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CINEMA      AND     THE      ROLE            OF    AN          ARTIST

CINEMA    AS   AN     ART.   I   wish     to speak   of  Cinema  strictly as a form of Art. Art  that is modern in the sense high technology and Science is applied to arrest  a cinematic sequence and further process it. Otherwise like any other expression  of    Art  , Cinema too demands sensitivity, imagination and precision . Tagore had said that ‘Cinema is a visual flow of images’. It is an audio-visual medium where the visual is more important.

INGREDIENTS OF ALL ARTS AND ITS AMALGAMATION.     It  has ingredients of all kinds of Art and  even Literature, but still it is not one of them. It has the narrative of story, the tension of  Drama, the rhythm of dance and the sound of music. But still ; Cinema is Cinema! Whereas in other mediums the artist is restricted in expressing his emotions to the fullest, in cinema  there is no limitation. In other art forms an artist has to dilute his imagination, and execute with restrain, owing to economy of canvas and space. However, it is only in Cinema where a filmmaker  has no restrictions . There is no limitation of canvas, colour, contour, angle, space and time; only of finance! Though every art provides creative satisfaction to its creator , the art of cinema is so enchanting and powerful that it has almost swallowed all other arts in the recent times . The exposure and reception  that cinema has got few other forms have achieved. The reason is its wide circulation ,its permanence unlike Drama which is temporary and momentary and its availability, which is astounding.

    We have watched Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Ali Akbar Khan providing music for films, but their music remains only an element. Its relevance is with the film. Similarly great dramatists and story writers have lent their works for films and often they complain that movies made on their stories and drama are not to their satisfaction. The film maker has not done justice to their subject. The fault is of no one , it is only that when a story is made into a film it acquires a different dimension. It is expressed through a different medium. Once a story or drama is lent for a film it must be realized in cinematic terms. Very few story writers have cinematic vision! Once it is made into a film it becomes the work of the Director and how he visualizes it in cinematic language. War and Peace the movie is not by Tolstoy but by its director. Similarly  ‘Devdas’  is not by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhya, but by Bimal Roy. It is like sacrificing your child to be adopted by the other. Once you have given it you forget it, the director will give it  new colour and form.

COMMERCIAL FILM MAKERS- BASER FEELINGS.   No Art is moral or immoral . It is either good or bad. Like Literature it is also subjective, but still there are ways and means of judgement, At first, that kind of cinema could be discarded which is made essentially to make money, where the basic purpose of the producer is to tempt the masses and cater to their baser feelings. They operate like any other commercial firm exploiting the vulnerability of the masses. Religious sentiments, and even at times Patriotism and Nationalism. True cinema is one which is inspired and influenced by the social and human reality which surrounds it.

MAN REMAINS AT THE CENTRE OF CREATION.  Man’s endeavour, his complexities ,his  relationships, his beauty, his vanity and the  futility of it all is portrayed  in cinema. All other things are either related  or subservient to man. Man means humanity man means nature. The  most perfect creation of nature. The sun rising is the symbol of man’s power and the sun setting  its impermanence. The wind gushing and the sea rushing reflect his robust and passionate disposition.

REALTY- LOCAL- STARK BUT BEAUTIFUL.   Every art has something local about it. So has cinema. The realty which surrounds a film maker is the Indian reality but what is generally portrayed is so confusing and absurd that it is hard to identify with anything, far is being motivated. Reality does not mean stark humanism, but portrayed in a positive manner. ‘Godfather’, is a good film but it is an American reality, it has its universal appeal, but its local flavour to which we can’t subscribe  is potent and essential. So how can we ‘ape’ that cinema? Their gestures ,mannerisms, clothes, movements are different . Our reality is ‘Paar’,’Damul’, so was ‘Pather Panchali’. One cannot gain anything from the reality of others. Each one of them has an element of seriousness ,commitment to its medium, and harmony between manner and matter. Works of Charlie Chaplain in spite of being apparently comical  in pattern have this commitment to medium and element of  seriousness.

