Mainstream cinema understands and plays it role in promoting diversity even if at times, it can be accused of making ill-informed political stances and displaying a patriarchal mindset, actor Rahul Bose said here on Wednesday.
Delivering the Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture at the 21st edition of the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), Mr. Bose said the intrinsic belief in diversity that the film industry displayed at all levels, both seen and unseen, had to do with excellence behind the camera and charisma in front it.
“Film industry has always looked at these two qualities and rewarded it. Your caste, your religion, your gender, the ethnic mix does not matter. In fact, the last 100 years have shown that it does not matter at all,” he said adding that it was a perfect example of diversity being lifeblood of any society.
The actor came out with a number of examples of directors, actors and technicians coming from different communities successfully conceiving, portraying and giving life to characters from other communities.
He referred to the film Garam Hawa , one of the greatest films to explore the human cost of Partition through the depiction of a Muslim family. The film was made by M.S. Sathyu, a Hindu Brahmin born in Mysore. Mr. Bose referred to his film Everybody Says I am Fine , whose crew had Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Parsees.
Just like siblingsReflecting on “Cinema and its place in civilisation”, Mr Bose said the interaction between cinema and society was that of siblings — the younger sibling, cinema, followed just half a step behind society.
“Cinema, as younger siblings do, will hang on to every word and action of society. It will proclaim judgment of it, decide it can do things better but always derive inspiration from it,” he said. Mr. Bose referred to films made by Satyajit Ray and how with the “unparallel density of humanism, his films were suffused with” the reality that was India today.
Mr. Bose made particular reference to Ray’s film Ganashatru , an adaptation of Ibsen’s play An Enemy of the People , in which a doctor, Ashok Gupta, played by Soumitra Chatterjee tried to inculcate rationalism in the people over blind faith.
“What would doctor Ashok Gupta in Ganashatru make of the motive behind the killing of rationalists Kalburgi, Dabolkar and Pansare. Most important, what would have Ray made of these murders,” he asked. Would he accept the brutal killing of the rationalists, Mr. Bose asked.
