The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 33

HOME GARDEN: IT'S TOMMY TIME C13 TONIGHT AT 8 PM! FROM $29! I TONIGHT AT 8 PM! FROM $29! STANLEY INDUSTRIAL ALLIANCE STAGE 5IIS.LI1L.B ARTSCLUB.COM 604.687.1644 ARTSCLUB.COM 604.687.1644 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 2012 EDITOR MAGGIE LANGRICK 604.605101 MLANGRICKVANC0UVERSUN.COM VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Accent on authenticity Getting Indian inflections correct was crucial to actress' preparation for Midnight's Children 1 vi, 4 1 r-- 1 KATHERINE MONK POSTMEDIA NEWS Anita Majumdar appreciates irony, so when the Vancouver-raised actor found herselfin Sri Lanka as part of the ensemble cast for Midnight's Children, she could revel in the surreal self-consciousness stemming from her Canadian roots. "I was worried about my Indian accent," she says over a recent bite of lunch. "I wanted to get it right." Starring opposite Bollywood legends such as Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Rahul Bose and Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Majumdar knew she was working alongside a veteran group with a vested interest in telling the story right. Penned by Salman Rushdie and published as a novel in 1980, Midnight's Children tells the story of two boys born at the stroke of midnight in 1947, in the same breath as India's independence. Intertwined after a private act of revolution has them switched at birth, the two boys find completely alternate life paths, with karma playing the trickster at every turn.

"The movie is about identity, and I think all of us were looking at India from the outside," says director Deepa Mehta, who will join Majumdar for the film's West Coast premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival Thursday. "Anita was right to worry about her accent. Everyone, even the actors from New York, had to worry about getting the accent right because it's something I can't stand," says Mehta. "Every time Dev Patel opens his mouth in Slumdog Millionaire I want to cringe. His accent is so English!" Mehta laughs her trademark giggle a blend of brewing mischief and unadulterated joy.

"If we're making a movie about Indian history as an act of love, we have to get it right Authenticity means a lot to me." Translate passion into an onset process, and it can mean a and Rahul Bose are among the cast of Deepa Mehta's latest film, Midnight's Children, which premieres at this week's festival. it 4 from Majumdar, who she discovered while watching one of her self-penned plays in Toronto, the Oscar-nominated director of Water, Fire and Earth also fire-hardened all the links in her thespian chain. "I had a cast of 19 main characters and 12 of them are principals," she says. "Oh my god. And no matter how long or how short each actor's time on-set was whether it was five days or 20 days or whatever they all got it right." Majumdar's role is not the biggest in the sprawling narrative that explores love, loss, patriotism and pickles.

But in the part of the pretty sister, Emerald, she has a significant space and place on screen. graduate who grew up in Port Moody and eventually moved east to pursue theatre. "She really pushes you but she knows exactly where to stop. She never pushes you further than she knows you can go." In Majumdar's case, that meant taking a second look at some of her default settings. "Because I hate watching myself on screen, I had no idea I flared my nostrils when things get intense.

She didn't think it was working, and she asked me not to do it and see where the energy went. And I did, and it was a completely dif-1 ferent feeling. I was a lot more restrained." The nasal recalibration paid off for both parties. Not only did Mehta get what she needed When one sister is seduced by a fugitive hiding in the basement, Emerald is the one who wants to rat her out. Her motives are problematic, but essentially, Emerald has fallen for the military man who will one day lead a coup.

She's the tattletale conformist who enables a fascist leader because she's personally ambitious, and just a tad narcissistic. "I love Emerald," says Majumdar. "A lot of people came up to me after the screening in Toronto and said they didn't like my character that much. But I think Emerald is fascinating. She's probably the most ambitious character in the whole film.

To me, that's a Vancouver-raised Anita Majumdar I was worried about my Indian accent. I wanted to get it right. ANITA MAJUMDAR ACTRESS lot of different things to different people. For Majumdar, it was living up to Mehta's expectations, as well as the profile of the Rushdie book itself, which earned the author a Booker Prize. "Deepa is like her own acting school," says Majumdar, the National Theatre School Canadian films' musical themes hit just the right note sign of intelligence.

