THE CINEMA SITUATION a symposium on the struggle for a genuine expression

symposium participants

r~ 5 DOCUMENTATION CENTRE

THE PROBLEM A short statement of the issues involved MYTHS FOR SALE Kumar Shahani, film maker and winner of the national award for the best Hindi film ) of 1972 THE SUCCESS FORMULA Shyam Senegal, documentary and feature film maker COMMUNICATION Manl Kaul, film maker, winner of the national award for direction of 1973 MONEY POWER Adoor Gopalakrishnan, film maker, winner of the national award for the Best Film of 197(2 THE PARALLEL STREAM Dileep Padgaonkar, Assistant Editor, 'Times of India' ,FURTHER READING , A select and relevant bibliography ' compiled by Devendra Kumar COVER Designed by Dilip Chowdhury Associates ' The problem India's film industry has manufactured and peddled over many decades a distinctly unique commodity to a wide and unsuspecting audience. Based primarily on fantasy, it has mocked at every value in a richly diverse culture. Mock heroism, mock sex, mock dancing, mock singing, mock religion, mock revolution — the lot. In its end product, it has shown the degree of degradation to which a transparently synthetic approach can lead. Its influence on society has been startling — in dress, styles of living, methods of working and, most shatteringly, in the dreams and aspirations of a deprived people. The bizarre world of the screen is the world to reach for. Unfortunately, this commodity faced no challenge of any stature until the arrival of the new Bengali film under Satyajit Ray. His Pather Panchali showed that films could be made with little finance, and no stars, and with integrity. Since then, there has been a gentle struggling, a push here, an upsurge there, a raising of more authentic voices, the slow birth of an indigenous cinema. But, it is beset with problems. Finance, distribution and, infinitely more serious, that of communicating in a medium which is not mock fantasy any more. For, the audience has come to regard the film as synonymous with a particular breed of song, dance, vulgarity, burlesque, violence, crudity, escape, often under the mush of misleading pro- gressive situations — rich man poor girl, rigid father growing son, erring husband devoted wife, etc. Is it ready, even in small measure, to receive a new experience from a familiar medium? If not, then how can the struggling new cinema survive and break through an obvious initial rejection. For one thing, far too much money is at stake. Then, the way of compromise propagated 10 by some is also no solution because authenticity cannot be compromised; it changes and becomes what it is not. Neither is seeing a film an instant busi- ness. You cannot read a book unless you learn the letters of an alphabet. And you cannot develop discrimination unless you read a wide variety of litera- ture, unless you are constantly exposed to the medium. The cinema requires an equal input if, not more. It also requires constant exposure which costs money, a quantum of money beyond the reach of the non-smuggling-backed producer. And this money can pay no dividends unless it communicates at once — which it cannot. So this is the circle of the contemporary cinema situa- tion out of which the new producers have to cut a way of survival and progress. They must be able to establish some point of communication with an otherwise addicted audience, they must know that this will be a slow and painful process, and that no glib passing the buck to the industry will do. A film or a play or a book has not only to find its audience but also be sustained by it, however specia- lised or restricted. This fundamental cannot be excused away^either. On the other hand, there is no reason for undue excitement over the Film Finance Corporation's funds being spent on films that ostensibly have not been able to sell. The breakthrough of an indigenous Indian cinema is going to require much greater effort than that at this early stage of experimentation. Any denial of sustenance now will be disastrous. In fact, the FEC has every reason to be proud of its performance in the last few years. Support to the new producers must now be extended to the field of distribution so that at least they can show their films, otherwise where will this very slow motion confrontation between the overpowering, established industry and the emerging new take place. This issue of SEMINAR is an attempt to capture some aspects of the battle that is joined. myths for sale

