NEWS photo tad Ledwidge

THE BURNING Season is North Vancouver producer Amarjeet Rattan and Harvey J. Crossiand’s
firat feature film. Here, Rattan is captured on the set with two-year-old daughter Josmindar.

affair

Amarjeet Rattan’s The Burning Season examines

ANCA SHARMA
> must face the wrath
y of her immutable fa-
ther-in-law when a brief but
passionate love affair comes
to light.
“Sharma’s arranged marriage is a
sham but the patriarchal Rajiv will

-do almost anything to avoid the

’ humiliation the affair will wreak

.. upon his family,

Family and cultural conflicts are
central themes of The Burning
Seasan, a new Canadian feature
that stars veteran East Indian actor
Om Puri and Ayub Khan Din.

The $1.5 million movie was in
Vancouver recently before
heading to {ndia for the fina! leg of
shooting. It's the maiden project. of
North Vancouver producer Amar-
jeet Rattan and pariner Harvey J.
Crossland’s Siren Films.

_The Burning Season, which. the
two hope to enter into next year's
Cannes Film Festival, raises. issues
that will undoubtedly hit tome for
hundreds of immigrant families *
including Rattan, whose Punjabi-
born father emigrated to Canada
during the ‘50s.

. When FE arrived | sill had a
turban on and wouldn't speak
English. Somebody decided to
throw me into public school and

- see what happened,” laughs Rat-
tan, who graduated from Simon
Fraser University’s directed film
studies program.

Giving voice to the deep-seated
problems ef cultural and famitial
clashes — which, Rattan points
out, are not confined to Indian

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SPOTLIGHT FEATURE

culture but are universal problems
— wasn't something he ccn-
sciously planned to do.

For Rattan, The Burning Season
was 4 rare opportunity to take
western audiences inside contem-
porary india and expase them toa
side of the country most had never
seen before.

Up to this point most successful
western-produced movies about
India, notably The Jewel in the
Crown and Gandhi, have focused
on the country’s historical and po-
litical background and have Seen
Presented from a foreign point
of view.

t isn’t the first time Rattan has
attempted to tear down
stereotypical images of India.

in 1981 he produced and
directed a three-hour documen-
tary series, The India Trilogy, a
modern-day look at Indian culture.

“I think because of my
background ! was more aware of
the fact that people lacked infor-

. mation about other !ands,’’ he

says. “lt hape it (The India Trilo-
Sy) shattered misconceptions of
india as a place where kids lie

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conflicts between tradition and contemporary life

around in the streets with their
stontachs blown up.”

Rattan’s route to the fiim in-
dustry was tortuous.

He had initially planned to go
into law until he ‘‘met enough
lawyers to know I didn’t want to.”

Then one day he happened to
tune into The Vancouver Show,
which was hosting a home movie
contest. It sparked his curiosity,
but there was ore problem: he
didn’t know anything about film,
didn’t even own a camera.

“S$ went down to the library,
borrowed some books and an
eight-millimetre camera trom my
cousin. It ended up being the
wrong speed for TV, but it gave
me exposure to the world of film.”

When he found out that a col-
league was volunteering at the
focal Cable 10 in Victoria, he weni
down to the station’s newsroom
and offered his services. After four
months he realized he didn’t want
to do anything else.

His first job after graduating
from Simon Fraser University’s
directed film studies program was
production assistant for CKVU. He
spent the next few years making a
series of travel documentaries, in-
cluding The India Trilogy.

He considers that series to be a
career highiight because he was
able to capture an exclusive inter-
view with the late Indira Gandhi.

If Mrs, Gandhi was his biggest
catch, the potentia} powerhouse
story that got away was a series on
the Golden Temple uprising in
Amritsar.

See Film page 39

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