ARTIST-FIELD OF ART. There is no democracy in the field of art. All those who are competent and efficient can join and contribute in its progress, but there is no socialism. All cannot join it for it is for the sensitive and creative few. It was like this always, it will be the same for ever. The doors of Art are open to all ;only few can enter. There is harmony, integration, unity in the field of creation. All are complementary to each other. They are far removed from the commercial world of competition. Much above the infighting of caste, class and religion. We have Ustad Bismillah Khan playing Shehnai in the temples of Benaras, Richard Attenborough making ‘Gandhi’  and Dagar brothers singing Dhrupad.

CONFLICT-ROLE OF AN ARTIST-ART FOR ART’S SAKE.  There is  a conflict since time long as to what shall be the role of an artist. Art for Art’s sake or Art as reflection of social reality in order to change it. Conflict between manner and matter, form and content, cinematic effect and thematic effect. In Indian cinema we have two great figures representing this conflict- Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen. But with time both have struck a new combination. Mrinal Sen has become less didactic and Ray has become more worried and committed One group says that how can one avoid the tension, the ugliness of life, the exploitation. The role of an Artist is to portray the ‘Truth’ and truth is that the world is unhappy, there is violence, to which we are conditioned.

NEO REALISM-SURREALISM-EXISTENTIALISM-EXPRESSIONISM.  Neo- Realism movement which started in Italy and later in Europe by the great film maker Vettero-de-sica soon after the second world war. The movies portrayed the wounded  civilization and even now the theme of the European films is ‘War’ and its traumas, so much are they stunned by the sad turn of human behaviour. Writers like Virginia Woolf committed suicide. New artists started new movements. Surrealism, Existentialism; wherein painting and cinema the very existence of man was questioned. The theatre of  ‘the Absurd’, ‘of Silence’, ‘of cruelty’ and the new wave cinema of France by filmmakers like Godard and Truffaut and Fellini of Italy came to the scene. Expressionism, was given rise in Germany and influenced the cinema of Bergman and many others.

CINEMA FOR MEDIUM SAKE-MONSOON TO CREATE BEAUTY, POSITIVE. There is another group which believes that cinema is for cinema’s sake . The role of an artist is to create beauty, to portray beauty, to abandon negativism and to portray only the positive side .    To preserve the finer qualities and abandon the baser one’s. For example monsoon is marked in music by raag malhar, singing of Kajri, ladies swaying on a swing, applying mehndi, even the animal kingdom comes alive, the cuckoo sings and the peacock dances. At the same time the monsoon brings in flood, destroys the harvest, causes diseases , land slide and other natural calamities but the artist never portrays the negative aspect. For him monsoon  symbolises meeting of woman and the man which  results in rain and creation-  greenery, life, freshness, beauty. They feel that the  man who suffers and the man which creates are different. This conflict will go on and so will be the Artists. Bimal Roy- ‘Do Bigha Zameen,  Ray’s’ Ashani Sankeet’ portrayed reaction to monsoon differently.

ART AND CRAFT. Art and craft are different. A good craftsman can be a filmmaker but never an artist. Glaring examples are the Hollywood films with master craftsmanship, but the elevating effect is least. ‘Star Wars’  was one of them. The recently released New Delhi Times was straining for effect. Role of an artist is to create beauty and not to portray what is already beautiful. A hilly landscape of Kashmir is beautiful and will always remain beautiful. It is the Artist’s search for new colours and combinations , new forms and outlines, images and symbols which result in new creation.

(I HAD PREPARED THIS SPEECH  IN 1980 AS PART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING  THEREFORE  SOME  REFERENCES ARE OF THAT TIME, MY VIEWS THOUGH HAVE MODIFIED BUT THE FUNDAMENTALS HAVE REMAINED UNCHANGED)