Discussing Hollywood or Bollywood was taboo in the mid 1970s, when film societies movement was at its peak in India. From that milieu, we have travelled far and have reached an era when the lines between art and popular cinema is blurring. What matters now is good cinema and to bring about such a setting, the film society movement has worked hard, says Premendra Mazumder, vice-chairman of the Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI) who is in the FFSI KR Mohanan award jury panel at the ongoing IFFK 2019.
“Films from far away places in the Northeast, made with very low budget, are becoming hugely popular and fetching international awards as well. An example is Lady of the Lake , a 2017 film from Manipur by Haobam Paban Kumar. Made with just ₹11 lakh, the film was realistic yet appealed to the masses too. The success of films such as Lunchbox and Masaan also stands as proof,” says Mr. Mazumder.
Probably the efforts to bridge the divide began in 1947 when Satyajit Ray started the Calcutta Film Society with the intention of first creating the audience before making good cinema. Film societies were the only window to the world of meaningful films then, and it was through embassies that the works of masters were sourced. “We did not entertain popular cinema then though Ray liked Hollywood movies and even admitted he was influenced by their style. He also had many friends who made popular cinema whose works were discussed during film society meetings. May be the lines began to blur from then,” says Mr. Mazumder.
“Such was the importance of film societies that when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to organise an international film festival in India, he sought tips from the Calcutta Film Society. This was in 1952, and Ray was not even a filmmaker then,” he says.
The surge
The surge of festivals now is a good trait in popularising cinema as an art form. “That should be the intent too, rather than merely sorting films into genres. There are discussions now on how festivals are ignoring independent films. It seems a vain debate with film festivals getting more and more popular,” he says.