KUMAR SHAHANI

THE cinema for us is the most through centuries of oppression, important of all the arts. The made more powerful by technology. mechanical reproduction of physi- cal reality—after centuries of A local monopolist^ and others frustrated tentatives—should have, who envy him—including coffee- once and for all, freed us both house militants—ask grandiloqu- from its narrow fixed perspective ently, for whom does one make and from the nebulous other- commodities (films)? The answer worldliness of art. Instead, here, should be obvious, especially since as elsewhere, it has delivered the those who ask the question seem to twin enemies of the people: a amass the fortunes themselves. A barely masked, elitism and the surplus is extracted from the mas- naked force of an under-developed ses with whom they claim to com- market. Hitler and Leni Reifens- municate. Innocently, left intellec- thal discovered that the triumph of tuals join the chorus, demand the will could be engineered instant messages—the plan of a through the lie of the camera. struggle without the prolonged pro- Here, we have made of photo- cess of arming the people with graphic verisimilitude the medium consciousness and weapons. of lumpen fantasy. The logic of On the other hand, artists eng- 'mass communication' and its aged in the moral pursuit of the opposite, 'elitist withdrawal', both 'finer' things, with obvious access borrowed from a country which to the country's resources, con- controls 70% of the world's demn the committed to heroic resources, is supposed to extend suicide. People who did not know across a nation that has yet to that the CPI(M-L) existed consist- electrify more than 60% of its ently held up the examples of villages. We want to communi- so-called 'Naxalites'. The distor- cate with a 'mass' after having cut tions of the bourgeois press are off all contact with the people—• unblushingly used by those who 12 confirm the audiences in their wish to produce objects of mass repressed consciousness, continue consumption or objects d'art. We to use the language developed seem to be moving to the mystery of the commodity form before jecting all syntax—as a reaction, than the concretizations of specific establishing the relations of pro- undoubtedly—to achieve a kind of historical freedoms, has to lead to duction that produce it. When we savage lyricism. Onomatopoeia was notions of natural superiority (of a look at ourselves in the image of not a. cinematic device for the race, caste or a class) and can, at the West, we associate Indianness French New Wave. It was its best, be benevolently merciful to with products of feudal hands and vocabulary. Its syntax—where it lower beings who have however to feudal minds. The western man's had articulated any—was that of continue to perform their original notion of India is derived from the American 'B' film. functions! handloom fabrics, the sitar and 'transcendence' in various forms. When, however, montage—or the The object d'art and the 'mass- A he theory that there exists a juxtaposition of 'linguistic' (arbit- movie' alike alienate men from Cartesian polarity between arbit- rary) elements—was discovered to themselves—to invest their creati- rary (aesthetic) signs and total be inevitable at every stage of film ' , vity in a totality outside. realism necessarily led to quantita- making, an attempt was made to tive conclusions and meaningless reconcile the materialist dialectic For good reasons, therefore, we oppositions: the proliferation of of Eisenstein to the anarchic flux continue to congratulate ourselves detail as against metaphysical of nature. This resulted in fruitful on our myth making capacity. Our truth (where quality cannot be changes, gradually ripening into a ancients often chose to disguise seized), the fluidity of mise-en- break with passivity. But, so long their knowledge in religious myths. scene as against the metre of as it remained rooted in philoso- Today, as religion is replaced by. montage, the existential tension of phical speculation, it could at best »j f^ other forms of culture, new myths suspense (Hitchpck) as against the express impotent moral indigna- are made so palpable that they can tragic release from pity and fear. tion and. in the absence of any replace actuality itself. concrete solution, offer suicide or - The terms of reference . were undirected violence as an escape purely idealist: the human being from the human condition. God- JL he basic contradiction of the unsocialized and nature untrans- dard's trolley shots, as he claimed, cinematographic form arises from formed. Or, when socialized and were acts of morality as they ex- its capacity of replacing the object transformed, superficially so. This posed characters in the process of of its 'contemplation' by its image. attitude necessarily tended either to living, or of tragic lyricism as they The commercial cinema has used exclude syntax progressively (rea- went past landscapes (Vivre, sa Vie). it to create not only dreams* that lism) or to impose it as totally To explore essence through exist- substitute reality, but its commo- arbritary structures, which could ence. It is only after he had stop- dity gods known as stars. Even therefore yield only transcendental ed 'clowning for the bourgeoisie' montage has, with the best of in- or socially insignificant meaning. (said in an interview to Le Monde) tentions, led to the necessary juxt- If in practice some of the East that he discovered the significantly aposition of icons or signs which European avant-garde adopted the commentative use of movement— totally replace reality instead of same methods, it may not neces- the dehumanizatjon in a large, evoking or analysing it, thus creat- sarily be a reflection of their impersonal department store. ing a structure close to myth with societies but the apathy into which (Tout va Bieri). all its falsehood. The avant garde materialists are driven by the experiments, borrowing a syntax bombardment. of questions posed from the other arts, have merely ahistorically. "^ been attempts at achieving a kind JL ormal considerations have to be •-" of respectability for the cinema. linked not merely to immutable, The 'dialectic of pure reason' perennial ideation or subject mat- necessarily led to the belief that Well interitioned as these experi- ter nor to naturalistic detail, but in the cinema, nature would imi- to specific historic circumstance. ments, may be, they are a repetition tate art (Andre Bazin). The inter- of failures demonstrated earlier on ( Otherwise it will have no content. vention of the artist had to be It will be a narrative of events in Europe, particularly towards asocial and, therefore, there is the the end of the silent era. But in (with some rhetoric thrown in for intervention of God (derived from appearing 'left', if found necessary) our country, literariness or pain- Bresson) or revealed by. minimis- terliness and, surprisingly, even ing the intervention (derived from or a juxtaposition of empty abstr- theatricality, when compared to the Rosselini). What started as a actions, meaningful in a period normal orgies of the vulgar imagi- healthy reaction against fadsm gone by. It is not surprising that nation, still pass for good cinema. (particularly in Italy), because it even directors with predominantly The cinema has indeed incorpora- spoke in terms of abstract morali- 'spiritualist' pre-occupations should ted into its language elements from ty, had to degenerate into a abandon them for a more material/ all the parallel arts but only after passive acceptance of the evil by life. Rosselini moves towards the having transformed them into its proposing metaphysical solutions. didactic and shows how the bour- specific means {of spatializing time Here is proof of the fact that fasc- geoisie collaborated with the mon- and temporalizing space). In fact, ism is but a logical extension of the arch to imprison the aristocracy after neo-realism, it had gone bourgeois ethic. Morality, linked to (La prise du pouvoir de Louis through a complete phase of re- the abstract rights of man rather XIV). Bresson admits sociology not only into human relations for the consumption of the work- as women, vaisyas, and sudra». .* (les blousons noirs ia.Au Hasard ing and lower middle classes. Since That is, all women and all men of Balthasar) but into form itself (the they most need the cinema as a the working and producing classes scene at the Museum of Modern substitute for life—their conditions are defiled by their very birth Art in Une Femme Douce.) Go- of work being the most dehumanis- though they may in after-life be dard makes a complete break with ing—the bulk of investment goes freed by their faith in the god who his 'clowning' and almost with the into films that can successfully degrades them so casually in this visual image. With his newly found distort their fantasies of sex and one. Not only that, the god himself commitment, he wants to learn violence. One is almost certain had created such differences (G. the cinema all over again and that, if left alone to their real fan- 4.13.): "The four-caste (-class) is as awkward as a child taking tasies, they could be far healthier. division has been created by Me"; his first steps. Perhaps they would recognize the this is proclaimed in the list of actuality of the violence daily great achievements.' (From Myth practised on them and the constant and Reality by D. D. Kosambi.) .tiave we made our first steps, denial of human contact to which one wonders, towards a cinema they are subject—inclusive of the These texts may indeed be that could lift itself from the emotional, of the sexual and of worthy of study. As are Pericles' morass of underdevelopment. One 1 the increasing possibility of collec- 'Funeral Oration' or Aristotle's can say with some pride that there tive co-operation. j_jJut the fight 'Polities'. But to revere them is have been instances where one has sequence is as necessary to divert to suggest deviously that democracy glimpsed far, open horizons. But, one from the fundamental nature will be achieved through slave labour ^ by and large, the stranglehold of of violence in society as is the or that a modern society could rea- \ the commercial cinema still has a voyeristic cabaret to degrade at iise its goals through inequality. suffocating grip. Even on those least half of humanity. Combine The children of God (not shudras), of us for whom 'economic viabi- this with a rebellion against autho- will inherit the earth so long as lity' is not a primary condition. rity which ends up in the humanis- their masters inherit its wealth. Those who speak in terms of com- ing of the parent-villain or the promise—or its denial—are being employer-villain without changing cynical or choosing not to recog- the nature_ of the exploitative ^'ensorship confirms the exten- nise the objective situation. relationships^ sion of assigned social roles not / Individualism always requires only along caste and class lines but along the lines of family functions .. i the support of false idealism and morality. If freedom is the recog- 'L/ensorship -policies which- have and sex as well. The heights of nition of necessity, to speak of tied down the members of, the feminine heroism are still found in 'absolute' truths, dialectics reduc- Board to seemingly absurd irra- a bovine version of motherhood. ed to formal principles, or a peren- tionalities help, in fact, to sustain Even as the country starves. It is • nial humanity is to fetter oneself this obscenely unreal world. An far removed from the vitality of with the same ideology that the anti-communal film could easily be Kali or the other fertility goddess ruling classes use in their more denied a certificate for fear of images. savagely naked forms—the artistic arousing religious passions among objects of mass consumption. The the majority. Allusions to the The docile heroine must look Dara Singh mythological may be caste system are permitted only if like a whore but must neither bare her body in its raw splendour nor reserved for the rural and semi- the lower castes are not mentioned < t urban markets. But the other by their generic name. Even if show her human desire. The cen- * classes need their own icons to you wish to condemn the orthodox sorship laws allow cabarets which worship: We have already observ- fragment the female, body into cut- reactionary bigot who can only refer out objects for male acquisitiveness. •ed how a set of cinematographic to the lower castes as 'shudras', signs, even in fa* more developed The nude, however, is dangerous, you will not be allowed to use the for ishe can be a whole person with societies, can degenerate into pejorative word. You may how- mythical constructions in which her own subjectivity. When will ever use the appellation 'brahmin', we learn, once again, to take pride the container of content takes the taken from the same heirarchical place of what it contains (the thing in ourselves as human beings? If structure! Such contradictions can not like the athletes of the city- signified). Thereby it becomes only exist in a 'secular democracy' sufficient unto itself, content be- state, can we not restore the which allows you to swear by the graceful line reserved for our god- comes transcendental, the argu- Koran, the Bible or the Geeta. ment tautological, the action desses of Elephanta and Bahrut ritualistic. Such forms are needed to the humans in whose image for upper class consumption, the 'That the song divine is sung for they were made? Before we can classes who are most at home when the upper classes by the brahmins do that, we will have to change . they speculate—at the stock mar- and only through them for others. our ideology transmitted through is clear. We hear from the mouth myth. Because ideas of masculi- \4 ket or on the universe. of Krsna himself (G. 9.32): "For nity and femininity in these meto- The less sophisticated myths of those who take refuge in Me, be nymical constructs are also worked sentimental alleviation are designed they even of the sinful breeds such out in irreconcilable oppositeis. Contradiction without a possibility the hopes that it had raised by its them from entertainment tax. A of actual synthesis, since it denies courage may fall. The reasons for film-maker who conceives in colour change, movement^ its short-lived dynamism may be has to sign bonds of over a lakh found in the half-hearted reform- fit rupees with the Ministry of According to the mythical sys- ism of our ruling classes. Pushed Trade and Commerce to be able tem, the female has to prepare back from this reformatory, there- to make prints. In this regard, everything for consumption, includ- fore, the cineastes will go back into I. K. Gujral has made an encourag- ing food and herself. And. the the underworld of smuggling Fagins ing statement of policy. When it male has to produce. Men have who have built India's comprador will be implemented is anyone's to project and women withdraw. cinema upon its major port town:,. guess. Right down to the last detail where masculinity may allow smoking A confirmed plagiarist speaks of and femininity forbid it. When some of F.F.C.'s significant pro- An the meantime, a wage freeze such detail—or in the more sophis- ducts as third-rate copies of third- is expected to 'bring down prices ticated films, formal elements stand rats foreign films. A globe trotting while black money circulates freely. irreversibly for concepts—replace socialite whose sole claim to be a A Marxist film maker speaks of meaning itself, one does not have critic is her access to people and to wait for ideas to degenerate poverty being the same through the into ritual rather than praxis. The places (and who ecstasizes over ages and depicts an antagonistic language of myth by its very JVlanoj Kumar's 'Shor') aids the contradiction between the lumpen nature of replacing the symbol for big sharks by her learned associa- proletariat and the petty bour- its content spreads false conscious- tions. A self-confessed amateur, geoisie! We pass from gimmick ness: the more vulgarly sensate applauded for his bold themes, to gesture. Red is the favourite form in the commercial cinema and speaks of films as 'formal exercises' colour of rhetoric. Nostalgia for the more abstract ahistorical form when they are not in his own unity, albeit heirarchical in form in the 'art' cinema. blundering idiom. Others disguise and matter, is the over-riding con- their concern for financial return tent. We move from long shot to (on both 'public' and 'private' close-up around stars or other A he dichotomy between com- money!) in terms of mass com- idols and mandalas. Cezanne may mercial and art cinema is as munication. Yet another old hand have dreamt of the cinema when spuriously created by the exploita- at bringing humanism to the box he shifted view-points or wished tive system as is the one between office in outrageous costumes that his canvas could reach hum- public and private money. One advises the government to nationa- bler folk. Eisenstein may have feeds the masses with opium and lise cinema houses before it finan- realised his dream among the then one complains that art is ces films which make an attempt Soviets. While we move ahead inaccessible to them. One extracts at speaking a radical language. and up the Himalayas from our the surplus value of labour and Utopian ideas always subvert their tryst with destiny. Like Yudhish- then divides it arbitrarily into public own declared purpose. Even in thir, anxious to know and preserve and private money. Recently some the .unlikely event of nationalisa- the truth, we may ask why Arjuna 'socially committed' critics have tion, given the honesty of our had to suffer so much even after called the few worthwhile experi- bureaucrats and the socialism of the great battle. Krishna's answer ments sponsored by the F.F.C. a our system, one can visualise what was as usual evasive and capably waste of public money. Radicals new monsters will emerge. Some of all kinds of imaginative inter- in this country often do not seem of these suggestions and comments pretation: the hero's cheek bones .to recognise how capital is amassed may, indeed, be well-intentioned, were too high. Draupadi resented or profits made. Thsy seem to be made by 'innocents' who believe this slighting reference to the? concerned more about the tax- in the image that they project, but beauty of her loved one. But she payer's money than about how he it is becoming increasingly difficult and the other heroes and heroines made his money in the first place! to sift out the cinema's enemies are falling by the way-side out of from its friends. exhaustion and starvation or shot The government itself has been in the back for desperate acts of sufficiently pressurized into believ- courage. And we will continue to ing that the F.F.C. is behaving like A he atmosphere is ridden with pursue the truth with our faithfu, Oliver Twist. ,In recent times, it opportunism. Gossip and facile dogs: mass communication, psren had dared to ask for more. The opinionating, not analytical criti- nial subjects, medieval Indiar F.F.C. and its Board of Directors cism, is the order of the day. aesthetics, unchanging poverty. Or may not resemble the emaciated Theoretical debate is possible only the jnore sensate forms of myth: Oliver. But if the present stagna- in organized forums free of fear Eurasian rubber dolls in ballets of tion continues (it has financed one and personalised mud-slinging. We violence, orgies of fragmented film in the last eleven months and have not even begun to come toge- sexuality, the magical change of may well be in the process of ther to solve our practical problems. heart in the prodigal son, or autho- rejecting scripts which have poten- The State governments have yet to ritarian father; the change of! 15 tial artistic merit without being exempt films of artistic merit or image in the sex object into a 'safe', commercial propositions), the cinema houses that screen lactating machine. ., ill jJi

