Simone Mariotti
Chennai (Madras), August 2009
He said his name was Jack, but he was a boy in
India in
Chennai (the name by which Madras is known for some years), dressed like an American rapper who claimed to be a professional dancer. We were on the first floor of one of the most luxurious hotels in town, those with two glass elevators around which, from the hall, climbed the gleaming marble staircase leading to the plans. Everything was garnished with golden decorations, brass, crystals. All polished, and of course all kitsch. Just like what happened on the first floor.
Jack and I were sitting at a bar counter in a room not very big, dark and low ceilings, where he was filming a typical meatballs you see in Indian cinema.
He was the principal dancer, and played the right arm of the gang leader of the good, whose leader was also the hero of the film, an actor called Barath, quite famous in South
India, told me then that I met other Indian boys later.
"If you go to London you will find this film in a few stores," he said.
"In London? But it was not for the local market in the south. The boy has made in Mamallapuram told us so. "
"Yes, but also in London, because there are many Indians who come from here and the best dancers of us, if they can get noticed, are sent to study in schools of dance in England. I have been there for six months last year, "he said with some pride, although the look was a bit 'resignation. At 5 minutes before it seemed all the more beer, bold and full of himself, but in that time on the set without his group around, all eyes had a different atmosphere. Perhaps because, after all, be got where he was, did not matter much to him then: "I'd go to work in Bombay."
Perhaps his hopes were misplaced, perhaps chasing a dream that was just around the corner, because after all, is undermining Kollywood Bollywood as mecca of Indian cinema. The name comes from the streets of Madras where once were concentrated the first studios, now scattered in various parts of the city. It is growing so much, because the market in the south is more diverse than the north, where the predominantly spoken in Hindi. To the south instead of the linguistic differences are more deeply rooted and difficult to overcome, so that government programs to spread Hindi, designed to unify the nation, to the south are many obstacles, including the presence of ancient languages like Tamil, spoken over 70 million fibula. Each Indian state therefore requires of its film production. Even more limited budget, but with a continuous proliferation of the number of films. But his dream was still to take the first dancer in Bombay.
From what little 'I had seen both that day and in the movies projected on the bus, is not that far to become a star. The steps were always very simple, banalotti, in the eyes of a Westerner could seem almost like caricatures.
In the eight hours spent with the crew to shoot a dozen scenes, I saw a microcosm reminiscent of the early days of Hollywood as it was told in that wonderful film Bogdanovich on the movies of the early twentieth century that was Old America (1976) . There was the handyman's funny and fat that seemed straight out of a comedy of Chaplin, the choreographer overactive, a girl of about thirty years, tiny-eyed and as soon as she seemed to be directing the film, always talking with the director giving advice on everything. Outside the room were old equipment (trucks, rails, reflectors antediluvian) that somehow they were still there, and then beside a modern mixer with a number of monitors to see and edit the scenes in a very short time, a corner where the director of refugees continued. The usual contrasts Indians also dominated Kollywood.
Then there was the rising stars of the situation. A diva with all that had to have a self-respecting diva: a dress completely covered in gold sequins, a hairdresser who followed her every move and that arranged her hair almost continuously, a cloud of "maids" that comforted, fed, cleaned and who knows what else. Pretty, petite, also a poor dancer, but perfect for the part to be adored Fatalone he had to do. But unlike Jack, was unapproachable!
Then lunch outdoors in front of the garage along with the staff "technical", a sort of old west style rancho where everyone filled his plate with food contained in a set of cookware.
I, a French couple, two Polish and English we've come a family there to work as extras for a day, taken from Mamallapuram, a seaside village about fifty miles to the south. It was low season and there were too many tourists around. One day I was asked twice to participate in a film, but I declined because I had a dinner engagement. Then the next morning, I met one of the guys that I had already approached talking to Jeremie and Emilie, the Frenchmen in Paris. I joined them and it took the form of a kind "class trip". The film was set in Singapore and it took a bit 'of Westerners to wander around the stage to give the idea of place a bit' more of an international hotel in Madras. And after that day, returned to Mamallapuram, we ended up together to eat grilled fish near the beach and drink beer together even a local fisherman who was tireless to sea before dawn, and first wanted to know who 's hero of our film.
We were not us, and even Jack, who continues to try to dream and hope. He hoped, as happens to many, to be seen at least once and that was really worth, even when he was at a bar counter, even if it posed as a superstar, even without the usual lights shot before his eyes.