A still from ‘Mr and Mrs Iyer’, an independent Indian film by Aparna Sen

Bollywood, the nickname for films made in Bombay’s factory-like studios, is now known around the world. The big musical pieces, beautiful stars, grand settings and unashamed escapism are its trade marks and they’ve come to dominate the image of Indian cinema in the West. Radio 4’s two part series Films for a New India offers an alternative, exploring instead India’s independent film industry. It’s a great introduction to all sorts of themes; the world-wide Indian diaspora and its impact on culture in India, the Hindu/Muslim religious divide as the last great film taboo, Westernisation v Indian pluralism and the cultural dynamics of the Indian middle class.

Listen to the first part of the series here.

If you want to know more about Indian Cinema (and films about India) this is a good overview of some of the key ones.

The Children from ‘Born in Brothels’

Born into Brothels, the Oscar winning documentary by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski, documents the lives of the children of prostitute families in Calcutta. Growing up in the city’s infamous Red Light district is simultaneously grim and mundane. For the girls in particular it’s only a short time before they join their mothers, sisters and aunts ‘in line’, becoming prostitutes themselves.

The film actually started as a photography project by Zana Briski documenting the lives of the women in the district. She got to know the children of the sex workers and began teaching them photography, encouraging them to document their own lives. The children take the pictures you would expect, photos of friends, family, neighbours and the streets around them but with an immediacy that is startling and beautiful (you can see and buy the photos here).

The children are all keen to go to school to better themselves and escape the life that otherwise awaits them but their family background means local schools won’t take them. In the end, foreign-run religious schools enrol them but the some of the families sabotage the children’s chances, taking them back out of school. The sale of the children’s photos help pay for their education, including some now studying at university overseas.

This is a great film but especially good for anyone interested in Asia - it’s a reminder just how people on the fringes can be dismissed and underestimated but also how it’s not just society that holds them back, it can also be their own peers and families.

the children today

A migrant workers’ suitcase, carried on a pole across the shoulders. The other end was attached to a bedding roll and a laundry bag filled with clothes. Nanjing, China.

Rural-Urban migration is reshaping Asia. By 2050 China will, for the first time in its history, be a predominantly urban society. India is heading in a similar direction. This migration is an economic one, with millions of rural workers moving to the town to find better-paid work and new opportunities.

These migrant workers are generally overlooked by brands, seen as transitory, poorly paid and outside of the mainstream economy. It’s a big oversight as migrants send back money and information about brands to families back at home. They buy big-ticket goods to bring home at festival times and back in their own communities they are the most affluent and influential members. Building a relationship with these migrants means and a direct line to the hard to reach volume rural markets and a chance to connect to the future working class of the main cities.

To give you an idea of what migrants face have a look at this film report from India. Look out for the migrant who has settled in Mumbai, working as a waiter, and note the difference between him and the young boys he is advising. His worldly advice to the boys that “In Bombay you keep your dreams, but they get a little smaller” is honest, poignant, optimistic and says so much about the migrant predicament. And it’s just the sort of moment we try to capture in our work.

For the International Herald Tribune film click here.

foundry worker, UK
You may think that some things are standard in a foundry, say, a heat-resistant uniform. Or footwear.

Foundry workers, India (photo by J. A.dam Huggins)

You’d be wrong. This New York Times article about the manufacture of New York’s manhole covers in India illustrates just how wrong you would be. Workers in this foundry have to make do without “the luxury of Europe and the United States, with all the boots and all that”.

Of course, the lack of even basic protection is proof of how dangerous their work is, how normal sub-standard conditions are, how little institutional responsibility there is and how dangerous life can be. All of these would have an impact on how people think and behave but it’s only when you see it in such extreme circumstances that it really becomes apparent.

This is why we use film as our primary form of reporting, because we believe that we need to see for yourself how different life can be - and its often the things taken for granted as universals.

Full multimedia show from The New York Times here.