The Cannes Film festival opened with a glittering ceremony attended by stars like Julianne Moore, Faye Dunaway, Sean Penn, Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria and of course our very own first family of Bollywood.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan walked the red carpet for L'Oreal and she was accompanied by husband Abhishek and in-laws Amitabh and Jaya. Amar Singh too joined the family.

Ash wore a fabulous Cavali gown and mom-in-law was in a Abu-Sandeep creation.

The opening film, Fernando Mereilles Blindness, was a bit of a dissapointment. Based on Nobel prize winning author Jose Saragamo's novel, Blindness is the story of an unnamed city struck by a mysterious epidemic of blindness. One by one, people start to go blind. In their words, they feel like they are swimming in a sea of milk. Only one person, played brilliantly by Julianne Moore, doesn't go blind.

What follows is a harrowing tale of humanity under seige.

Blindness is only intermittently gripping. There are some superbly done sequences of cruelty and depravity under horrific conditions, but Mereilles cannot hold the tale beyond these. It is too diluted and self-conscious to have an impact.

It's still early days. Coming up are movies like Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, with Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson, Clint Eastwood's Changeling with Angelina Jolie and Barry Levinson's What just happened with Robert de Niro.

This year, the Cannes market has seven new countries participating - Colombia, Emirates of Abu Dhabi, Jordan, Beligum, Russia, Japan and Ukarine.

The Indians are also busy at the market, trying to cut deals and networking. Eros' big ticket item here is Sarkar Raj and Aamir Khan's Ghajni. Reliance is here with Sultan, the Warrior, Rock On, Broken Horses and Talisman. Sahara has brought Allah ke Bande, De Tali, EMI and Mumbai Cutting.


Cannes has never been just about films, it also spells serious glamour. A lot of this is provided by one of the major sponsors L'Oreal. Apart from Ash, we are going to see Linda Evangalista, Milla Jovovovich and Pierce Brosnan.