e success formula *•*•> SHYAM BENEGAL

THE Hindi film business ,in India and music, the plot innovations and consists largely of working out a generous helping of what are the equations to make commer- known as production values such cially successful films and then to as enormously expensive sets and work out a strategy of publicity property, lavish public relations' and distribution to fake in the devices like parties replete with largest profits possible—a vast, cabaret items in five star hotel speculative activity that begins suites. with formulating and analysing the There are storywriters who will success of any one or more films produce on call' several plot lines running at any given time in lifted from successful films, mainly 16 terms of what makes them tick, from Bombay and Hollywood as which usually means the right mix well as from popular western of 'ingredients' such as stars, songs, writers like James Hadley Chase to produce a biryani of a film all beset the industry are the highly valued on the number of films they ready to be hogged by the film- inflated rates paid to the marquee have in hand. So the dates they going public for 50 weeks or more names in the film—the stars, give are few and far between. Even in cinemas all over the country. the music directors and, recent- productions that are certain to be There is a huge demand for well- ly, the music directors. There completed take much longer and, known stars to act in these films are stars who sign up for as many therefore, cost more money. The and for music directors to turn out as 50 films at a time. Logically, quality of performances deteriorate. their lilting songs, and for dancers it would take him or her about ten It would be physically impossible to give new, sexy turns to' their years or more of work every -day for any one to be shooting two cabaret items. to complete so many films, but they or three shifts a day in different are signed up nevertheless. Simi- films playing different roles. The The directors who direct them larly with music directors. general feeling of uncertainty all are recipients of paeans of praise round makes for a lot of Unhappy for their originality. The produ- practices such as mutual black- cers are the happiest with their suc- The chances are that a lot of mail. A star can hold a producer cess and end up signing up more money spent on such films will to ransom half way through the film. and bigger stars for their next prove to be irrecoverable because Producers can try and cheat on pay- ventures as distributors willingly the films are not likely to see the ments. In this set up, distributors take even greater risks by com- light of day. And whatever is are the ones who appear to be mpre mitting larger sums of money for spent in signing up to start the secure. In fact, they take the each territory. The pattern of film will be lost forever. This con- largest, calculated risks. The peo- business points to an industry that stitutes an enormous waste. Then, ple who do best of all are the exhi- is happily and profitably stewing again, there is the matter of dates. bitors. In mosts cases they take in its own juice. It costs a lot of money to set up a no risk at all. More on this later. shooting schedule. In this situa- tion, if a star cannot give dates the A here are several kinds of suc- entire expense in mounting the cess formulae. Each one is speci- schedule is lost. The stars them- T.he distributors who market fically categorised, such as social selves under these conditions tend films have defined their films as drama (meaning poor boy/rich girl to develop an inflated sense of those meant: (a) for the masses, or vice versa), family drama (lost their own- importance. They feel (b) for the classes, (c) art films that child, suffering widow, large doses no obligation to keep to their sche- will attract no audiences. The of amnesia), action movie (good dules, nor do they feel the slightest films that are likely to be the big- man-turned-bad dacoit-turned-good compunction to break appoint- gest successes are the ones made man), historical (now not much in ments—a bit like successful poli- for the 'masses'. They could be vogue) or mythological (generous ticians. They appear to follow no defined as films that are utterly helpings of sex relating to gods and normal set of rules. naive in their story content, with goddesses). In each category, the need is for the biggest star or stars. non-existent character development If you can afford it, you would have gain, there is a reason for this and two dimensional emotional and all of them together. The music behaviour. Most producers have intellectual attitudes. The plot director is chosen according to the no money to begin with. They lines would be incredible. The size of his contribution to the latest trade on the names of stars, music actors would have the choice of hit songs (do I hear a resemblance directors and writers to raise money. playing either 'goody' or 'baddy' between his tunes and the top-of- The stars are generally very in- roles. The quality of acting is the-pop in London?). Similarly, secure, never sure that any of their judged on the basis of certain the ace writers. Writers, of course, films are going to be completed. stereo-types associated with them do not really write. They sit in They cannot possibly take the risk which repeat themselves in film posh hotel suites and narrate scenes of signing just one or two films. If after film. Imitators tend to deve- for the next day's shooting. the films do not get off the ground lop the same. Similarly, styles get and get stuck mid-way, they are set in other areas like stories, music It is an expensive and serious out of jobs. Nothing is worse than and direction as well. business. Very expensive. And an actor without a job. The other films flop. Despite or, perhaps, problem is that of being idle. Like because of this, the Indian film everybody else, a star would hate Films that will fetch the highest industry ticks. Flop is a relative to be idle. If he signs up 20 or prices are the ones that have the term. Very few films are known more films he can be more or less largest number of stars, a story- to fail altogether. The only thing certain of working at least 20 days line replete with what are now that might happen to a film is that of the month for a period of at essential—thrills and chills, rape it may recover its cost over a least two or three years. You scenes, dance numbers and caba- longer period of time. notice here a vicious circle of rets, choreographed fights and events. comedy (there are specialists who But this is still the more super- are known as 'thrill masters' apart ficial aspect of the Hindi film in- The producers speculate on stars from 'fight masters' and 'dance dustry. The serious problems that to finance their films. The stars are masters'. Soon one expects there will be 'rape masters')- Brilliant he must spend more on publicity guish in cans. What is worse, any colour and sharp cutting is a must. and make more prints so that he film produced with the help of the can simultaneously release the film FFC forces the liability for the pro- Most films, if not all, have to be in several cinemas in a single cen- duction costs on the producer /direc- pre-sold to distributors who will tre. This costs even more. The tor, with very little chance of his advance the money necessary to rentals of the theatres can often being able to sell the film. If we are complete the films. The distribu- take away up to 60 or more per serious about developing an alter- tor, therefore, has a great deal of cent of the total sum earned on a nate cinema, the FFC would have to power over the kind of film that is full house. The producers' share develop a distribution circuit that made. He is often the person who may be about 15-20%. This with is able to compete for audiences will determine the pattern of the a full house. with the regular so called commer- film whatever the story content, cial films. In addition to this the because he is in the know of which It has often happened that in cost liability for the production film will run and which will not. spite of full houses, with four cine- would have to be borne by the This appears logical as the distri- mas running the film for four weeks, FFC. This is only fair. butor is the only one who has the a producer has earned only enough feed-back from the box office. In to cover his publicity costs. Ob- The system in the commercial recent years, distributors have viously, this points to the fact that business is very similar where the strengthened their hold over the if a producer has to survive, he had distributor takes over the liability exhibition channels by creating better follow the prevailing system of the production cost. If the FFC large circuits. It is not unusual and make his film in conjunction feels that the motive in making for a distributor to have a chain of with the distributors. They will such films is not profit, they could 80 or 100 cinemas all over the buy his film even before he has pay the producer/director on the country. He works out the poten- completed it, otherwise he may be basis of the work involved in the ,%* tial audiences for various categories faced with the situation of being film or allow one territory as pay- of films in different territories and liable for the entire production ment. At the moment, even when releases his film strategically to get sum, holding a film that he has to the FFC has gone into distribution, either the maximum profits >or to hawk, with the distribution chains the producer continues to be liable reduce the , loss to a minimum. at best indifferent to his effort and for all expenditure, past and pre- The film meant for 'classes' has a at worst working against him. sent, up to the time the entire loan much smaller market and the situa- is recovered. If anything could be tion is not quite as happy for the The new or alternate cinema, a disincentive to producing films distributor. \ known in the business as an 'art with FFC funds, it is this. film', has to be seen in the context of all that has been mentioned ir\. producer who wishes to distri- above. When .a small budget film At should not surprise one that bute a film himself is at a great is produced, whatever its category, Indian audiences lap up a lot of disadvantage. He has to pay ex- a large investment is made. For what is served to them. Commer- orbitant rentals to exhibitors and instance, if a film in colour costs cial Hindi films offer to the audi- often cannot benefit from the other about 5 lakhs of rupees to make ences enjoyment of the 'good life' methods that are in operation if (black and white films in Hindi will vicariously, something they can he sells to a distribution chain. The not sell at all), a minimum of about 10 prints would have to be made never hope to have, the escape methods are: (a) minimum guar- route which is complete with the, antee: which means the producer for modest release. This would is paid a certain sum of money for cost another 2 lakhs. For each ter- cream oh the top. It does not a territory whether the film does ritory, the minimum publicity force attitudes of social responsibi- well or not. If the film makes a needed would cost no less than lity, make people conscience-stricken, '. profit, he gets a share. This is the about 65 to 70,000 rupees. There it does not demand action of any safest kind of sale, (b) The per- are seven territories in India for kind nor does it force people to centage basis, where the producer Hindi films. As one can see, to think on problems that .are either shares the profit with the distri- break even, the film would have to difficult to comprehend or difficult butor, (c) The percentage basis, earn about 12 lakhs of rupees. It to tackle. ' where the producer shares a per- seems unlikely that it would be centage with the exhibitor. possible under the present circums- Of course, there is a challenge to tances, besides the odd exception the film maker too. The film in- In dealing with the exhibitor or two. dustry has constantly to think in (apart from paying him a rental), terms of offering slightly more or he is responsible for the entire different sense stimulators each publicity. Add this to his produc- JL he films of the 'new cinema' time as the audiences reaction may tion cost and you notice that his that started with the backing of the have got jaded by more of the cost liabilities increase consider- Film Finance Corporation do not ably. The interest rates being very stand a chance of being bought by same. So each new film that suc- 18 high, he has to work out a strate- conventional distributors unless they ceeds will have a new sensational gy that ensures quick and substan- have the 'ingredients'. Since most twist, a new gimmick that will tial earnings. To be able to do this, of them don't, they are,left to lan- serve to stimulate the senses. So, ^^af-J^t?*"^1"*—" ^

