CINEMA REPUBLIC

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!