By Kavita A Chhibber
It was an idea blessed by the Indian government, taken forward and sponsored by the Consulate General of India in New York and conceptualized by entrepreneur and Impact Advisor Priya Samant through her Icons and Impact series.
The event finally took concrete shape despite very short notice, and was held on the 29th of March at the Academy of Creative Arts in Burlington.
It was decided to highlight India’s regional cinema and honor legendary film maker and actor Raj Kapoor on his centennial birthday for this event. “Regional Cinema today has come such a long way, presenting films that are so rich in content,” said Priya Samant, and added that Raj Kapoor was the obvious choice because he remains a beloved global icon. “People have shorter memories and not much patience with three-hour long films. But to this day, they are sitting through Raj Kapoor’s films due to the content, the music, and the love with which he told stories that touched the heart and underlined social causes.”
The India International Film Festival of Boston (IIFFB, founded by Razia Mashkoor) came on board as well.
The event hosted two conversations – the first with eminent actor,writer,director,Producer Trupti Bhoir, whose compelling film Paro is making waves in all the private screenings that have been held in the US and elsewhere. The other conversation was with Ashwini Bhave, known for her brilliant performances in Marathi and Hindi cinema. This was interspersed with clips from regional and Hindi cinema and live dance performances on stage from films.
The conversations moderated by Razia Mashkoor and Priya Samant brought to light the contrasting worlds of both regional and Indian Cinema since their inception a century ago. Trupti Bhoir pointed out that it was Dada Saheb Phalke who ventured into making cinema that was shown in tents and came to be known as “touring talkies”. “Today the gigantic Indian cinema stands on the shoulders of these talkies that became a dying art with the creation of concrete cinema theaters.”
Trupti, who has always been driven towards being a part of meaningful Cinema, stumbled into the world of touring talkies by accident. A film she had made did not do well, and someone encouraged her to show her movie in a tent and become a part of the now dying culture of touring talkies. “Concrete cinema took over after partition and the government had a law in place that allowed touring talkies only where the villages had a population of 50,000 people or less. I asked the government to show me one village with such a small population. Villages are overflowing these days. Very few have such a small population.”
Trupti was compelled to make a film “Touring Talkies” to save the art from dying and to bring it to the attention of government authorities. They were forced to change the law and started supporting what was India’s cultural heritage. “I wanted my children and their children to enjoy this kind of cinema, and today even A.R. Rahman supports these talkies through sponsorship.”
Trupti comes from a humble background unrelated to films, but she worked her way from theater to Marathi cinema and her focus has always been making films with an underlying social cause. Paro (her latest film) is on the issue of bride slavery. While commercial cinema remains the space where big budget films are being made, films like Paro are also being supported by people who care.
IIFFB founder Razia Mashkoor said that it is heartening to see independent films do the work that commercial cinema often does not. Her annual film festival is always delighted to receive 70-80 films with extremely thought-provoking, socially relevant subjects. These films would not see the light of day but for festivals like hers. Her focus too has been on presenting important topics that will hopefully lead to social change.
Ashwini Bhave’s advent into cinema was also unplanned. Both her parents were educators and let her participate in Marathi plays which led to Marathi cinema where Ashwini was noticed. Her stellar work led to her being selected for Raj Kapoor’s film Henna, which was eventually directed by his son Randhir Kapoor because Raj Kapoor was very ill at that time. The impact of being an actor under the R.K banner was life changing for every actor and Ashwini was no exception. It brought her high-quality scripts and teams that helped her hone her skills in enriching roles.
However, Ashwini did not leave acting in Marathi films and says she authors books in her native language. Regional cinema (now especially in Southern India) is a force to reckon with and as a result Marathi films, though made on a smaller budget, focus on being very content rich. “All the films I did in Marathi were very gratifying and many were very challenging.”
Ashwini also mentioned in her conversation with Priya Samant that she feels there is no gap to bridge for Indian cinema to be shown on a global platform because underlying social themes are essentially the same.
In India Marathi writers were always respected and Raj Kapoor in fact had asked Playwright Vijay Tendulkar to write for him. Ashwini spoke of how involved the entire Kapoor family remained in every aspect of film making even after Raj Kapoor passed away in 1988. Neetu Kapoor designed all the costumes for Henna, and everyone encouraged Ashwini to do her best. Raj Kapoor was multifaceted and his work brought long lasting enrichment, and grandeur to Indian cinema
Ashwini also said that acting in theater led to good performances in cinema, both regional and national, and gave her a glimpse of her own capabilities. Theater is all about live performances, no retakes and immediate audience reaction, but cinema was a space that made her realize she could hold the audience’s attention because of her acting skills.
Pragya Singh, India Consul Press Information and Culture, was in attendance from New York. She inaugurated the event and said that her vision is to take Indian Cinema beyond India and Indians and to share its rich content on a global platform. There were several other films being screened in other states along with Massachusetts as part of the Consulate’s vision.
There are always lessons to be learned, and while sudden severe weather played a part in cutting down the number of attendees at this “by invitation-only event”, there were many glitches that could have been avoided. Microphones repeatedly stopped working or feeding back during the conversations. Films shorts and trailers being shown unfortunately stalled and disrupted the flow of things. Some of the tables where attendees were seated had “Broken” written on the top, so those attendees seated at these tables tried not to put too much weight on them. There were non-Indian attendees who could not understand a word of what was being said in Hindi or Urdu, creating some visible frustration. There could have been subtitles or a synopsis in English to be read or spoken by the host. This certainly would have expanded the cross-cultural appeal of such events.
Pragya Singh, while graciously giving leeway to uncertainties happening, hoped that the next event will run more smoothly with more professional handling, because the intent is to reach as wide an audience as possible and in a way that builds on professional presentations and more and more people wanting to be a part of this vision of taking Indian cinema on a global platform and build cultural bridges.
The food was provided by Jassi Singh’s Raagini restaurant in Andover, and they always do a stellar job. He was honored at the event and deservedly so.
