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Many Faces of India, On Screen in Prague

PRAGUE | Billed as the biggest Bollywood film festival in Eastern Europe, “Faces of India” kicks off next Monday, Oct. 12, in a country where Indians are a rarity among the mostly Slavic residents.

Many Faces of India, On Screen in Prague - Globespotters Blog - NYTimes.com

The week-long series offers up 28 Indian films the organizers describe as “Bollywood, not Bollywood at all and something in between” at the Indian Embassy (Milady Horakove 93; 420-2-57-53-34-90) and Svetezor (Vodickova 41; 420-22-24-94-68-24), a popular art house cinema in the city center.

All films are in Hindi or other Indian dialects with Czech and English subtitles. The embassy screenings are free and cost about 100 koruna (about $5.75) at Svetezor.
Films range from full-on Bollywood dance extravaganzas and 1950s classics to social issue documentaries.


Highlights include “Main Hoon Na,” the 2004 Bollywood hit about a retired general’s quest to make peace with Pakistan while heartthrob Shahrukh Khan (of recent Newark airport questioning fame) turns secret agent to protect the general’s daughter, and the 2008 indie “Supermen of Malegaon,” which follows the quirky cinematic dreams of small town youth.
Explaining the Bollywood appeal in Prague, Radim Spacek, the festival’s artistic director, said recent college graduates from the Czech lands “were crazy about India even before the fall of the Iron Curtain. But now it’s like everyone goes there and falls in love with the country.”

That is how the festival began seven years ago when Spacek came back from his own pilgrimage. He and a Czech-Nepalese friend wanted to have an Indian film night at their respective apartments.

“But our apartments were two small so we did it at the Film Academy and hundreds of people showed up.” Last year 4,000 people attended the festival.
The Prague-based Himalaya chain will provide Indian food like samosas and vindaloo dishes at the Svetezor screenings for purchase. “We encourage people to actually eat during the film and get rowdy, just like I experienced in India,” Spacek said.


Among the post-film discussions, the Czech actress Tana Fischerova will explain what it was like to star in Bollywood’s “Drona,” made in Prague and India, where the diminutive former member of the parliament had to learn to film fight scenes.

The festival culminates on Saturday, Oct. 17, at P.M. Club (Trojicka 10; 420-60-47-67-224; www.pmclub.net), with a Bollywood-themed party and an Indian dance contest for amateurs that Spacek hopes “film goers will be brave enough to enter.”