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| Issue 04 Anniversary Issue | Feb 2005 | ||||
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Rahul
Bose-renowned film actor, director, rugby player and activist
expressed his thoughts about cinema to laws and social conscience in
our special column of E-catalyst's Anniversary issue.
On Documentary as a genre "I think we have well past moved past the scratchy black and white documentary that we hated and groaned while we went for cigarette break in movies. That's past us, but what's come to replace that? At least in Bombay, it's the scratchy video with the national flag on it and we have to sing the National anthem (which does not really happen but…!). Paradoxically what is actually happening with the form is there is a proliferation of documentary filmmakers because of democratization of the way of making documentaries. It is so much cheaper and (people can make them in) sundry formats. Lot of people can go out and say "Hey! I wanna make a documentary!" Obviously it is not as simple as that! We have something, which suddenly increases the proliferation and that is a lot of extremely mediocre stuff. But I believe that will level out. The leveling out will only happen if we reject such stuff out rightly." Future of Documentaries "Multiplexing of India has happened. There is going to be space open for documentaries to enter the mainstream (so as to speak) to enter. I have talked to 2-3 multiplex chain owners who really do not have a problem because today's movies are not to long and a slot of 20 minutes is open for screening of the documentary. I haven't seen it yet and I suspect it because documentary filmmakers haven't been aggressive enough. I spoke to Anant Patwardhan and Rakesh (I think they 're wonderful filmmakers) but as a whole there should be a lot more pressure on exhibitors to say listen, you have to show our movies on such and such movie. I cannot think of a single exhibitor who will look at this as a commercial, lucrative moneymaking proposition. They'll want to do it because they feel somewhere that it is important." On Fahrenheit 9/11 " Let us take F9/11 as a inflated, slightly misleading example but all of one documentary that made it into mainstream theatres. What did it do? F9/11 as a leader of more documentaries getting into a larger social space has clearly shown one person as a villain. So we as the Indian uneducated film watching public were watching something, which had one person as the villain, and an effective (sometimes tragic, sometimes comic) case was made against that villain. It was quite attractive- you don't have to strain our social side of the brain s t understand and appreciate what's going on or even our notions of cinema. It was easy to receive and at the end of it did succeed in making an effect. Necessarily when a fledgling of medium or creative mode of expression begins to flower it has to capture the popular imagination first. A Lagaan can spawn more films truer to that milieu than it has (although it was a very mainstream film) but it has made something to enter into that area in some form. Therefore we don't have F9/11- we have fantastic documentaries I say that unreservedly. They are hip, they're contemporary, they are well researched and they don't bore you but we do not have one film that we can say-"this breaks the barrier. We should look out for that. There is tremendous scope." On law, liberty and livelihood " It is astounding- people in Pakistan take 1/3rd the time to setup a small business than in India. What's the democracy doing? It takes 90 days to setup a business in India. A small business is not even setting up a complex shop- it's like somebody wants to be a rickshaw puller or someone wants to sell something on the road. A coolies's badge is selling at a premium of 3 Lakhs nowadays. It's astonishing that it's tough to get that. Delhi Municipal corporation allows 2000 goats and sheep, buffaloes everyday but the demand is much more so what happens? You keep seeing archaic laws where the demand is far outstripping the laws. There has to be 1 hawker in every 50 m-but it will not satiate the population. That being the case, you have to let the equalization of market forces happen and change the remove. I have this memorable phrase (which I rob from a speech) "Review, Revise and Remove". I am saying it since it requires skill and capital and change those things. The time will keep bubbling beneath the surface and at one point of time will erupt and throw acid on the face- why do you want that?" " For me the real issue is—I have been going to the Andamans and I have gone to exercise my rights as an Indian citizen not coz of this celebrity BS. I came across face to face with the idea of livelihood and what happens." On social consciousness "I was talking to Barkha (Dutt) on 'We the People' on "does India have a social consciousness" and I said "of course it doesn't". It has a reactive consciousness. We can't react to things, but on day-to-day basis do we stop ourselves from littering, spitting, degrading our women- of course we don't. To progress from a nation, which has a reactive consciousness to move to a more consistent social consciousness, we need our citizens to their emotional space that says "I care". If you turn around and say to yourself "I care" what do you say? You say, "I care about society and what happens in society because somewhere society's collective unhappiness affects me". If I say, "I care", that means I am giving myself I am giving myself the emotional energy and space to look at somebody else's predicament. When do you do that? When I feel that something about who I am and what I am doing is satisfied. A hungry man is not going to look at the livelihood of the people in Nancowrie Islands. The only way in which I have seen (in the last few years of my life) people accord other people respect is when they respect themselves. There is no way- the only way you can give yourself respect to start with as a father, as a mother, as a brother, as a sister, as a 15 year old child who is running a soft drink stand in Mumbai is the first step that they work for a living. Imagine you are that you cannot do your job- that moment your wrenched a person of his self respect. All you are left with is a deep pain and deep frustration and a deep sense of anger. The point I am trying to make is that we have to start respecting ourselves." (At Jeevika 2005, CCS's annual documentary in Casuarina Hall IHC on 27th January-excepts transcribed by Yavnika Khanna, editor, E-catalyst) |