Uday Shankar's classic 'Kalpana' heads to Cannes

Well-known dancer and choreographer Uday Shankar's 1948 directorial debut "Kalpana" has been chosen for screening at the Cannes Classics 2012 programme, which showcases restored prints of masterpieces.

This takes the Indian count at Cannes to five this year.

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, whose three productions -- "Peddlers", "Gangs Of Wasseypur - Part 1" and "Gangs Of Wasseypur - Part 2" -- will be showcased at the fest, is elated with the Indian offerings heading to the cinematic jamboree next month.

"There is a fifth Indian film showing at Cannes. 'Kalpana' (1948) directed by Uday Shankar, restored by Scorcese," tweeted Kashyap.

"Kalpana" will be screened as part of the World Cinema Foundation, created in Cannes in 2007 by filmmaker Martin Scorsese and many filmmakers, in order to restore world treasures.

"Kalpana", a dance-drama, is among two films to be screened under the category. The other is an Indonesian film "After The Curfew".

Featuring Shankar and his wife Amala, the film has been restored by the World Cinema Foundation from a copy of the original negative preserved by the National Film Archive of India.

Giving some little known facts about "Kalpana", Kashyap said: "Now 'Kalpana' is the film where Guru Dutt first worked as an AD (assistant director), he typed the script of it. His experience on it became the basis for 'Pyaasa'.

"Kalpana was also the most modern film of its time, about a writer pitching his story to a producer made in 1948. The whole film was written at Uday Shankar's dance academy in Almora, which became the hub of future artists of india, also Zohra Sehgal."

"So we have five at Cannes... awesome," he added.

Kashyap's "Peddlers" will be showcased at Cannes Critics' Week and compete for the prestigious Camera d'Or, while both parts of his "Gangs Of Wasseypur" will be screened as part of non-competitive section -- Director's Fortnight.

Another film from India will be Ashim Ahluwalia's "Miss Lovely". It will be screened in the non-competitive, Un Certain Regard section of the festival.

The Cannes International Film Festival, said to attract 35,000 film professionals and over 4,000 international journalists every year, is to be held May 16-27.