You can see she's the brains of the operation, even in her marriage." Mehta recoils at the idea that Emerald is merely a symbol of the lost jewel of South Asia. "These are people. That's how I approached it. Even if they do have symbolic functions, they are human beings Mehta. Midnight's Children opens the VIFF Thursday, plays St.

John's Women's Film Festival later this month, and opens in theatres across Canada Nov. 2. Midnight's Children Sept. 28, 2 p.m. lfogue Oct.

3, 9 p.m. I Vogue Info and tickets: viff.org Writer-director Bruce Sweeney (Dirty) goes noir in The Crimes of Mike Recket, starring Nicholas Lea, Gabrielle Rose and Jillian Fargey. Vancouver director Katrin Bowen returns to VIFF with Random Acts of Romance. "It's quite a hilarious film about obsessive behaviours related to love that shows just how messy love can be," McEvoy says. "It follows two couples whose relationships are falling apart." Camera Shy, directed by Mark Sawers, offers a satire of political corruption through a look at Vancouver's local politics.

In this fictional film a Vancouver city councillor gambles on a casino project. Director Julia Ivanova explores a unique adoption saga. And in In No Particular Order, Terry Miles and Kris-tine Cofsky co-direct a comedy about "a quarter-life crisis," McEvoy says. ir. these movies are also about musicians and their fathers.

Marika Bournaki, her father is a violinist, but not a solo virtuoso, and he's also her manager. Almost all of our music stories have father stories involved in them." McEvoy is also quick to draw attention to some of the B.C. images being featured. "Velcrow Ripper is back with Occupy Love. Velcrow has always had his finger on the pulse of the opposition movement and it's a hopeful documentary based on the paradigm shift of the Occupy Movement and I think both people who participated in the movement and wondered what it was all about have something to gain from this." A film that sounds like it ought to be a B.C.

film is Becoming Redwood. "Jesse James Miller wrote and directed a coming-of-age story about a young boy with a certain charm and a little bit of golf," says McEvoy. Sage of John Fahey. McEvoy quotes The Who's Pete Town-shend, who dubbed Fahey "the folk guitar equivalent of William Burroughs or Charles Bukowski." McEvoy also raves about My Father and The Man in Black, Jonathan Holiff first-person documentary about discovering his dad, Johnny Cash's original agent. Sticking with the musical theme, McEvoy mentions one more film even though it falls outside his Can-con purview.

"It's very unusual that I'll step outside of my Canadian ghetto, but I have to tell you about Beware of Mr. Baker. "It's about the extraordinary Ginger Baker and the extraordinary life he's led. I saw it at Hot Docs in Toronto and it just was one of the bets docs I've seen." This is where McEvoy cites a motif that's recurring throughout most of the musical numbers. "In almost every case MARK LEIREN-YOUNG SPECIAL TO THE SUN "Musical" is the word that keeps popping up when Canadian Images programmer Terry McEvoy describes the Canadian content at the 2012 Vancouver International Film Festival.

"First of all Andy Keen shot a movie about the Tragically Hip," says McEvoy. "It's a concert film, but quite a revealing one about not only the band, but the people of Bobcaygeon (Ontario)." Another musical entry is I Am Not a Rock Star. "It's about this young woman, Marika Bournaki. At 12 years old she's playing important recitals and she carries on that path for the next eight years and not only is she becoming a better pianist, but she's also questioning herself. It's about following this young girl and you watch her become a woman in front of your eyes." vr.

Gabrielle Miller of Vancouver stars in Moving Day, which is screening at this year's Vancouver International Film Festival. Bournaki will be attending is clearly in awe of the sub- the festival as a special guest ject of another festival entry, and "hopefully there may be a whom he refers to as "the great little tune," says McEvoy. John Fahey," the subject of In A musician himself, McEvoy Search of Blind Joe Death: The SATURDAY Authentic it's not ONLINE For all the trailers for this week's movie releases, check out vancouversun.com entertainment INSIDE I C5 Back to the Future with guns Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt star as a time-travelling hit man hired to murder himself in the futuristic thriller Looper. Peter McKnight weighs in on the reality TV phenomenon that is Breaking Amish and the genuine anger people feel over recent revelations. c' 1 i I 8- swears.