my whatever the industry does it will ponsible attitude in those who are the be forever on the lookout for such under it—they expect to be correct- iro- commercial ,'ingredients'. Varia- ed rather than correct themselves. :ec- tions on the sex/violence formula This has become so acute, that his have so far seemed quite eqdless many films only attempt to are and can probably carry on for a push in directions in which the ter- great length of time. The audience censor board is likely to be heavy- e to has been oriented to Hindi cinema handed, only to check out how far that for several generations. they can go. Often, the only ices innovation in a film comes in the A change from this is not likely techniques to project 'soft' porno- ner- to succeed so easily. The audience the graphy or violence that would itself has increased astronomically catch the censors napping. This has tion in the past 45 years. QSefore Inde- the led to the making of films which pendence the cinema in India was encourage ugly social attitudes, not merely restricted largely to the particularly between men and rdal middle-class but also to urban women. They are done with such the India. In the 30s and the 40s, films crudity that one wonders whether were made essentially for the those who see such films come un- FFC middle classes. New Theatres and scathed out of them. king Prabhat provide good examples of ould the kind of movies they used to the ^ make, particularly New Theatres. At is well known that with L the /^| ^They dealt with the problems and cinema, particularly when it hap- pay- M aspirations of an emerging urban pens to be the only entertainment when middle elasju3 medium, life starts to imitate film. ition, We have only to look at those parts iable of the country where film is the JL he increase in the number of pre- only entertainment, medium to see cinemas, greater urbanisation as loan that this is true. The way boys well as the growth of cinemas in regard girls, the way they dress Id be semi-rural areas, brought a much films themselves, the kind of music they larger audience and, to some extent, enjoy most, the speech they use— a more important audience—the and with the new-rich—the kind of working class and peasant audience interiors they have, replicas of that to the cinema. Also, a larger pro- film sets. ot of portion of non-literates. Films amer- started to be made for a lower Yet. with all this, a different kind common denominator. This has audi- of film also runs. Audiences will made for the cynical attitude on the 1 life' see films that reflect social realities. part of the film establishment who All that it requires is the kind of can feel that the audience has a low scape distribution which the commercial | intelligence level. (This, unfortunate- industry provides. The movement ;h the i ly, is a universal feeling among most s not j communicators all over the world.) has already started. What is need- msibi- ed is the infra-structure that will ricken, $£_]• fAPart fr°m the escapist mode, make it self-generating. >f any lX ~ social attitudes became ritualistic Tjndian film or, more particularly, pie to rather than real and, more import- the Hindi film, from its very ant, whatever the film showed and either origin has developed its formats' lifficult said, the status quo was not to be disturbed and controversy was to from the existing theatrical forms. be studiously avoided. Because of The songs, the dances, the main plot this, they tend to reinforce the and its comic parody, have all ;nge to been absorbed by the cinema. If ilm in- worst prejudices of the audience and encourage the development of the alternate cinema has to grow, dnk in the most superficial valuesT) it cannot ignore these factors^ An lore or extension of these forms is need- i each A more insidious development in ed rather than unfamiliar ones and MI may films has been caused by outside a far truer depiction of social of the factors. Paternalistic and strait- realities. Only then will it be able at suc- laced censorship has made film pro- to seriously compete for audiences. sational ducers increasingly irresponsible. Short of this, the new cinema will at will As we all know, authority of a cer- be guilty of producing films for the is. So, tain kind often creates an irres- sake of a small cineaste elite. communication MAN I KAUL

