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Wednesday, 4 May 2011

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Film appreciation with K S Sivakumaran:

Random observations on SAARC films

In a rapidly changing world the second half of the last century witnessed the changing patterns in the cultural scene. The western-centred cultural activities began to decline in the eastern world with the awareness of the newly emerged nations gradually rejuvenating their own cultural traditions and roots soon after decolonization. In the 1950s what was known as the 'Dark Continent' Africa came to be noticed by the world through the increased number in membership of the United Nations. In the following decades it was not only Africa but also Asia that contains great nations like China, Japan and India evolved into exerting its rich cultural roots to be noticed by the rest of the world. The Non-aligned Conferences, SEAC (South East Asian Conferences) and the SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Conferences) furthered the aspirations of greater number of people in the Southern Pole of the Globe.

The Indian subcontinent that includes India and Pakistan and the other neighbouring nations like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives have become important countries that the rest of the world began to take notice of the significance of such countries. Likewise the West Asia (what we call the Middle East) and South East Asia too have brought about remarkable development in all areas of progress including cultures.

It is in such a map that the film cultures of these great countries have been globalized through International Film Festivals. One such Festival is the forthcoming SAARC Film Festival to be held in Colombo organized by the SAARC Cultural Centre in Colombo, Sri Lanka between May 11 and 15 at the National Film Corporation (NFC) Hall at Torrington Square.

We understand that already four or five films from SAARC countries have already been scheduled and further details of the Festival would be notified through the media.

This columnist suggests that those who are interested in seeing quality films should patronize the festival to get a better understanding and appreciation of the film medium.

From our observation on the SAARC Film Festival let us switch on to some comments on an film production in a region in India. The region is Maharashtra State. S we know Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) is the capital of this state. It is the centre for the immensely popular Bollywood films which are largely made in the Hindi (Hindustani) language spoken by over 200 million people in Northern India. The present population of India is reportedly over one billion.

The main language in Maharashtra is Marathi, but Mumbai being the business capital and a cosmopolitan mega city besides Marathi such languages like Gujarati, Hindi, and Urdu and in some places Dravidian languages like Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada are also spoken. Some people say that Maharashtrans have Dravidian affinity.

In the latter part of this week's column, let's focus on an outstanding Marathi film director and one of his recent films. The director is Amol Palekar and the film is titled And Once Again It was shown two years ago at the IFFI ((International Film Festival of India) two years ago. I have met this theatre man and film director several times at the different IFFI. His former wife Chitra is also an actress, director and a member of Film Juries on many occasions.

Amol Palekar's mother tongue is Marathi. He began his career as an experimental theatre person. He introduced the 'Theatre of the Absurd to Maharashtra audiences. He performed in street dramas and in 1971 his friend Satyadev Dubey directed a film called Shanta! Court Chalu Aahe with which Amol's film career began. That film is described as the starting of the 'New Cinema Movement' in Marathi. After acting in several outstanding Marathi films directed by different directors from other regions, Amol Palekar began to himself direct films from the beginning of this century.

His film And Once Again is set in hilly Sikkim. It's about a married female architect, Manuvela and a diplomat, Rishi who in his posting in Yugoslavia lost his wife and son in a violent assault. The architect is the daughter of the psychiatrist under whom the diplomat gets his treatment for his mental agony after the indelible memory of his wife and son. Mauvela's husband is Rishikesh. But as fate has it the architect falls in love with Rishi. They get married. And he regains his normality.

Although the story is interesting, yet it is non-conformist and a little 'alien' to eastern audiences. But the film is absorbing with appreciable cinema fare.

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