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Exclusive: Resistance to Change Is Making Film Bodies Redundant

A panel report had flayed both the National Film Archive, and the Children’s Film Society of India.

Published
India
5 min read
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It’s a veritable Cinema Paradiso. The National Film Archive of India, situated in a tree-queued lane of Pune, disturbed only by auto rickshaw beeps, is a treasure trove of films – Indian and western – on which the best filmmakers and technicians have imbibed their skills.

From the surviving reels of Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harischandra (1913) of the silent era to the classic oeuvres of world filmmakers, they’re all there, essential texts for film students and cinéastes.

Trouble has persisted, though, at this Pardiso since a decade and a half. Ever since its mastermind and indefatigable chief, P K Nair retired, there have been seismic tremors, if not quakes. Nair, a soft-spoken crusader of film as an art form, would throw open the film vaults to facilitate screenings even for students who came without any credentials or letters of recommendations.

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A panel report had flayed both the National Film Archive, and the Children’s Film Society of India.
(Photo courtesy: Shivendra Singh)

Past Culture of Mentoring

Ask me – through the 1970s, a bunch of us celluloid-addicts would bus to Pune. Nair would introduce us to the experimental films of Maya Derren besides organising screenings of the works of Robert Bresson, Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog, and countless other masters. He would organise guest rooms for our weekend stays at a subsidised rates. A pittance would be charged for those exclusive screenings. Some of us from that Bombay-Pune busload went on to become filmmakers, critics and technicians.

Eminent graduates of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, too, have consistently expressed their gratitude to the Nair era of exposing know-nothings to the incalculable power-wattage of cinema.

So much for this personal relationship of mine to the Archive, which is now marked by bureaucracy. Entry for researchers is laden with forms to fill and fees to cough up. Moreover, the Archive is in urgent need of repair, rejuvenation and of course, that all-encompassing word, redefinition.

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Damning Report

Quite clearly, the report of the expert Evaluation Committee which has been ignored by both the former and the ruling governments, should be re-opened pronto if the Archive is to regain its health and raison d’etre. The committee had called for the imperative need for a red-alert ‘Heritage Mission’.

Believe it or not, the experts had noted that of the 1700 films made during the silent era, preceding the arrival of sound in 1931, only nine have survived, “not all of them in their complete length.”

In addition, the overall view is that the preservation of the classics is “lamentable”. The state of affairs at the Archive has been described as “shameful”.

On a positive note, the ministry of information and broadcasting was asked to prioritise the appointment of an enlightened curator. Easier suggested than executed perhaps, but not impossible. The example of the celebrated director Costa-Gavras holding fort at the Cinematheque of Paris, was cited as a role model.

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Snapshot

Need to Wipe off the Dust

  • Prompt action needed on the report of the expert Evaluation Committee on the National Film Archive
  • The Archive struggling with many problems including shortage of staff and need for modernization
  • Similar tale follows at the Children’s Film Society of India where the newly appointed chairperson Mukesh ‘Shaktimaan’ Khanna should take cognizance of the evaluation committee report
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Needless to emphasise, today the I&B ministry has to wake up and understand quite a few aspects of the near-moribund Archive:

  • The Archive is hopelessly understaffed. With time, the collection of archived films and related material like video prints has been mounting. However, with the dwindling manpower, the Archive’s core purpose to store and preserve films could come to a “grinding halt.”
  • The air-conditioning system, necessary to keep the prints in pristine shape, in one of the Archive’s buildings is over 20-years-old and breaks down frequently. Get that fixed!
  • The main auditorium, where screenings unspool regularly for Film Institute students and for international film festivals, has to be modernised. Its sound system has to be upgraded from mono to Dolby sound. As for the seats, carpets and the projectors, the less groaned about them, the better.
  • Instead of manually-operated machines, films must be preserved by Ultra-cleaning machines.
  • The Archive shouldn’t be viewed as revenue-generating source. For instance, the annual membership fee for its Film Circle cannot be arbitrarily hiked, as it was at one point from Rs 800 to Rs 2000. Following protests from the members, the sum was reduced to Rs 1500.

For sure, no busloads of eager-beaver movie lovers could be travelling to the Archive any more since the attitude is, “We’re too busy, send us a mail and we’ll let you know.” The snag is they don’t let you know.

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A panel report had flayed both the National Film Archive, and the Children’s Film Society of India.
(Photo courtesy: Karan Desai)

Rot in the Children’s Film Society

Over now to the another government film body – the Children’s Film Society of India – located in the sprawling campus of the Films Division on Peddar Road, Mumbai.

Down the decades, celebrated names right from Amol Palekar, Shabana Azmi and Jaya Bachchan to Raveena Tandon, Nafisa Ali, Nandita Das and Amol Gupte have sat shakily and stood up groggily from the chairperson’s chair. Given the annual budget and the dos and don’ts, none of them could achieve much, except to complain about the ‘challenges’ posed by the Establishment.

If he means business, then, the present chairperson Mukesh ‘Shaktimaan’ Khanna could request for the Evaluation committee’s report. It would help him to realise that the reformist committee had advised “a drastic rehaul” without mincing any words:

  • The CFSI operates almost “under the radar”. Its profile is “timid” and its activities “tenative”.
  • It continues to exist, oblivious of the fact that satellite TV channels now cater to a vast viewership of children across the land.
  • Vacancies need to be filled up.
  • Collaborations could be sought with funding organisations such as the UNICEF.
  • It should not be called a Society but a Trust or Foundation.
  • The CFSI needs a “new vision statement”.

Period. Now what can I say but “Hear! Hear!” Problem: the central government worthies just don’t seem to be in the mood to lend anyone their ears.

(The writer is a film critic, filmmaker, theatre director and weekend painter)

Read part 1 and part 2 of the exclusive series by the writer on the rot in the government film bodies.

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