“Are good films the ones that fetch good turn over?”

During a televised discussion at the ‘Taaza Khabar’ (a Kolkata based TV Channel) I got in the opportunity to discuss about ‘films of today and their relevance for the future’. It was a striking subject with the 15th Kolkata Film Festival being held in the city and at a time when there is a political upheaval with ongoing political violence in and around the state. The panel had Filmmaker Ashok Vishwanathan, quite a name in the city along with the documentary filmmaker Arvind Sinha of the Shaziya fame and journalist Vishambar Newar as the moderator. What struck me was the fact that the focus of the discussion meandered through how with limited resources film makers make films these days and how India suddenly has explored the great world of International viewership that is capable of bringing great turnovers for the films.

It is true and I fully agree that films are to be made for selective audience who can relate to the movies and in turn fetch good proceeds for the films as well. And if the International audience is the answer and our filmmakers are getting applauded and acknowledged for the piece of art they produce what is the harm in it. And as Ashok Vishwanathan said whether good or bad, filmmakers make a film on the subject they believe in and leave it to the audience to respond. So was conceded by Arvind Sinha as well but here lies the big questions.

My question here is whether our films really reaching to the right and the larger Indian audience. If so where is the forum? With multiplex culture, films seem to be so audience targeted that even contents do not represent the entire country. In the last, I don’t know how many years but most of the films I saw were either set for a multiplex audience only or for the film festivals. And hence the increase in numbers of ‘B’ and ‘C’ grade films believing ‘good films are meant only for the good audience’. To particularly mention here the latest ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ bringing Oscars to India showcasing the other India, found place in the elitist Indian cities whereas in the smaller towns public did not even get to know the film. It was not because of the English language in which the film was made but because it did not reach to India’s greater audience. Even films or documentaries made on Nandigram and the great naxalite movements have been set with a very urban mindset. I want to question here as to why the rest of India is left behind. Are filmmakers not finding a ‘returning proceeds’ from the rest of India that constitutes the greater India or else the urban rural divide is so big that the urban or the more ‘return fetching’ audience would not find the subjects so exiting.

It is true, film fairs and film festivals are great forum for filmmakers to showcase their art. But why are filmmakers hesitant in reaching out. If Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, the Chief Minister of the state while announcing the film festival in Kolkata says that ‘even hungry stomachs sing songs’ did he mean that his audience for whom the Kolkata film festival was being held did have people with empty stomachs.

I am personally not against the film festivals that give us as urbanites the opportunity to view good films and even multiplexes that bring in new films. But I want to actually believe that why has this divide between the rural and urban India deepened over the years that films of today don’t fit anywhere in between. As when Arvind Sinha said that films are not made for ‘everybody to watch’ did he not mean that it is for ‘selective audience’.

We have known that films have been a means of education. Films have been the measures to build bridges between communities, classes and countries irrespective of language, region or even ethic divide. If the content today is so focused and targeted and ‘turnover oriented’ are they not becoming the reason for the ‘great rural urban divide’. It is true a filmmaker needs lots of fund to make his film and to reach out to people. In this world of show business one also needs to make profits. So, if in the ‘film industry’ as it is called today and the ‘turnover market’ why should it then remain a piece of art and not just sheer sector of business.

Ashok Vishwanthan himself conceded that when ‘Pather Panchali’ was made it did not find very elite audience because people did not understand them. Yet, it is an extraordinary piece of work. What I meant to ask them, is whether there is a dearth of content or the rural urban divide is so deep that films cannot be made with the entire Indian viewers as audience.

Who would have the last laugh? Buddha or Mamata

On a day when Mamata Banerjee was addressing a public meeting in Nandigram first time after her much hyped Lok Sabha win in the state, her bete noir Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was holding a press conference to announce the schedule of the Kolkata film festival. When Mamata was saying Buddhadeb was a ‘Moaist’ and hands in gloves in killing people in the state’, Buddhadeb was philosophically justifying the timing of holding the Kolkata film festival. ‘Even hungry people sing songs and the film festival will bring in creative work in the state that would show them path in this time of crisis’. ( read a time when there is disturbance and discontentment all over the state.)

This was no Gandhigiri. Buddhadeb has pretended to overlook even grim situations many a times. From the uprising in Nandigram, to ration riots in Birbhum, Bankura, Murshidabad, Singur, to political riots all over the state, he has tried to play cool and hence been caught in fire in most of the cases. The state now in turbulence even as the ruling Left blames the opposition for lighting the flames along with the Maoists while the latter led by Mamata Banerjee trying hard to keep the flames lit so as to char the thirty year old Left rule in the state completely.

Here comes in the big question as to who will have the last laugh in this turbulence. Be it either, the state is in flames and the situation grim. There are political riots everywhere in the districts from Hoogly to Midnapur, to South 24 paraganas to Burdawan. Maoists are on a free run dictating terms, political activists unleashing a phase of terror, arson and killings, state agricultural productivity gone down and development static. Where is the state heading towards and what is being achieved?

Buddhadeb had not banned the Maoists despite their growing menace in the state since last couple of years. During Nandigram’s capturing and recapturing mode it was a state of war ie fight for ‘ Dakhal’ ie ‘the political dominance’ leading to political riots in that area. He looked the other way until his own supporters and followers fell prey directly. Finally his party lost the people’s support but rather than counting his own failures he concentrated blaming his opposition parties for conniving with the Maoists in unleashing violence.

On the other hand, Mamata has been spitting fire always. She knows populist slogans can set fire against Budhadeb particularly at a time when most in the state is disillusioned by Buddhadeb’s philosophical attitude. And all the violence in Trinamool dominated areas now are also as a result of that old war of ‘political dominance’. Had it not been so, Nishikant Mondal the Trinamool Congress panchayat pradhan of Nandigram whose killing Mamata was mourning in Nandigram yesterday would not have been a victim of brutal killing in the area he ruled and ensured the wipe out of the CPIM there. His killing has not come with the CPIM goons but the Maoists who have now returned as Frankestein’s Ghost in Nandigram and started to haunt Mamata. And it is for so that Mamata has had to approve for the first time in public that military action should be taken against the Maoists. Until now she had proclaimed that she wanted the joint operation to stop at Lalgarh and security forces to be withdrawn. Does this means she has changed her stand after realizing that the Maoists are back to bully her now. She seems to be particularly sure now after the ‘Rajdhani hijacking’ in Banstala last week where Maoists leader ‘Kishenji’ wanted to talk to her and do the bargain.

Moreso, be it the Maoists or no armed political activists. Clashes turning to rioting have become just another common part of everyday life in West Bengal now. That which had started with Budhhadeb’s ‘paying back people in their own coin’ to Mamata’s joining hands with the Maoists and capturing and recapturing Nandigram, has turned into a total era of anarchy and it will not be easy for ‘Budha babu’ or ‘Mamata didi’ to calm down Bengal now. And the one who would have the nerve to reinstate faith back in the democratic values will only have the last laugh. As for the present the chances for which is quite dim.