THERE is a kind of film-making wall in a film cannot be understood being practised by a few film devoid of its social milieu—it must makers in India which, although belong to a level of social living. having received critical acclaim As also in the construction of a within the country and without, has scene, it is likely that a unit by not been able to find any distribu- itself may impart nothing quite tion outlet and has now seemingly significantly concrete. In Antoi- reached an economic dead-end. nini's La Notte the solid geome- This cinema, by acknowledging tric textured formation of walls the true limitations of the medium occupying a major area of the was beginning to evolve newer format with a small moving human relationships with other art forms. figure, form a social observation on Cinema would not be any more the Italian urban situation. It merely parasitical on literature, should be stated now that when theatre or music. A film based on this observation becomes literal or a three act play, instead of destroy- theatrical it fails in cinema. ing the complexity and limited These new brand of films face settings of the original form, would the severest criticism on the ground retain its intrinsic sensuousness of lack of communication. But it and, thereby, by paradox, would is insufficient to harp on communi- be forced to discover itself, i.e., cation without analysing first where what could be truly cinema in the other film-makers, preoccupied filming of a play. The moment with communication, have been cinema can lay itself parallel to led and the past historical as any other more established art well as future repercussions of form, it will be able to free itself films on social life. Is communica- into independence. tion merely to be understood as something reaching out to an The fact that the realistic image audience without being boring? Is (and not line, shape, colour or this commendable in itself? harmonic sound) is the idiom of 20 cinema determines to a consider- All commercial films for decades able extent the film maker's atti- now have communicated in this tude towards life. A shot of a sense, only to the detriment of youth and values in this country. One is only a little better than the in India where the film maker's Their influence is so visibly appa- other. Description attempts to re- life is at complete variance with rent in the cheap hairstyles and construct reality whereas the mate- what is proposed on film where 'hero' mannerisms of the young rial to be reconstructed which radical changes are suggested under and the total apathetic frivolousness belongs to life, is so complex that the cover of symbolism. of the adult. In Tamil Nadu poli- it does not admit of the limitations tics, for instance, the 'filmy' fiction of a word. The discipline of lite- What would be more truthful is of the hero on the screen has ac- rature arises from universally to present with clear versimilitude quired a strange reality. The hero- understood meanings of words the actual conditions of one's own ism on the screen of the character which are in themselves abstracted individual life and its contradic- is completely identified with the and not real. tions and its conflict with contra- actor (and political aspirant) play- dictions present in the collective ing the part. It is strange that the The so-called realist evokes life of the people. To be able to power of the cinema reflects nega- atmosphere or, much worse, a see the present and the conditions tively in obvious terms, whereas its mood through details, completely arising out of it is to witness a fact positive contribution is not only giving up the entity of the word and without' the interference of one's limited but invisible. thus fails to create a direct experi- desires or memories. This is not to ence. The other extreme is where suggest that 'document actualities' the word/idea acquires a sensuous (i.e., documentaries) are the only identity of its own. Thus, ideas—• valid form of film making. V/ommunication can only be sometimes even a progressive social assessed in terms of the quality idea—become like the legs of a \}oj experience. The words 'quality' slim or a fat heroine exposed for he difference between fiction 'and 'experience' would imply that the consumption of the very class and document, as between abstract the one who communicates and which the ideas themselves and concrete realities, as between the one to whom the communica- denounce. desires/memories and facts is tion is directed exist at different significant. Both can and do exist levels but that they fall within the Such ideas neither create la side by side. Only where super- bounds of a relationship. If the sharp-edged social consciousness imposition takes place does confus- viewer fabricates a fantasy in his that may bring about a change, nor ion arise. A fact cannot appear in mind through contemplation on do they lead life into an inertia the form of an individual's desire or sensuous objects like the heroine's where hidden internal contradic- a phase of one's memory. Once it shapely legs (sexual) or the hero's tions grow unassuaged and may does that, even though it maintains imported car (economical) or the seek to resolve themselves in the a factual appearance, it must be side-heroine's hysterical dilemma progress of history. This is because termed a memory or desire. The (moral), the cumulative effect of the representation on celluloid is inverse, , where a memory or a these titillations cannot be termed thoroughly romanticised through desire is presented as if it were a an experience. Neither can it be emotion as the only basis of a fact, creates another form of lie. understood as communication. relationship. The fact deals with the present All the Brechtian methods of At best, emotion is replaced 4by or a condition of the present. This alienation used by serious western some form of intellectual sensa- is as difficult to express as to film-makers are not meant to be tionalism. Such ideas are suc- experience, both for the film maker startling gimmicks, but serve to cessful quite obviously but such and the audience. The question of warn the audience against identify- ideas are regressive in terms of communication has reached a ing with the people and happenings social import. It is a strange truth bottle-neck here. The industrial on the screen. The characters and that a really good revolutionary or tradition of mass media, where the incidents instead of being an social theoretician, when working ideas of a film maker living in an arrangement designed to invoke an at a time of no historical change, urban centre have to be communi- experience, become, with identifi- remains limited in his impact and cated to the whole of India poses cation, sensuous objects in them- that in more opportune times even an insurmountable problem. The selves. ^Spurts of social violence do ignorant, corrupt leaders flourish. facile solution of averaging the not necessarily emanate from the~ present conditions and thus exploit- dei>ictioj3. ..gj. viplence on the screen ing the collective memories and -bjk.rathgr,_they arise out of aspi- Ti here is no need to lament the desires of the audience in order to rations that cinema and life, under fact that a profound masterpiece of communicate, is the field of com- its present system, provoke but" social comment like Picasso's Guer- mercial and semi-commercial film JhfIfiHi nica can be reduced to a postcard; makers. ^to come. or that Godard should become a fad with the same rich European Art theatres cannot be a solution Ideas also contain material class that he himself holds in grea- for the serious film maker. Even energy. Ideas therefore can be- test contempt. This kind of if an art theatre movement suc- come purely descriptive of another contradictory relationship between ceeds, it only produces a 'hybrid' 21 reality or an idea by itself can be- socialist aspiration and decadent class of 'arty' folk, who appreciate come an object of sensuousness. urbanism is not non-existent even films in order to put themselves a rung above the 'masses'. Besides, ing should limit itself to abstracting the maintenance of an art theatre long as the product returns the principles from the other art form money to the investors. with all its staff and taxes and a and reducing them to what is basic smaller seating capacity generally to human expression. Motif, col- provide insufficient returns to the our, shape, line are particular to a JL he questions here are: who producer of low budget films. very restricted area; in fact they has created this economics? Who It should be clear by now that are born out of a limited environ- has capitalized on the gains of 1 have purposely led the argument ment and its transportation can be industrialization which has caused to a dead end—the so-called suc- hazardous. Paul Klee established art to move away from a limited cessful film-maker who communi- modern abstract art through prin- folk environment to become a cates, fails and the so-called ciples that were derived from Per- powerful mass media? In whose unsuccessful film-maker, who does sian miniatures. Klee was so interest is it to bring out. a monthly not communicate, also fails. The deeply inspired by Islamic art that magazine full of lewd photographs ons who communicates survives he confessed that he would not and scandal? Why does cinema either at the expense and ignor- be able to paint again as he had have to operate from three big '' ance of the very poor or, if he is done. This kind of knowledgeable commercial centres only and on 'conscious', by shifting his appeal cultural exchange is essential for such a large scale? Why do exhi- from the vulgar to the intelligent. revitalizing the inertia-ridden histo- bitors and distributors run to buy The one who does not communi- rical art lor/ms of a country. films that combine vulgarity witn cate survives because of wide frivolousness? ; Who stands to It has been suggested that cinema gain in allowing film stars to act approval or disapproval of or, belongs to the realm of mass-media, better still, a controversy between, in twenty films simultaneously and whereas painting (notwithstanding to quote fantastic terms? the critical sections of the press. calender/mythological art) and Behind all these questions and To move towards a form, towards music (ignoring commercial film songs) and literature (not taking more there is a businessman from limitations that are the means and the class of economically interest- discipline of that particular form, into account the cheap paper-back) can sustain themselves without a ed merchants who has turned the towards a cinematic idiom, is to aspects of culture into sordid com- move closer to the realism of ex- wide circulation, and therefore are capable of difficult experimentation. merce. It is he who is repeatedly perience. In fact, realism in a film raising this question of - communi- lies in the truthful relationship cation and making it a matter of between the social/individual sensi- A he argument that immediately mere speculation. There are seve- bility of the film maker and the follows this stand is of economics. ral well-meaning film fellows who cinematic idiom. A director from Certain highly placed film makers wish to communicate but they fail, the urban milieu who wishes to have stated that every film maker not because they are incompetent, make a film on rural life will be has a moral obligation to return but because the whole market is respecting realism when he looks at now only a matter of speculation. the rural details with his urban the invested money to his financier. sensibility and thus exercises ade- Even if the film fails financially, the A new breed of film makers and quate restraint on hfs performers; film maker is exonerated if it is critics profess to believe in a semi- rather than if he attempts to force apparent that he has kept his finan- commercial cinema but they have his actors to emote as if he him- cial obligations in mind while been seen to end up invariably in ssif came from that rural set-up making the film. When the film a commercial mess. Some serious and tries to inject his film with has been financed by the govern- film makers begin to work with rural 'exotica'. The second situa- ment, the accusation has been even 'stars', some are compelled to enter tion would create Complete false- more strident that the tax-payers into an outright commercial pro- hood. money has been squandered. position to meet an immediate eco- It is obvious that the anxiety to nomic crisis. In short, the question of economics and communication- '•I to see a film as economically viable A he question of a film maker's emanates from a morality which is does not really belong to the film own sensibility can be explained in in the interest only of a certain maker and the seemingly absurd tsrms of other art forms more class. There can be no other rea- statement made elsewhere in the easily. For example, it is incon- son why these same critics can article would have to be restated ceivable that a serious urban artist accept the situation created by the •—that a correct film would have could suddenly begin to paint like commercial cinema—the worst of to be unsuccessful. a folk artist. We are aware of filth is produced, a parallel black Under the feudal system, the quite a few examples of this false money system has been made pre- artist was employed by a patron. declassing. The results have been valent and under the cover of The artist's expression was in tune invariably just exotic or 'cultural'. entertainment, fantastic dreams, un- with that of his master—what real sex/violence and perverted pleased him or what troubled him 22 This is not to suggest that an suggestions are dished out. In fact, urban artist or a film maker has was his subject matter. In pre- it appears that for these moralists historic times, art was magic. The nothing to understand from a folk any inconceivable limit of provid- artist but only that this understand- cave man painted the bison, not ing distractions is commendable so because its shape or lines pleased the him but because it posed a,.threat consumer which determines the this case, cattle breeding. The ritual to him and he wished to master it. attitude towards the consumption involves both sides, the film maker The painting of the bison was a of that product. A film with all and the performers who are actu- who ritual, done to save the community credentials, in such a system, would ally his audience. Nho from a collective hazard. Today, have to fail by being ineffectual or . of the artist is expressing his personal inaccessable. The element of fiction would be iised anguish within the discipline, of an nominal in such a work. Fiction in- lited independent aesthetic. volves the memories and desires of ; a the film maker and it is obvious in JL his system should be changed this case that the personalized as- hose The question of communication, not by building art theatres and ithly which neyer ever entered the pic- pect of the film would be auto- cultivating a 'tasteful' breed of matically restricted. Certainly the aphs ture earlier, is the result of this cinemagoers, but by altering the tema personal anguish and its personaliz- conventional fiction born out of the system of exhibition. Art theatres literary narrative would have to be big ed expression. Any work true to would perhaps show better quality I on this form must fail to communi- forsaken and, indeed, must be for- films but the problem to be tackled saken in order to rid cinema of its exhi- cate. Even if the anguish speaks is the distance which separates the buy of a collective dilemma, its persona- complete dependence on literature. film maker from his audience. As also, cinema's dependence on with lized expression makes it impos- What the film maker should i to sible to communicate widely. theatre would be completely eli- attempt is to form a more direct minated, as this cinema would not a act relationship with his audience. r and Some film makers do succeed and expect any performance from the are totally honest at the same time. people involved. ' ' •J> But their impact has not been of If the audience could be made and great brilliance. Great works ac- to participate in the making of a When the film is freed from nar- from quire a certain preciousness of film, the resultant work would not rative, be it chronological or a :erest- being masterpieces, are stored care- be just a display of communication, reaction against chronology (where d the fully and are highly evaluated. The but the result of co-ordination time is broken into non-sequential com- fact that cave paintings were some- between them to handle and com- units) it would naturally find release atedly times super-imposed upon each prehend problems. The beginnings from the necessity of performance. muni- other by the works of later pain- of such an experiment would have Having abandoned this position of ter of ters displays the vital functional to be made in the field of documen- being cushioned by both literature seve- quality of the act. tary and the elements of fiction, as and theatre, cinema would proceed i who understood today, would have to to rely more directly on the essential y fail. be completely dropped. qualities of the cinematic medium. Extent, ket is Jl he negative contribution of Ths film would have to begin ition. " cinema towards deteriorating con- with an impersonal problem: let structive values of a society is not us say the introduction of cattle J/ or example, the space/time rela- rs and oftly felt but widely known and breeding in a backward area-. By tionship in theatre is restricted by semi- analysed. Students imitating the this we do not mean an urban the proscenium. Theatre requires i have cheap tricks of the 'heroes', stag- class-room exercise with explana- the actor, by h*is performance, to ibly in nating moral issues of the middle tions given in numerical order. Nor break down the restrictive barriers serious class, total anarchy and frivolous- a film made during a visit of a and to carry the audience with his c with ness among the poor, creating fortnight to a backward area— words and gestures into an experi- o enter £ superfluous bad and good taste, realism of the locale thrown into ence of a different space and time. tl pro- and all other issues of such obvious an arty form. In one, the perform- Cinema has reversed the need for te eco- import can be directly related—a ers would be behaving as if they itself. It begins with an endless uestion straight connection between a com- knew all about cattle breeding and space and endless time order. The lication- mercial film and the varying were now performing certain tricks linear movement of theatre is mean- he film mental levels and reaction of the for the shooting of a film. And, ingless here. In fact, cinema absurd - audience can be established. On in the other, the idiom of expres- requires the narrowing down or the in the the other hand, one cannot inverse sion would be beyond the re-organization of the endlessly restated the process and hope to create audiencs. particular and the varying space / Id have positive values in an audience by time possibilities. investing the construction of a film Instead, the film maker and his in a positive manner and spouting crew should stay in an area for The word in literature is seen to sm, the connote more than its meaning— patron. positive ideas. four to five months when experts on the subject introduce the topic again the instrument (word) having in tune been assigned a function (meaning) f—what The fact of a film working to the people. Then they would led him negatively on the audience is not proceed to record what is really it is necessary that newer contexts In pre- caused only by a lack of quality happening—the first reactions, the create newer meanings. The word ic. The in a film and the educational lack effort to understand, the attempts in theatre, on the other hand, son, not in the audience. It is the power of to implement, etc. Now film belongs to the environment—it pleased a well-entrenched system that falls making has become a ritual; the belongs to the openness of a lawn, in between the product and the ritual of trying to understand, in to the noisy, closed up crowd of a restaurant, to the intimate and rest- planet, recording the rural details ful quality of a bedroom and so on. to sell in festivals abroad, and When it belongs to the environment returning as soon as possible back it belongs to the actor and to the to his urban environment, would moment of presentation. no -more be able to exist. The elements of a cinematic mo- ment comprise all images, sounds,, actors, walls, chairs, etc. ' Sounds x't has been learnt through news- comprise the words of a character, papers that the government is the sound of a distant plane over- making efforts further to widen the head, the sound of a tea-cup being scope and activities of innovative placed on a saucer, etc. Movement expression in the field of the comprises the movement within the cinema—by perhaps building a frame, the movement of the chain of art theatres and by enlarg- camera and movements caused by ing the functions of a body like the •I- the intervals of editing. All these Film Finance Corporation. or units by. themselves, i.e., within It would be appropriate now to their own particular space /time suggest a scheme pertaining to this relationship, have a limited mean- matter. Apart from the fact that ing. But juxtaposed with each the building or converting of halls other in a new space/time relation- into art theatres would be expen- ship, they leap from" particularity sive, its returns would be limited into abstraction. This leap need due to lesser seating capacity. Even not take place through the develop- if the impact of the films shown in ment of a story or characterization. these theatres gains momentum the more vital sections of society like the students, the industrial workers Ai: this would not be possible if and farmers would be completely the film maker did not live for a excluded or only partially expos- length of time with the people with ed. If the money, instead, could be whom he would be making his spent on thousands of 16 mm pro- film! To take up a concrete pro- jectors, and if the government ject, and follow that as the basis of could subsidize groups prepared to recording a human reality, is also buy these projectors, many orga- essential. Without this, the film nisations (especially schools and would result in the usual impres- colleges) in all parts of the coun- sionistic generalized bunk or it try could come forward and begin would 'perhaps lead to some em- exhibiting films. barrassing or enjoyable sensational realism. Initially, these organisations should be supplied only with the When film making becomes a national and international classics ritual like this, the film maker has of the cinema, i.e., films that have discovered an actual relationship developed the potential of the with his audience. The object of medium. The basic gap between the film would not be to show a the education of the film maker success or a failure but to show and the audience could be consider- things as they actually are. The ably bridged by this process. project may end in failure which would also be faithfully recorded. Film makers should then be In the process of filming a certain encouraged to fan out to all parts problem (which provides the basic of the country with specific pro- discipline) the film maker may jects; to live in areas for months; diverge into other spheres of the to work and live with the people activity of the participants. The there in the process of making a film' maker and the participants film. The films would then be both have a consciousness. An supplied to the various organisa- exchange must take place and both tions exhibiting 16 mm films. Thus, must emerge from the project at the film maker and the audience, least a little transformed. The instead of living in their own air- 24 situation of the film maker coming tight compartments, would be able to a rural environment, as much a to discover an actual working stranger as a man from another relationship. oney power

