A lot more to be done to make Indian Cinema globally competitive – Muzaffar Ali
Teach dialects in schools to popularize vernacular cinema says the Director of Bhojpuri Film ‘Deswa’
Renowned film maker Muzaffar Ali has said that a lot more has to be done to make Indian Cinema globally competitive. He was speaking at a press conference at the International Film Festival of India in Goa, today. He said three things are needed to make a film successful – script, script, script. He said most of the films become victims of a bad script and a film has to be ‘local enough’ to be ‘global enough’. Local psychological, philosophical and emotional aspects should be integrated in the script to make it more relevant, he added.
Nitin Chandra, the Director of Bhojpuri film ‘Deswa’ has advocated introducing various dialects at school level to popularize language cinema in India. Bhojpuri films, he lamented, are having a typical audience primarily because the viewers expect ‘bold’ scenes in those movies. He was also speaking at the press conference. The press conference was organized to pay special tribute to the renowned film maker Muzaffar Ali. Neetu Chandra, the Producer of the film echoed Nitin Chandra’s observations. She said that Bhojpuri films have acquired a dubious distinction of being ‘vulgar’ although remarkable films in Bhojpuri are also being made. Unfortunately, there are not many takers for this genre, she added.
The film ‘Deswa’ is set in the years 2003 -04 in Buxar District of Bihar, which at the time was witnessing several crimes like kidnapping, murders and caste-based carnages. It is the story of three characters: Rajiv Kumar, an IAS aspirant; Sankar Pandey, a young graduate who is thrashed in Assam for taking the Railway Board Exams; and Jeans, a folk singer, waiting to go to Mumbai, cut his album and become a star. When they are unable to realize their dreams honestly, they decide to commit a crime for money. When they come out of jail after five years, they see change in their village.
The Director of Malayalam feature film ‘Ithramathram’ (Only This Much) Dr. K. Gopinathan admitted that he has to balance his job as a professor of philosophy at the University of Calicut, Kerala and as a film maker. ‘Ithramathram’ is his first feature film although he has made three documentaries before this film. The film is structured around the unexpected death of a thirty-eight-year-old woman called Sumitra, whose passing away leaves her husband and daughter completely lost and helpless. It is through a sequence of reflections of Sumitra’s kith and kin that we get a glimpse of her fascinating personality. Reflections on an individual’s death become a wondrous evocation of the colour, zest and zeal of the entire village life and entire network of collective human destiny. Dr. Gopinathan said that he has deliberately kept the title of the film vague and left it to the viewers to draw conclusions, if any.
