Indian cinema is back in the news here folks, with Yash Chopra getting an honorary degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) University this week. Looking at him really gets us all nostalgic once again, doesn’t it? Yashji is the quintessential Hindi cinema representative — having started as an assistant director and ending up with both a film production house as well as a dynasty to keep it going. I still remember seeing Waqt for the first time aeons ago — an astonishing lost-and-found story packaged with marvellous music. My favourite scene was Balraj Sahni singing Ai meri zohrajabeen, tujhe maloom naheen… The film may have seemed unbelievable and yet it was firmly grounded in the Indian psyche. A unique combination of factors that Yashji was able to exploit in all his movies.
While Yashji’s films may have stretched our credibility — he gave a particular identity to Indian cinema and developed it as a genre as well — in later years this would manifest itself through Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Dil To Pagal Hai made under his banner. Again these were films that defined a whole generation growing up in India — and their changing attitudes towards romance.
Yashji, like Raj Kapoor, also opened up the world to Indian audiences; in the early years he had already begun shooting scenes abroad — the Switzerland government has officially acknowledged his promotion of that country thr­o­u­gh an award and apparently a la­ke in Switzerland is informally kn­o­wn as the “Chopra Lake” since it has featured so prominently in Ya­s­hji’s films… I think it is about time we formally renamed it, as well!
The degree from Soas is very well deserved as Rachel Dwyer (who wrote his eponymous biography) was the guiding force behind it. Is it just my imagination or are we in the UK pushing really hard to give Indian cinema a higher profile?
The fact is that even though we are pulling out all the stops to make the majority population aware of the charms of Indian cinema, we still have a long way to go before we gain the same respect that Chinese cinema seems to have attained. Or even Iranian cinema. This is a paradox we all need to crack. And quickly.

MEANWHILE, I am just back from Birmingham which, I have to say, was a marvellous spin: out on the train in the morning and back smoothly in the evening, with ple­n­ty of coffee and croissants in be­t­w­een as energy fuel. And why Bir­mingham? Well, I had applied for my “indefinite leave to stay visa” which is what you get when you marry a British citizen. Having lived in India for most of my life, I have a built-in fear of government offices and red tape, and so was quite anxious about how the day would go. Quite shockingly it turned out to be amazingly zippy.
Of course, I was reminded of the time when I stood in a queue to get my Indian passport renewed in New Delhi not very long ago and found that when I finally reached the top of the line the window was slammed down in my face. Memories like these make one rather shaky at going to a repeat performance. I was quite prepared to face a barrage of menacing bureaucrats determined to block every move I made towards getting the visa.
But the whole process turned out to be fabulously simple right from the start: all phone calls or queries were always answered by very polite UK Border Agency officials. I even got several reminders about my Birmingham appointment on my mobile phone. And even when I went for my “Life in the UK Test” (yes, everyone has to give that test now) I found it was well organised and swift. I even enjoyed studying for the test — as it gives you information that I am sure many born and bred Britons would have no idea about!
On the date that I needed to go for the final interview the only centre which had a free slot was in Birmingham. I went there in trepidation, but fortunately the centre itself was clean, comfortable and unthreatening. I began to calm down because it wasn’t overcrowded and appointments were properly spaced out so that everyone could be attended to. (Of course, many visas are dealt with through the post, as well — but because I was travelling I couldn’t go for that option). Hopefully the Indian government will one day introduce similarly people-friendly systems so that anyone can go personally and get their passports and visas updated without being armed with a VIP recommendation, or be prepared to be booted out. If the government actually seems to work for you — and not against you — dealing with the bureaucracy can actually become a happy experience. It will also save an enormous amount of time. Errr… isn’t that why we pay our taxes?

ONTO MORE important things. Such as what gift does one give to the President of the United States of America? I am sure we all wake up every morning worrying about these matters — but this time it was the Prime Minister’s wife, Samantha Cameron, who was mulling it over. Being the girl with a dolphin tattoo (on her ankle), we always knew she could surprise us, and she did. On Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to the United States she sent with him a rather whimsical painting by Ben Eine, an East End street artist, “Twentyfirstcenturycity”. The artist has confessed to being arrested around 15 to 20 times for vandalising walls with graffiti. But this probably has enhanced the value of his work more than the fact it was presented to the US President. I don’t know very much about modern art, but I am pretty sure that if you’ve been arrested a few times it can only be a good career move.
The painting is a colourful arrangement of letters — and definitely helped to redefine the relationship between the US and UK. We now learn that US President Barack Obama has retaliated with a painting of a US artist. The gestures are obviously indicative of a more youthful approach and also a much more balanced one. The last time former British Premier Gordon Brown had given a very carefully thought out present of a penholder made from the timber of the Victorian anti-slavery ship, HMS Gannet, and received in turn a set of DVDs from Mr Obama — which didn’t play on a UK system anyway.
Is there a lesson to be learnt in all of this? Can we be intensely rela­xed when exchanging gifts with the US President? Yes we can!

The writer can be contacted at kishwardesai@yahoo.com