CINEMA
REPUBLIC
“ Thus every village's first concern will be to grow its own food crops, and cotton for its cloth. It should have reserve for its cattle, recreation and playground for adults and children.....”
“ The
village will maintain a Village theater , school and public
hall...”
“ when
our villages are fully developed there will be no dearth in them
of men with a high degree of skill and artistic talent. There will be
village poets, village artists, village architecture, linguists, and
research workers. In short, there will be nothing in life worth
having which will not be had in villages...”
“ craft,
Art, health and education should be integrated into one scheme...”
Mahatma
Gandhi
India
of my Dreams/Harijan
1942-46
In
a democracy individuals and communities get opportunity to grow.
However what perturbs me is the disproportionate glory to some and
oblivion to many. We have seen that with the launch of
liberalization many Indians have appeared in the Forbes list of the
top Billionaires. It is equally true that the large majority has
remained poor and in fact degraded further. Same is the case with
glory and popularity in the field of Art and culture. A select few
Artists/Stars have amassed such wealth that it has begun to look
vulgar. The commercialism which is propelled by
capitalism has made young artists who were devoted to their Art in
yester years abandon their towns and villages and converge to the
capitalists' capital of India- Mumbai. The capitalist and market
principles have affected the Cinema world too . The Hindi cinema or
Bollywood cinema as it is popularly known has become severely
commercial and competitive at the cost of creativity. The power too
is centralized, in that a few big banners and a few stars dominate
the cinema culture. What is disheartening is that these stars have
very little to offer in terms of culture, sophistication and the
primary principle of any Art; creativity! Each project is considered
in commercial terms and only those ideas are put to execution which
may result in commercial dividends , the commitment is to the
commercial cause and social commitment or even commitment toward Art
and culture is missing. What disturbs me is that these flag bearers
of cinema have gained wealth, fame and money in notorious
proportions and the greed continues. Wealth beyond a certain point
is unethical; though it may not be illegal. The display of wealth in
a society where the vast majority are still struggling for economic
ends is harmful and is sort of 'taunt' to the millions impoverished
on whose contribution via the box-office the stars maintain their
style and status! But, glitter,gloss and glamour is the hall mark of
cinema today! I do not think the people identify with this cinema ,
but they are trapped.
With
the power in cinema concentrated in few stars, their residence are
now the place of pilgrimage for all the commoners and star struck
citizens who visit Mumbai- Mannat, Jalsa, Galaxy
apartments etc... Do
they deserve such adulation ? Is it merit based? How many of the
talented Indians they have deprived to command such position?
Moreover is their 'Art' representative of India? They may do lip
service for some social cause, Shahrukh may act in 'Swadesh' to
convey his love for rural India and Amitabh may propagate his concern
in 'Kaun banega crorepati'
for the under privileged men and women and prepare video clips on
their modest living for the TRP
benefit and Aamir may shed a tear or two in his 'Satyemev Jayte' but
the core issue is self preservation and money. The bulk of their work
and the dominant theme in their lives is commerce! And
what is it that that our regional artists/actors lack? Only
opportunity!
If
Mumbai is the financial capital of India is it necessary that it
should be the cinema capital of India too?
After
more than 65 years of independence only
crumbs have been scattered toward regional cinema and its growth.
There has been absolute centralization of cinema , its concepts and
its policies and this centralization resides in Mumbai. Occasionally
these filmmakers do borrow regional themes and culture, but it is
only the crassness and loudness which is projected not the subtleness
;and so we have 'Dabang' portraying U P dialect and style, recently
we had 'Ishqzade' ; apparently it was heartening to see a film on the
subject of local politics and ethnic conflict against love set in a
small western UP town of Barabankvi, but such cinema are few ( Paan
Singh Tomar and Gangs of Wassepur are a rarity), mostly
we have Rowdy Rathore, Son of Sardar, Ra -one etc...Even when rural
culture of the Punjab is shown it is
the stereotypes that we witness and no new themes are explored.
There
should be federalism in the field of Art and culture as well ;more
so for cinema which is part of the cultural heritage of the country.
It
is therefore more appropriate that cinema be decentralized. The urge
for cinematic expression is deep seated among the people of all
regions. It is also a misnomer the Hindi/Boolywood cinema is more
preferred by the people ,actually they do not have a choice. My own
experience bears
testimony to my thinking. Years ago; that is in the early eighties I
was in Visakhapatnam ( Andhra Pradesh) for one year in connection
with my work. During that period most of the cinema halls screened
'Hindi cinema' and regional cinema in Telugu was scantly represented,
however the picture changed dramatically during my second stint in
the city in the late eighties and early nineties by which time the
Telugu cinema was all over and the latest Hindi films were screened
only in few halls. The
situation changed , in fact reversed in those 7-8 years. We did feel
bad for lack of Hindi cinema but the majority of the people in that
city were happy and that is what mattered, it was also profitable for
the regional cinema; their boys and girls were getting new jobs and
their cultural roots were being enlarged.
But
only few
regions have established themselves firmly. Tamil, Telugu, Malyalam
and Kannada cinema are formidable and do not need the Bollywood for
its commercial and emotional sustenance; though occasionally we see
established stars of South cinema
making forays up north for wider acceptance and audience, but soon
return to their original fold as they experience rivalry and moreover
are
unfamiliar
with the language and its nuances; many actresses have been
successful though. However
the bulk of the regional cinema including once artistically superior
Bengali cinema are still struggling. Cinema of Bengal, Assam,
Orrisa, Meghalaya and
Marathi have
vast potential in terms of theme and talent but have limited
representation. Then
there is Punjabi cinema which is gaining currency and is very
popular abroad and from its popularity it appears that it is
preferred by the Punjabi community over Hindi cinema. The Bhojpuri
cinema has been there since many years and has made its mark but
somehow it has remained at the lower rungs of critical and commercial
ladder. Probably the cinema of south is logistically well equipped
as it operates from big prosperous cities such as Chennai, Hyderabad
and Bangalore and the regional films in north lacks that foothold.
But
what I have stated above are the broad regions and there are regions
within regions and cultures within cultures. Numerous dialects of
Hindustani Zubaan
are looking for representation. The
dialect in western U P is different from that of central U P and
the dialect of Allahabad is different from that of Varanasi.
Multiple, colourful strands emerge from the broad brushes of Khari
boli, Braj, Awadhi and Bhojpuri. And what about the tribal culture;
each town , each village or group of villages have their stories to
tell. As each person in a democracy has a vote ; he also has a Voice
to be heard ; an expression to to propagated !
These
cultural and geographical regions not only require economic growth
but cultural growth too. Presently as it stands the strong economic
centers have the wherewithal to produce cinema. But
cinema should be produced by each state, money should be allotted to
each region/district for propagation of cinema. Small theaters should
be
built by the Government to promote cinema. The most inspiring example of regional talent was the film 'Superman of Malegaon' made on a shoe string budget but not lacking in cinematic creativity, I saw the making of the film in ' you tube ' and was moved by the ingenuity of the director and crew and the sheer passion of the artists to excel despite depravity. Such stories will give birth to new Indian cinema!
