BOLLY>LOLLY>HOLLY>TOLLY
SAVAC's exhibition at Masala! Mehndi! Masti! explores Bollywood and its offshoots

by Aparita Bhandari

Bollywood has crossed the boundaries of South Asia over the past few years. With movies such as Moulin Rouge and The Guru, acknowledging India's mammoth filmmaking industry and getting Hollywood releases, Bollywood is no longer the South Asian community's best kept secret.

It's little wonder, then, that SAVAC, or the South Asian Visual Arts Collective, decided to take a shot at tackling Bollywood and beyond.

SAVAC is a Toronto-based, artist-run, nonprofit organization dedicated to the development and presentation of contemporary visual art by artists of South Asian origin, within Canada and internationally.

During the three day Masala! Mehndi! Masti! Festival, one of North America's largest multi-disciplinary arts and culture festival, SAVAC presented an exhibition that took a deeper look behind the excitement and glamour of Bollywood, and how it captivates its audience.

The exhibition also acknowledged "copycat genres" of the industry in other South Asian countries such as Pakistan. A vibrant film industry in Lahore, which has drawn inspiration from Bollywood, is commonly known as Lollywood.

And with filmmakers such as Mira Nair and Toronto's own Deepa Mehta also taking a stab at making films with more than a touch of Bollywood in Monsoon Wedding and Bollywood/Hollywood, how could the industries Hollywood and Tollywood (Toronto, see?) be left out?

In fact, this subject has been dealt with earlier in art exhibitions such as " Bollywood Has Arrived" (2001) in the Passenger Terminal, Amsterdam and "Cinema India: The Art of Bollywood" (2003) at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

For their take on the subject, SAVAC sent a call for submissions to its members. A jury then selected the work to be showcased at the Masala! Mehndi! Masti! Festival at the Harbourfront Centre.
One of the exhibits that caught your eye upon entering the space was a series of oil paintings by Toronto artist Anita Agrawal. Called Bollywood Formulas, the series depicted the ad campaigns of a fictional company selling various products and ideas based on recent Bollywood movies and trends.

Another striking artwork was "Women in Hindu Culture" by fellow
Toronto artist Gayathiri Ganeshan. "Women in Hindu Culture" showed a series of dramatically lit photographs, displaying the ceremonial cycle of a Hindu woman's life from marriage to widowhood.

On the other hand, Rhode Island's Annu Palakunnathu's "Bollywood Satirized" took not so subtle digs at gender roles and societal behaviour by digitally altering Indian movie posters.
Another thought-provoking exhibit was "Sitary" by Tazeen Qayyum.
Originally from Pakistan, Qayyum has been based in Toronto for about six months. A student of the National College of Arts in Lahore, Qayyum's background is in miniature painting. Her current work is considered contemporary miniature.

"The subject can be contemporary," explains the 30-year-old. "But even the medium can be contemporary, such as digital imaging."
Her artwork displayed at the exhibition was a mixed media bookwork.

"It was a photo album, which I stitched myself," says Qayyum. "And it had actual photos of young boys and girls, probably in their teens or 20's, who got inspired by Bollywood and Lollywood."
The initial inspiration for Sitary came from a web search. Looking for some particular movies' images, Qayyum came across personal websites of people with Bollywood or Lollywood aspirations. She found the exercise at once amusing and sad.

"These people have gone to the extent of making websites, and have their bio-datas on there, with the intention that they might get some film or modelling gig out of it," explains Qayyum. "Some of them even go as far as digitally manipulating the images so that they are standing next to Aishwarya Rai. It's easy with the software out there.

"But the sad part is that most of these people won't be able to make it into the industry."

Another inspiration for her exhibit came from the cheap magazines available at railway stations in Karachi, which photographs women wanting to "get noticed" by industry wallahs.

"I had worked with these magazines while dealing with another subject to do with the singing and dancing girls in Lahore," says Qayyum. "The magazines are quite cheesy."

For her artwork, Qayyum collected the images and the text and used them to make the photo album, also decorating the album in Bollywood glam with gota, hearts and similar fancy decorative accessories.

The album got noticed at the exhibition.

"People were flipping through it, and they would see something familiar and smile," says Qayyum. "It's entertaining. There are these people who want to talk, act, sing, dance like actors. I mean, there are people who labour all day for the price of a cigarette and a movie ticket.

"But these are also rather courageous people. Maybe deep down, all of us have had a Bollywood or Lollywood aspiration. We've acted like our favourite stars. These people have had the courage to put themselves out there."