ADOOR GO'PAtAKRISHNAN WHEN it comes to the question of astrous at the box-office, are made, discussing Indian cinema, one one does not come across a single wonders which Indian cinema one probing or any bold effort off the should speak about. Should it be beaten track either in the Tamil or the Hindi cinema that is taken for the Telugu cinemas. They are big- - granted as the national cinema or money business, and the mecha- the regional ones that make up the nics of production operate strictly bulk of the nation's production? under their own unlawful laws of The riddle it seems remains economics. Unaccountable money unresolved. accounting for the investment, un- Judged by their big budgets, the ethical exploitation of low public commercial vulgarities that go taste, unrestricted opportunities for almost synonymous with and those carnal pleasures peripheral geometrically proportional to the to film-making—a scene of obnox- Dig-money input, the all-India as ius oddities our big cinema busi- well as the over-seas market they ness has become. command, and their lack of any Well, all that for the large scale likeness to the life and culture of ones; axiomatically, the small any particular region of the nation, scale 'creations' should, one would at least three language cinemas expect, be free from the corrupting qualify themselves to aspire to the influences of big business fraught status of a national cinema—the with incorrigible anomalies. There Hindi, the Tamil and the Telugu. you are mistaken. The low budget Apart from the contemporary films of the regional cinema are Hindi cinema wherein sporadic yet no less free from the com- well-meaning attempts, often dis- mercialised vulgarities and vagaries f

of their big brothers. Aspirations Even at the level of an industry they share in common, only the that churns out entertainment resources vary. 'rolls', it would be worthwhile for the government of a welfare State In a country^ where the whole at least to be aware of the sub- machinery of production, distri- human conditions under which the bution and consumption is virtually technicians, the 'underdogs' of this controlled by the clever manipula- 'show whirl' work, while their tions of a few monopolists, it is but sweat and toil make the stars natural that the capital gains are glitter and glimmer attracting given priority over social obli- enormous fan-mail and astrono- gations of a medium that un- mical figures in black. fortunately wilds the greatest influence on the masses of our sub-continent. O'u,r cinema is a top heavy in- dustry founded on false grounds A conscientious and apparently that belie and belittle all the codes sound suggestion for a way out of human dignity. And it should would be the nationalisation of all take only a shake of protest from the sectors of the film industry by below to be toppled down. But it one single strong stroke of parlia- remains a fact that from the floor- mentary legislation. It should be hand to the first assistant, every remembered here that even at the one of those 'mini-humans' are slightest hint of governmental blinded, and deafened by the supervision or censoral restrictions, colour and clatter of the dream- the Movie Moghuls raise a loud hue worlds they contribute to make. and cry over the feared curtailment For them it is a way of life, the of their artistic freedom. When the fiat accompli: the defiance, alas, utter lack of any artistic flavour in has to be generated from without. a.- their cheap celluloid soap operas is even vaguely criticised, the very The infra-structure of the indus- same guards of the artists' freedom try being what it is, our big studios are there to defend their com- are the last spots on earth where modities as the products of an ireativity would be nurtured. industrial process made-to-order People with no understanding or according to the strict demands of involvement in the medium, mer- consumer taste. It may look para- cenaries with no love, loyalty or doxical, but the sword they are commitment to the cinema crowd armoured with is money-power the floors as adventurers and for- and it is double-edged. tune seekers. Peddlers in sex, sentiments and other saleable i Ai ny popular government would fare, they ruthlessly block the in- find the hurdles innumerable as well lets to the hew young generation as insurmountable even in its of film-makers eagerly awaiting in r very earnest efforts to effect the na- the wings to grab at the first i tionalisation of this .industry which opportunity to explore the en- is vaguely and to a great extent ormous possibilities of this least irresponsibly treated as an inno- explored medium. i cuous, inconsequential 'entertain- Will they ever make it? Or will •4 ment-industry'. they, in their long, impatient, Nationalisation may be a far cry. tedius, demoralising wait, disburse And there are of course misgivings their tied up energy and expend in the minds of the people as to their passion? how far our unimaginative, ineffi- cient, bureaucratic government set- The sad truth is that many up would be better equipped than have. Society has a moral respon- the current incumbents to lead, sibility to shoulder what it cannot direct and discipline a medium of disown. Here is a vital issue, such magnitude providing the right much graver than the tragedy of and ripe atmosphere for the pro- frustrated personal ambitions; a 26 fession and the practice of true, problem of enormous social signfic- unhindered, unfettered artistic ance calling for immediate positive expression. action. The parallel stream D I LE EP PADGAONKAR

