Films Division rarely evokes the idea of edgy, experimental, subversive films. You associate it with being boring, fogey, propagandist, among the nicer adjectives.
For the uninitiated Film Division, or FD as it is popularly known, is the mass media unit of the I&B Ministry. The channel on Youtube which started in 2013 has some 371 films on it, from the 1950s to the 1980s.
It affords the chance to see vintage India on film like never before. While there is still a bunch of stuff that is um boring, there is also works that are edgy even by today’s standards.
Of the more interesting filmmakers who worked with the FD, the work of three filmmakers truly stand out - SNS Sastry, Pramod Pati and Sukhdev.
Pramod Pati
Pramod Pati who headed the animation unit at FD for some years, made films which seem like acid fueled sojourns into his head.
Abid, which came out in 1970 is based on cartoonist Abid Surty’s work. It is a funny and curious film. The music for these films composed by Vijay Raghav Rao is equally experimental and in sync with the images. The visual and sound performing, in a sense, to each other.
His other films are equally eccentric as also intriguing.
SNS Sastry
SNS Sastry’s I am 20, coming out in 1967 is a film about young people in India who share their birthdays with the Indian Independence. The characters are endearing and voicing concerns which for many of us remain quite similar
His next film carried the experimental and sequential title And I Make Films
S Sukhdev
Sukhdev while less experimental in his subversion but produced one of the most acclaimed documentaries of its time -India ‘67. It was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 1968 Berlin Festival. This is about an hour long. It looks at India, 20 years after Independence. Uday Bhatia in his piece in IQ says, “Though the film was commissioned to celebrate 20 years of independence, Sukhdev proved as adept as Sastry at avoiding gratuitous chest-thumping. Shots of Raj Ghat, for instance, are combined with the recollections of an old flower seller who talks about bringing her boy to the Mahatma’s funeral. This is one of the few scenes where there’s anything resembling narration. Most of the time, the viewer has the freedom to form his or her own story out of Sukhdev’s contemplative images.”
What Else?
There is a whole bunch of other stuff. A film of India’s feminine fashions. This is from 1953 and directed by KL Khandpur. The voice over is like nothing you’ll ever hear again.
There are animations - a throwback to Doordarshan’s style of animation, that you can find here. This video is a PSA against rumour mongering. The rumours are sung out in Hindi notes of Sa Ni Dha Pa and so on. And it’s animated with newspaper clippings. Watch to understand and get a chuckle out of. Directed by BR Shendge, the film came out in 1985
Films of greats such as Girish Karnad, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shyam Benegal, MF Hussain and Gulzar, amongst the better known directors can also be found on this channel.
FD shorts had to be mandatorily screened in movie theatres across India following the Cinematograph Act of 1952. These short films are still screened which is why we see the Quit Smoking, Gutka Mukesh and other such PSAs preceding a film in theatres. FD shorts though are too expensive for the theatres and private vendors have taken over that space.
The channel on YouTube is all we got now.
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