TORONTO: “I’m particularly pleased to have Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (KANK) at the Toronto film festival because it is recognised as a festival that tips you off for the Oscar,” says Karan Johar in this windswept city. “If the film is loved here, it could be a sign of things to come. I'd love it to be sent as India's Oscar entry.”
For a fleeting moment before his red carpet gala screening at the spectacular Roy Thomson Hall, Johar whirled around with panic in his eyes. It looked like the rows of volunteers and police keeping at bay the hysterically screaming crowds might cave in. Although Abhishek, Rani and Preity couldn't make it, when Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan stepped out of their limos, a long suppressed primeval scream went out, as a tsunami of mobile phone cameras rose in a Patella reflex.
The most poignant image was of a middle aged Indian woman, who kept bobbing down the up-escalator: it was the only way she could rise above everyone's heads to get a glimpse of her heroes. Cameron Bailey, International Programmer of the Toronto festival introduced the film saying, “We're one of the biggest festivals in the world, but you're not big until you're Bollywood big.” Johar, who was also featured in the Maverick section along with Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, with a discussion hosted by Suketu Mehta, said he was “overwhelmed” since Michael Moore was also featured in the Maverick section. “I went to Cannes even though I had no film,” says Johar. “Next year I'll be at Toronto even if I have no film. My father taught me to meet people without always expecting something in return. You never know when they will come back to you.”
Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City, insisted that KANK “was in the tradition of bhakti and Sufi teachings, and reflected South Asian concerns about illicit love as a vehicle to reach God.” Oh dear! Maybe someone should have told Karan!
Meanwhile, the fans had less transcendental things on their minds. “Oooh, I got a picture of Amitabh on my mobile!” squealed Bimala Ambwani, a middle aged woman. When I asked her to show me the picture, her hands trembled with excitement. She had to ask her husband, who had driven her here from Missisauga, miles away for the occasion, to show me her idol’s photo. Shirin Mukhtar, from Bangladesh, had specially bought a new salwar kameez to see the film here and was mad at her mother for not letting her go to India to meet Shah Rukh Khan and act with him. Outside, another middle-aged Indian woman sobbed, “The police would not let me meet Shah Rukh Khan. We try so hard to hang on to our culture, you know?” One could only sympathise.