WHEN Mrinal Sen made Bhuvan Shome five years ago, the implica- The parallel cinema was expect- tions of the term 'parallel cinema' ed to reverse this trend. Bolstered could be taken for granted without by low-interest loans provided by critical inquiry. The issues faced the government, the director with by the Indian cinema appeared to ideas was to be given a free hand be fairly evident then. Of the 368 to choose his themes and style's. films made in 1969, not more than He could use his camera to explore half a dozen films had managed to the world around him. The idea avoid the inanities of the com- obviously was to encourage him to mercial cinema. But even those violate the norms of mass enter- "handful of directors whose works tainment imposed by the film WfiT- nnf geared to irjass entertain- industry. He would in turn try to ment did not start a novel trend initiate another idea of entertain- in film-making, let alone a move- ment in the cinema. nt along the lines "of the East It was a lofty ambition consider- nencan cinema in the ing the powerful hold of the commercial cinema on popular imagination. An average of 75 aspects came to be recognised as industry responded only to market lakh people watch a commercial early as the twenties. Production conditions^ 'film daily in 'one or other of the was concentrated in Bombay and Calcutta. This concentration was 7.300 theatres In" the country. Over hroughout this period, however, of course illustrated by Hollywood. 600 film-fan magazines are widely some independent film-makers did The organisation of the film indus- circulated, not to mention the hun- attempt at least thematic novelties. tries in Europe also followed along dreds of film songs broadcast from Delicate social themes were treated the same lines. the national radio network. No in films like Achyut Kanya (un- other mass medium could ever hope In India, however, hardly any of touchability), Duniya na Mane Lo rival the grip of the cinema in (against arranged marriage), 1 a country where 70 per cent of the the silent films boasted of formal or thematic qualities of enduring Badi Didi (plight of widows), population is still in the fetters of Padosi (Hindu-Muslim relations), illiteracy. alue. The Americans, during the ilent era, gave the world Intoler- Dharti ke Lai (Bengal famine). But, t >Ci retrospect, the parallel cinema ance (Griffith), The Kid (Chaplin) by and large, the Indian cinema did \ appears to have gained impressive md Greed (Stroheim). The French not go through any of the aesthetic ground over the past five years. :ontributed to the nascent art with movements that convulsed the Nowhere was this more evident he films of Feuillade, J'Accuse cinema in the west—the German ex- than in this year's national awards Gance) and Entracte (Rene Clair). pressionism, the formal innovations for feature films. The extraneous he Germans threw up directors of the Soviet cinema, the American polemics' that followed the jury's ike Lubitsch, Murnau and Fritz and French 'realisms', the neo- decision could not slur over the ,ang. The Swedes, Sjostrom, the realism of the Italians, the New stringent rebuff received by the Russians, Vertov, Eisenstein and Wave of the French etc., etc. N did the Indian film, unlike its film industry. In previous years at •udovkin, not to mention the 1 least some of its products found a lahertys, Dreyers, Dulacs and the Japanese counterpart, draw its place of pride in the honours list. Junuels. plastic and dramaturgy ideas from This year, nothing. The jury had the country's traditions. abided by standards of cinematic /rp The reason, no doubt, was that excellence alonej Parochial, finan- JL he growth of the Indian film Indian film makers have had at no cial, ideological considerations were became even more stunted with the time—with the possible exceptions not allowed to shape its decisions. advent of sound in the early thir- of the freedom struggle and certain Even in a negative sense—the ties. The cinema had suddenly to movements for social emancipation rejection of the lilm~uTdustry—the cater to the demands of a multi- •—to contend with the kind of 1973 national awards will jbe lingual market. It is in this period dramatic movements that European recalled as a watershed" in tEe of crisis that the industry hit upon politics, literature, the visual arts "TEE" its now-famous Formula. Films and the sciences had to contend slgnlTicance~™pr~thli development were packed with songs and musi^ with. There were no equivalents can perhaps be better understood So were they in Europe and here of the Dreyfus case and Gide, if one looks back at the seven America. But these cinemas quick- Monet and Curie, of Sorel's Reflec- decades since D. G. Phalke made ly shed this intrusion. Not so the tion on violence, Gorki, Picasso, Raja Harishchandra in 1912. In Indian film. Matisse. Debussy, Schoenberg, his monumental history of the Together with songs also spread Einstein and Rutherford, of the world cinema, Georges Sadoul re- the influence of the numerically Russian revolution, Cubism, Stra- marks on the 'artistic and techni- important language—Hindi. The vinsky, Proust, Mayakowsky or cal' excellence of Phalke's works. heterogeneous quality of the audi- Freud; of Fascism, Le Corbusier, They were lauded by Londoners at ences indeed obliged the cinema to Ullysses, Brecht, of the Spanish that time. operate outside the framework of civil war, Klee, Dali, Stravinsky, easily identifiable linguistic and Malraux, Eliot, Sartre, Fleming (It will be recalled, fwithm cultural milieu. (penicillin); the second world war, parenthesis, that with the singular Mao Tse-tung, Hiroshima, Beckett • exceptions of~Fatehlal and Panne's" PDuring the war years the industry, or the Papal encyclicals. Sant Tukaram and the films of thanks to the role played by spe- SatvajitJRa^itwas only the paral- culative money, underwent a Tn hp. sure there was the^Gan- structural change. Its products revolution and its tragic praise in the West. Le Monde's changed character too. The star Henouement—partition. "But the I influential critic, Louis Marcorelles, • system became mqre deeply en- <*one inspired not a single film of hailed it as a 'mini-revolution'.) trenched. The demands for mass merit while the other had to await "* entertainment witnessed a remark- 1973 {Garm Hawa) "to Tie" tacEe'd~ able resurgence of the extravagant QjiJthe..scxeeji, Besides the classics, V-r ver the past .seventy years, the spectacles—-dances, lavish sets, contemporary literature however Indian film, like its counterparts exotic locations. Films became provided a source for the film mak- 28 elsewhere, has been fashioned as more and more a-social. Realism ers: the works of Tagore, Bankim much by econoinic as by cultural was eschewed.V The pattern grew Chandra Chatterjee, Sarat Chandra factors. Its financial and industrial * more rigid after independence. The Chatterjee, Munshi Premchand, Bibhuti Bhushan Bannerjee, Sane that accounts for the freshness of rays the forces of change as they Ouruji were adapted at one point these works. convulse a Kerala village. The or the other, sometimes with suc- story centres around an oracle cess but very often without a search The evolution of Mrinal Sen reduced to destitution because the for cinematic equivalents of the provides an interesting case study. village no longer requires his ser- literary forms. Not without reason Before 1969, Sen's work was no vices in the temple. His lucky even the so-called serious cinema in doubt deeply rooted in the social break comes when the outbreak of India never got beyond either real- processes of his native Bengal. small-pox puts him back into circu- ism or narrative dramaturgy. After Bhuvan Shome—his one and lation, as it were, but it is too late. only venture in Hindi, shot in Gujarat—he turned sharply towards The problems faced by a young an explicitly political cinema. The couple in a low-middle class joint JlXow does the parallel cinema commitment to extreme left-wing family were sensitively brought out stand out against this background politics became more pronounced in Basu Chatterjee's Sara Akaash. of the overwhelming presence of with every successive film—Inter- The woes of widowhood, in Kantilal' escapist entertainment, on the one view, Calcutta 71 and Padatik. Sen Rathod's Kanku. The same direc- hand, and, on the other, the isola- is the only film maker in the coun- tor, in his recent Parinay, evoked ted efforts of a Ray, Ghatak, Sen try to use his idiom for an avowedly the dichotomies of urban and rural or an Abbas? political end. His Marxism, how- living. Alienation in love, work or un theme and style the parallel ever, has not led him astray into relations with parents were dealt the desert of 'socialist realism'. In with in Girish Vaidya's Aakrant cinema has without doubt broken and the late Awtar Kaul's 27 Down. kfresh ground as would be evident all his recent films he has attempt- sven from the 1973 ^national ed—not. always with success—to Caste intolerance was denounced in awards. All the films that were break away from traditional narra- the Malayalam film Gayatri, reli- honoured have certain charactens- tive. His films include patches of gious intolerance in M. S. Sathyu's UJjJTTn"common. " Film is used as documentaries, newspaper head- Garm Hawa and the havoc wrought a medium of expression and com- lines and highly stylised sequences. by alcoholism in the Tamil film munication more than as an indus- This attention to form places his Dikkatra Parvati. trial product tailored to suit an work nautches above the work all-India market. This fundamental of another leftist film maker, the veteran K. A. Abbas. v/ne need hardly stress the difference with the commercial variety of themes explored by the gigerna can be seen to affect every young film makers. But the parallel other aspect of the parallel 4n Karnataka, Girish Karnad has fashioned for himself an altogether cinema has also revealed two other different sort of universe. Like impressive talents exploring altoge- \ Thus, all the films have rid Satyajit Ray, he is a compulsive ther different frontiers. BothMani ! themselves of the vulgarity and story-teller but his social commit- | garishness of the average Hindi ment is no less pronounced. Decay, i film. To be sure they depict degeneration, violence—all these I romance and violence and sex but have provided Karnad with .inspi- these are closely integrated into a ration. His Samskara—with its taut, _Jiave done away coherent vision that the film maker austere quality—dealt with the dis- seeks to put across. The coherence array caused by the death of a "acting^ ]],§?,§? plots," "'psycfiology stems partly from the fact that the Madhava Brahmin who had defied /JRfilm is deeply rooted in an identi- the tenets of his caste. The ero- .gd. Instead towards ""aestnetTc Tnfiable social and cultural reality. sion of caste values in the face of i^^rch^in the line of GrifrItH"ana" - Partly, too, it derives from the secular education and urbanisation Dreyer, the early Soviet pioneers director's foremost concern to forms the core of Vamsha Vriksha (notably Eisenstein), Ozu in Japan, provide social and psychological while Kaadu (The Forest) handles Antonioni in Italy, Godard and insights in the world around him. violence—psychological and physi- Bresson in France, Kaul and Shahani The films made since Bhuvan cal—with much more audacity— have not dissociated an enquiry into Shome indeed reveal not only the violence in relations between hus- the social realities around them richness and variety of Indian life band and wife, the elders of two from an enquiry into the nature ol but, perhaps in an even more im- rival villages, between master and their medium. But there the simi- portant sense, a whole range of servant and the worlds of adults larity between their work ends. sensibilities that are otherwise and children, On the face of it Kaul's trilogy— numbed in the commercial cinema. Uski Roti, Aashad Ka Ek Din and Each film, in effect, not only Duwidha—disconcerts a spectator explores the erosion of the caste Aiull these relations have been who has been conditioned in the system, feudal values, the grip of handled separately by other film cinema by stories set in a realistic religious prejudices, change in a makers forming part of the parallel mould. But once he attunes him- traditional society but the explora- cinema. • M. T. Vasudevan Nair's self to Kaul's style he discovers a 29 tion itself is revealing of a mind at Nirmalyam—which won the Presi- most exciting mind at work. Con- work. It is the sense of discovery dent's gold medal this year—port- trary to what is held against him -•*•-•

