Il giornalista Gautaman Bhaskaran l'8 maggio 2013 sulle colonne di Hindustan Times ha pubblicato un testo piuttosto polemico: Mumbai movies hog Indian cinema centenary celebrations. Un estratto: 'The centenary of Indian cinema is fast being reduced to a celebration of Hindi films, largely Bollywood. Bollywood, regrettably has in the past few years become synonymous with Indian cinema. Nothing can be more unfair. For, of the 1200 or so movies that pop out of the cans every year in India, a mere 250-odd emerge from the stables in Mumbai. The rest of them are made in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Trivandrum, Kolkata, Guwahati and in myriad languages, including Marathi. But the 100-year gala is firmly confined to the Hindi language and Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra made in 1913. (...) And, sad by far, the Cannes Film Festival, whose 66th edition runs from May 15 to 26, has chosen an anthology movie called Bombay Talkies as a Tribute to Indian Cinema that is in Hindi and made by four Mumbai helmers. (...) How can a movie made by four Mumbai directors be representative of Indian cinema, whose beauty and richness lie in its ability to speak in many languages and which presents a mind-boggling variety of mannerisms and cultures. And why must a Festival, which is undoubtedly the world’s most renowned, select Bombay Talkies as a Tribute to Indian Cinema? I fail to understand. (...) Not just this, this year, which is the Year of India at Cannes, the Festival and its two sidebars seem to be in love with Anurag Kashyap. The two films in the Festival’s official sections - Bombay Talkies and Monsoon Shootout have a Kashyap connection. One of the four stories in Bombay Talkies has been helmed by him, and he has co-produced Monsoon Shootout. The Anurag links take even deeper roots. Two Hindi movies - one each in the Critics’ Week and the Director’s Fortnight - have the Kashyap stamp. His Ugly plays in the Director’s Fortnight, and Dabba (*) in the Critics Week has been part-produced by Kashyap. The year 2013 seems more like an Anurag Summer at Cannes'.
(*) Ovvero The Lunchbox (nota di Cinema Hindi)
