9TH MUMBAI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

HOMAGE

 

THREE ENDURING IMAGES

Bhownagari, Thapa, Chandra at the Films Division

 

-          Amrit Gangar  -

 

After its formation in 1948, the Films Division, has seen various phases in its creative development and depth but, I think, the three of them the J.S. Bhownagari phase, the N.S. Thapa phase and the V.B. Chandra phase stand distinct; the last one saw the birth of MIFF. As ndiv,dual producers-directors, they were three different spirits, three different temperaments, provoking three different bodies of work in three different qualities of time cultural, social and political. For any person heading this Government-owned out-fit, these are extremely important temporal templates.

 

On the advice of India ’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Jehangir (Jean to his friends) Bhownagary returned to India in 1954 from the UNESCO, and joined the Films Division as its Deputy Chief Producer until 1957, in the absence of any Chief Producer. In the liberal and secular Nehruvian times, Bhownagary encouraged talent, in-house and from outside. Among the films he directed, Realm of Sound (1954) is an interesting survey of the rapid growth of broadcasting in India while Radha and Krishna (1957), very charmingly uses the Indian miniature painting images to evoke the eternal love and beauty. As producer, he came out with Akbar, yet another film using paintings of Muslim and Hindu artists of the 16th century to evoke history of the great Mughal emperor, Jalalul-din Mohammad Akbar Ghazi (1542-1605). And Report on Drought (1967), produced by him, provides an example of how on-the-spot, economical, in-depth reportage could be made without boring the audience.

 

It was Bhownagary who could attract the renowned painter M.F. Hussain to make a film, and the painter created a deeply impressionistic work of art on celluloid, Through the Eyes of a Painter (1967), which still holds itself solidly. Of course, Hussain sahab has since then made his name as a painter-filmmaker globally. On the invitation of Indira Gandhi, the Minister of Information & Broadcasting in the Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s government, Bhownagary again returned to India , this time (1965-67) as Chief Adviser (Films) in the Ministry of 1&B.

 

Narain Singh Thapa (Narain to his friends), the “Boy from Lambata” provided a different institutional energy to the Films Division energy that aspired to scale the Everest, the energy that wanted to record the rapid changes around, even at great risk to life. The ‘man with the movie camera always cherished the period of his life when he was a newsreel cameraman, travelling extensively in India and abroad, recording events for posterity. As he once recalled, the Prime Minister Nehru often suggested subjects for documentary films. One of them was on the snows and glaciers of the Himalayas . For shooting the film, Song of the Snows (1963) he negotiated icy peaks with his filming paraphernalia - to 20,000 feet! The film won the President’s Gold Medal. A child of the mountains that he was, only he could make the film Everest (1976) so lovingly, and so were Kangra and Kulu (1960), Mountain Vigil (1963) and more personal Lambata (1992), which is the name of the house his grand father built on a forlorn ridge in the village of Marh-Manle in Pithoragarh district of Uttarkhand. Thapa paid a tribute to the builder of modern India and his great mentor Jawaharlal Nehru, through a very dignified documentary, Nehru, a Universal Man (1990). Thapa sahab shot and often edited his films.

 

When Vijay Bahadur Chandra took over, he was not fortunate enough to have the bubbling curiosity of the Nehruvian times. But earlier as a director of films, the body of his work stands strong. His non-formulaic, prayoga film Child on a Chessboard (1979) effectivelY dealt with two parallel themes “Man with all knowledge” and “Child, the Father of Man”. Paint, Paint, Paint (1968) creates a symphony of colors while bringing to screen the romance of manufacture of paints in India , again celebrating the prayoga spirit. My Name is Indu (1969), on the other hand, is a film introducing the public sector Hindustan Photo Film Company situated in picturesque Ootacamund. Its playful title would perhaps mischievously imply it to be a film on a girl named Indu. Dolls (1972) symbolically depicts the life of a toy maker while Drums (1974), a quickie, presents India ’s percussion instruments. His 1990 documentary on the Kathak dance maestro Birju Maharaj is more exploratory.

 

Chandra sahab always dreamt of having an independent film festival in India that could showcase the best documentary, short and animation films from across the country and the world. He wanted to fire our youngsters’ imagination by showing to them the unusual films. Through his deep passion, patience and hard work, he could overcome many impossible hurdles and succeed in launching the MIFF (then BIFF) in 1990.

In these times of greedy global privatization push, the three enduring images signify how precious the public institutional and spatial ownership is, the space that can nourish the spirit of prayoga, the spirit of giving something wholesome and thought provoking to people-citizens that perhaps no profit-centered, market-driven private entrepreneur will be interested in. Amen.

Amrit Gangar is freelance writer, film critic and film activist.

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