his films certainly do not lack been called boring, slow, repetitive, with formalist exercises. Partly, 'content'. The three films offer a difficult, academic, Bressonian, too, it is explained that films need lyrical meditation > on the condition Antonionist, Godardian, Bergmanes- to recover the funds invested in of the 'waiting wdman'. Each film que, 'not-relevant-to-the-Indian con- them—•this again not without moreover deals with a conflict situa- text' and so on. Many of these cause. tion: between town and country- charges were levelled at Satyajit Ray side (Uski Rod), court and valley when he made Father Panchali in But by reacting angrily to the (Aashad Ka Ek Din) and the 1955. Ray, like several other distin- works of Kaul and Shahani, the worldly and the other worldly guished directors, had also acknow- parallel film makers can only run (Duwidha). ledged the influences on him—Soviet the risk of depriving the Indian film-makers, Renoir, the Italian neo- cinema of what has been indis- -But, in each case, Kaul seeks a realists—but hardly anyone then up- pensable to every major cinema metamorphosis from one idiom to braided him for falling prey to movement in the world during the another—from short story, play 'foreign' examples. Likewise the last thirty years; viz., two or three and folk tale into film. He does accusation of wasting tax-payer's directors engaged in formal inno- not grapple with genres alone but money seems, to put it mildly, quite vation. Studies have shown that with the specificity of each of these amusing especially when it comes to ensure the health of any literary forms. It is only in this from left-wing critics. Tax payers cmema—or TV for that matter— way that he manages to achieve money? But less than one per cent the 'aesthetic' and 'realistic' poles something that is specific to the —the moneyed elite—pay taxes of creation have to feed off each cinema itself. anyway! other. The promotion of one to the detriment of the other, leads to All this is not to say that Kaul's It seems, on careful consideration, sterility and decay, work is' not flawed at places. His that Kaul and Shahani are not par- refusal to lay emphasis on any one doned for having forsaken realism element of his films—hence the and 'stories' in their work. But absence of a story, of acting, of realism per se is no virtue in the he root cause of the malady has anything in fact that would divert arts. It could be as misleading, again to be found in the economic the attention of the'spectator to any perhaps more misleading, than the structures of the film industry. The single aspect of his work—flows, to non-realist approaches. It is just government has wisely helped young be sure, from his deep interest one style among several others. makers produce their films. But, in Hindu metaphysics. Kumar Realism no doubt is better suited once completed, their works have Shahani, on the other hand, takes when the director's primary con- to fend for themselves for distri- care to keep one foot deeply plant- cern is to portray social issues. But bution and exhibition. It is no ed in the social processes around any effort to be more ambitious secret that both sectors are control- him. In Maya Darpan he does not —to attain a 'totality', con- led by the industry and that no only portray the boredom of a sciousness, interiorisation, spiritua- film that does not respect the young, unmarried girl whiling her lity—must necessarily mean evolv- current norms of mass ent6rtain- days away in a huge, decrepit man- ing new narrative structures. ment can even figure in the distri- sion on the border of a small town. bution circuit. Nor does he console himself with The situation would no doubt be showing the girl's quiet revolt JL he sharp polemics against Kaul different if the government subsidis- against her authoritarian father. He and Shahani are indeed revealing of ed the exhibition of films as well. goes much further. Maya Darpan certain ambiguities in India's paral- But there again care would have^^ is a film on ah evolving awareness: lel cinema. At the time of Bhuvan to be taken to think out alternatives^^ the girl realises the close connection Shome, as was mentioned earlier, to the present system. It wouldv ' between her boredom and the social the issues facing a «young film serve no purpose to think of pro- forces agitating the outside world. maker were fairly obvious. These duction and distribution on the basis For its intelligent use of colour and have got blurred along the way. One of profitability for individual works its rich suggestiveness, Maya Darpan would be hard put to explain the albne. Rather, a package pro- has yet to meet with a rival. differences in approach between gramme that could include a film Shyam Benegal's Ankur and Avish- by Kaul, Benegal, Sathyu, Sen and kaar made by the commercial Karnad could be screened. No one A ronically, the experiments of Kaul director, Basu Bhattacharya; or would be excluded. The Benegals and Shahani have provoked angry what—apart from the novelty of and the Sathyus would try to draw polemics not only in the commercial the theme—distinguishes M. S. the audiences of the commercial cinema but also within the precincts Sathyu's Garm Hawa from Gul- film to the parallel cinema. The of the parallel cinema itself. That zar's (another commercial director) audiences of the parallel cinema, in ' four films which have not had a com- Achanak. The directors argue, turn, would make efforts to appre- mercial run' could provoke the ire of not without reason, that they have ciate the Kauls and the Shahanis. every director ranging from Satyajit to make 'compromises' partly be- Only then can the parallel cinema 30 Ray to the latest debutant in the cause the need of the hour is to fulfil its vocation—that of demo- business must surely point to their draw audiences towards good cratising another idea of entertain- disturbing qualities. The films have cinema rather than to repel them ment in the cinema. "pr-

ises. Partly, lat films need s invested in not without ngrily to the Shahani, the can only run I the Indian been indis- lajor cinema id during the two or three formal inno- shown that Ith of any hat matter— alistic' poles sed off each of one to the er leads to

s malady has tie economic dustry. The lelped young films. But, works have ! for distri- It is no are control- nd that no respect the s entertain- 1 the distri-

10 doubt be ait subsidis- es as well, vould have Further reading alternatives^ It would ^ m Butler, Ivan. The making of featureY films: a nk of pro- BOOKS guide. Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1971. Mi the basis Abbas, Khwaia Ahmad. Boy meets girl. Delhi, Cameron, Ian. Adventure and the cinema. Lon- dual works Sterling, 1974. don, Studio Vista, 1973. dcage pro- Appleton, Marion. The Cinema, London, Mac- Casty, Alan. Development of the film: an inter- ude a film donald and Co., 1974. pretive history. New York, Harcourt Brace i. Sen and Balcon, Michael. Film Production and Manage- Jovanovich, 1973. d. No one ment. London, British Institute of Manage- —The dramatic art of the film. New York, ment*, 1950. Harper and Row, 1971. ie Benegals Cavell, Stanley: The world viewed: reflections on ry to draw Barnouw, Erik and Krishnaswamy, S. Indian Film. New York, Columbia University Press, the ontology of film; New York, Viking Press, ;ommercial 1971. sma. The 1963. Barsam, Richard Meran. Nonfiction film; a critical Clair, Rene. Cinema yesterday and today. Magno- cinema, in (history. New York, Funk and W., 1973. lia; Mass., Pelter Smith, 1973. to appre- Beltome. Julius, ed. Renaissance of the film. Clarens, Carlos. Horror movies; rev. ed. London, Shahanis. New York, Collier Books, 1970. Panther 1971. lei cinema Boyum, Joy G. and Scott, Adrienne. Film as Cowie, Peter. A concise history of the cinema. of demo- film: critical responses to film art. Rockleigh, London, Zwemmer, 1972. t volumes. '• entertain- Allyn and Bacon, 1971. Currie, Hector and Staples, Donald. Film: en- Burch, Noel. Theory of film practice. New York, counter. Dayton, Standard, 1973. Praeger, 1973 Curtis, David. Experimental cinema: a fifty-year Little Brown, 1973. evolution. London, Studio Vista, 1971. Kobal, John. Romance and the cinema. London. Dadachandji, Rustom R. Law of Copywright and Studio Vista, 1973, movie-rights in a nu,t shell. Bombay, The Lee, Raymond and Van Hecke, B.C. Gangsters author, 1955. . and hoodlums: the underworld in the cinema. Davis, Brian. The thriller: the suspense film from New York, A. S, Barnes, 1971. 1946. London, Studio Vista, 1973. Lewis, Jerry. The total film-maker. New York, Dharap, B. V. ed. Indian films, 1972. Bombay, Random, 1971. Allied Publishers, 1973. Madsen. Roy. The impact of film: how ideas are Dickinson,, Thorold. A discovery of cinema. communicated through cinema and television. London, Oxford University Press, 1971. New York, Macmillan 1973. Faure, William. Images of violence. London, Maharashtra. Minimum Wages Committee for Studio Vista, 1973. Cinema Exhibition Industry, 1955. Report. Fensch, Thomas, Films on the campus. New- Bombay, 1967. Chairman: Shankarrao Gedam. York, A. S. Barnes, 1970. Manchel, Frank. Film study: a resource guide. Ford, Richard. Children in the cinema. New Rutherford (N.J.) Fairleigh Dickinson Univer- York, J. S. Ozer, 1971. sity Press, 1973. Furhammar, Leif and Isaksson, Folke. Politics Marcorelles, Louis. Living cinema: new directions and the film; tr. (from the Swedish) by Kersti in contemporary film-making. New York, French. London, Studio Vista, 1971. Praeger, 1973. Giannetti, Louis Daniel. Understanding movies. Mast, Gerald. The comic mind: comedy and the Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1972. movies. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, 1973. Gifford, Denis. Science fiction film. London. Matthews, J. H. Surrealism and film. Ann Arbor, Studio Vista, 1971. , University of Michigan Press, 1971. Gottesman, Ronald and Geduld, Barry M. Guide Mayer, Jacob Peter. Sociology of film: studies and book !to film: an eleven-in-one reference. New documents. New York, J.S. Ozer, 1971. York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972. Mellen, Joan. Women and their sexuality in the Griffith, Richard and Mayer, Arthur. The movies; nejv film. New York Horizon Press, 1974. rev. ed. Feltham, Spring Books, 1971. Mitchell, Alice Miller. Children and movies. New Hanson, Gillian. Original skin: nudity and sex in York, J.S. Ozer, 1971. cinema and theatre. London, Tom Stacey, 1970. Munsterberg, Hugo. The film: a psychological Harrington, John. The rhetoric of film. New study. New York, Dover Publications, 1970. York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973. Murray, Edward. The Cinema imagination: writers India, Enquiry Committee on Film Censorship, and the motion pictures. New York, Ungar, 1968. Report. Delhi, Manager of Publications, 1972. 1969. Chairman: G. D. Khosla. Naremore, James. Filmguide to psycho. Bloom- India, Film Enquiry Committee, 1949. Report. ington, Indian University Press, 1973. Delhi, Manager of Publications, 1951. Chairman: Oberholtzer, Elis Paxson. The morals of the movie. S. K. Patil. New York, J. S. Ozer 1971. India, Indian Cinematography Committee, 1927. Perkins, Victor Francis. Film as film: understand- Report. Delhi, Manager of Publications, 1928. ing and judging movies. Harmoridsworth, Chairman: T. Rangachariar. Penguin, 1972. 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