentary, I agree with some of the views mentioned in the documentary, especially about the actors and films in the south.
The quality of actors and films in India have seldom been good, agreed!
But one thing that made me skeptical about the documentary is the contrived views and sometimes gross interpretations about the dances, and dancers.
Calling Hema Malini chubby (Seriously, she did have a few extra pounds, but nowhere to be seen chubby) .
Moreover, his comment about the makeup part seemed partially valid. Let’s remember the fact that the films of those days were in Easterman Color. Such films required a considerable amount of makeup in order to look neat onscreen.
Don’t mistake me, I am delighted with the video of the commentary in YOUTUBE. But some of the facts stated by the author reflect on his half-baked knowledge.
To put it shortly, this documentary is a delight to watch, but partially contrived.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: my knowledge is restricted to the people of the south, I can never say I know Tamilnadu nor understand it. That’s why I find it silly, and to be harsh ‘STUPID’ when people take a few reels of documentary and say this is India??
If perfect ‘understanding’ (whatever it means) is the sine qua non for undertaking a task we’d all be twiddling our thumbs, doing nothing for the most part of our lives.
2. If you are a member of the British Library, they might have the DVDs. You were probably not even born when the documentary was made…so it might be interesting to watch India as it was then and contrast it to as it is now.
Would be nice to see India viewed through the lens of a serious film-maker like Louis Malle.
3. Indians (at least those who can afford to eat well) are chubby, by western standards. Let’s not forget Louis Malle was a Frenchman.
4. We didn’t feel Malle’s views were ‘contrived.’ They seemed very real to us. At the end of the day, the moment Malle decides what to film it becomes his unique view/perspective on India.
Phantom India.. the title itself is kind of ..well weird for a documentary .. yet intriguing .. I think I can get it at the British library.
I have watched ‘The Story of India’ aired on the BBC last year.. It was good, but more of a foreigners idea of things.. sometimes investigating local customs and stuff that we do seem to accept but still know them to be ridiculous and not question it.. anyway it was good to see Pakistan also included. worth renting.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: Phantom India.. the title itself is kind of ..well weird for a documentary…
Not really. A phantom is something you can’t really/easily get a grasp or grip on. Like India with its numerous religions, zillion castes, a thousand languages, geographical differences… Perhaps, that was what Louis Malle was referring to.
2. We’ve added Michael Wood’s 2-DVD set The Story of India to our Netflix queue. Will watch it in a couple of months.
i was contemplating on pressing the “add to dvd queue” button for “the story of India” .. but finally ended up adding “A Walk on the Moon” (Viggo!!!, ok I admit, it was mainly for Diane Lane.. one of most graceful agers) and “Killing me softly” (Heather Graham!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Wonder who Pearl Kantrowitz chooses in the end…will watch.