India is a vast reservoir of subjects suitable for making a good many documentaries on. Scores of fresh passouts from leading film schools are documenting untold stories on the camera and yet the want of a proper platform debars them from highlighting their creations to a wider cross-section of masses. Albeit it isn’t a virgin genre, yet docus primarily cater to a niche viewership. The Union government must provide special subsidies and encouraging incentives to net such raw new talents whose contribution can further boost an all-round development of the cine industry,” commented eminent filmmaker Jahnu Barua at the recently held International Social Communication Cinema Conference (ISCCC) in Kolkata.
Jointly organised by Roopkala Kendro — Film and Social Communication Institute, department of information and cultural affairs and the government of West Bengal in association with Nandan — West Bengal Film Centre, the 11th edition of the film festival saw this year a teeming turnout of directors, film associates and delegates from around the globe. A veritable package of 48 movies with shorts, features and docus dominating the scene was what remained the toast of the three-day affair for the avid cineastes.
“But honestly, people in general aren’t even aware of the valuable existence of such beautiful, thought-provoking and knowledge-sharing movies, which start gathering dust in the cans,” observed the cerebral director.
“They are the must-add assets to our film libraries. Fact is, due to lack of extensive exhibition and largescale publicity, the genre is lagging much behind on the mass media. I personally feel that a fair amount of conviction is required on the film fraternity’s part to back and support such endeavours of vision for the well-being of posterity,” opined the 59 year-old multiple national award winner of international repute. Best known in the Hindi-speaking sphere for his critically acclaimed film Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara starring Anupam Kher and the yet-to-be-released Har Pal featuring Dharmendra, Preity Zinta, Shiney Ahuja and Isha Koppikar, Barua has also won laurels at the prestigious Chicago, Brussels, Locarno, Singapore and other movie-fests.
Hailing from the upper, remote altitudes of Assam, Baruah feels that “for mainstream audiences, only commercial pot-boilers seem the ultimate option to dream of and believe in. We can’t deny that besides entertainment, cinema does have a task of social responsibility to carry out. And documentaries certainly inform and educate public on a host of burning issues, be it social, political, pragmatic or economic. Matters which cause a stir or create an upheaval or steer a revolutionary movement can be effectively translated onto the screen, if adapted with the right kind of prospect. You see, this germ needs to be injected, instilled and generously fed into the Gen-Y aspirants with convenient guidance.”
Underscoring the fact that most filmmakers are crazy people with a “keeda” in their minds, Barua says in a lighter vein that “I too may have been bitten by some worm. Otherwise, how on earth, despite being a nondescript boy from the boondocks of Northeast, I dreamt of weaving tales across the 70 mm silver canvas and one fine day, landed at the well-esteemed precinct of the FTII, Pune, in order to realise my goals.”
Having reeled over a dozen projects till date with three Hindi and four regional language ventures to boot, Barua attests that “cinema has its own lingo to simultaneously woo several minds with diverse tastes and there, regional vernaculars do not pose a barrier of disparity in understanding.”
Standing in Bengal while delivering his speech, Barua reveals that his first exposure to Bengali happened through FTII where he had the good fortune of meeting one of the most prolific and distinguished auteurs of Indian cinema — Ritwik Ghatak.
“When I joined the academy, he was the vice principal and after retirement, he returned to the school as a guest professor and did a series of workshops with us. Interacting with him from a close proximity, I realised how passionate he was towards the cinematic craft and reprimanded us with the choicest cuss words in Bengali (laughs), if we ever failed to perform to his expectations. Here we witnessed a man, who was breathing, living, talking and sleeping cinema completely. An institution in himself, this master-maker of parallel cinema and a painter of social reality had taught us some essential lessons which we learnt with great interest and devotion,” he fondly recalled.
He outrightly advocated the term “social communication” as he analysed that it correctly depicts the function of cinema. “Cinema as an artform ought to live up to its aesthetic sensibilities. At the same time, it must ensure the recovery of its costs as a commercially viable enterprise. From a practical point of view, the output is a result of a collective team effort. So, every department has to come under consideration while dividing the share of profits. But it becomes a big concern, where business exceeds the ethics of art. A maker must marry the two to conceive a well-balanced, nourished fruit, so that it’s quality doesn’t suffer because of undue compromises. It’s high time that we learn to understand the need and importance of this audio-visual medium and plan its upliftment on national level,” explained Baruah.
Attaching paramount importance to cinema studies, Barua stresses on appropriate film appreciation courses.
“More and more film institutes should open up their doors to welcome deserving candidates to nurture, refine and provide wings to their flights of cinematic fantasies and lend an expression to their ideas, designs, concepts and thoughts of substance into meaningful movies. It’s like grasping the basic ropes right from the root-level to consolidate the foundation,” comes the exponent’s advice.
Heading the Indian Documentary Production Association for two consecutive terms, Barua admits that “my experience over there has helped registering in me, the importance of filming documentaries within our boundaries. Sadly enough, even erudite people majorly think that docus define those drab flicks which are deprived of songs, dance and high-voltage action necessary to mint money. Hence, we seldom find takers to distribute the prints,” Baruah groused.