London Indian Film Festival opener Monsoon Shootout has British ties

Kaleem Aftab writes from the London Indian Film Festival about Monsoon Shootout, which opened the festival.

Vijay Varma in a scene from Monsoon Shootout, which opened the London Indian Film Festival. Kikhya Entertainment

"Even though Monsoon Shootout is an Indian film, it still somehow has a British connection," posits the Mumbai-based director Kumar. "I don't know if I'd call it a flavour, but it has a connection. So this feels like a homecoming to me."

The director seems to have a fascination for films that play around with time. "For me, the most powerful reference was a short film made in 1962 called An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by a French guy Robert Enrico that won the Cannes prize. It was one of the first films that I saw when I joined film school and I was blown away by it. Watching a movie that could play around with time and could expand time – I found that device so powerful and thought this is something cinema can do that no other art form can do.

“So when I had this idea of a cop with a gun trying to make up his mind, it just came naturally that it would use the ability to go back and forth in time and look at alternative scenarios as a device.”

The Indian director has an infectious and charming personality. But it was his grandiose imagination that first pulled him towards cinema. "I got into film because when we were kids, we went to Africa, my father was an engineer and my mother a dressmaker. Just before we left, we saw Sholay [1975] on the big screen, and when we got to Africa there were a bunch of Indian people in the community and my brother and I would re-enact scenes from Sholay for our neighbours, who found it very amusing. I then began changing the situations – same characters but a new plot, I would be Amitabh Bachchan and my brother would be Dharmendra. By the time we returned to India I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker."

The London Indian Film Festival opened on July 18 and ends Thursday. Visit www.londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk

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