Watch the World of Cinema Unfold!!!!!!
Has the world cinema really arrived in India, Bikas Mishra ponders in the wake of initiatives such as Palador DVD releases and the launch of NDTV Lumiere
NDTV Lumiere
My optimism saw it’s peak soon when I got to see Paris, je t’aime in another Mumbai theatre. However sooner than I could develop a habit to visit old Mumbai’s glossy theatres in the hopes of catching glimpse of contemporary world cinema, the screening stopped because of business disputes between UTV and Palador pictures.
Bringing international films to India isn’t a new idea in itself. Satyajit Ray and Chidananda Dasgupta must have felt the need more than half a century ago before setting up the Calcutta Film Society. I’ve a reason to believe film societies especially in Bengal (rather East, to add the Jamshedpur based Celluloid Chapter) and Kerala have been instrumental in bringing the world of cinema to people.
Palador DVD releases
This is why my happiness on the DVD releases of Akira Kurosawa and Wong Kar Wai films is mixed with a sense of anxiety, I always wonder if people will lap these masterpieces?
To be very honest, availability of films was never an issue. I remember watching Seven Samurai on the good old Doordarshan. Wong Kar Wai films are an all time hit with pirated DVD vendors at New Delhi’s Palika market.
Quite away from the world of “better informed and better placed” people of Delhi and Mumbai, I’ve been lucky enough to have seen films by masters of cinema such as Jean Luc Godard, Luis Bunuel, Frederico Fellini, Michael Angelo Antonioni and so many more at Jamshepur’s Celluloid Chapter screenings.
Are we ready for a world cinema television channel yet? I would like to answer this question in a big YES. However, I would say that initiatives such as NDTV Lumiere needs to be much more than a television channel. They not only have a strategic role to play in making contemporary world cinema more accessible but also in helping audiences (many first time viewers) appreciate them.
Will initiatives such as Palador DVDs or NDTV Lumiere help us open our eyes to the world of cinema, or will they just try to sell “foreign titles” the way a foreign brand of perfume is marketed in India? Will they actually help people watch great films and feel the power of cinema?
My sense is these new initiatives have a larger responsibility of unfolding a whole new world of cinema and this is going to be the real test. Being accessible is only a part of the game, reaching out is the real challenge.
My best wishes to Palador Collection and NDTV Lumiere.
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Ah, great news to lighten up my day, Bikas. Hope all this happens soon, I’m tired of only things being reported and then nothing much happening (as the UTV-Palador tie-up)…
Another very good observation to make here is that why do people neglect (1) British cinema and (2) Hollywood classics so often. There’ve been a great number of Hollywood films in the past which no one remembers today, and which actually are “greater” than the more famous ones, like “Humoresque” or “The Wind” (silent) or “The Subject Was Roses”, and there’ve been such a great no. of British films, with the typical British dryness, humour, and panache. Wonder if we’re ever going to get them (if I except TCM available probably only on some DTH platform)!
hi, NDTV Lumiere is not only a channel now, it is also releasing movies in Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai and will soon be releasing movies in Goa too. Since you have already mentioned DVD’s, there is another treat for World Cinema Watchers, free screenings; Tabularasa, Saket in Delhi , Zenzi, Bandra in Mumbai and Pebble, Bangalore organize free NDTV Lumiere movies every fortnight. Catch the best of such amazing movies for free if you happen to be in the vicinity. cheers