What’s the purpose of a film society? Is it only to screen films that we may not watch very often, or more than that? Last Thursday, after the screening of Romanian film — 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days — at Santiniketan during the week-long film festival, three of us were discussing what purpose the film had served for Bikshan’s 300-odd members.
Bikshan is an eight-year-old film society started in early 2001 by a few young and veteran ashramites and local residents of Bolpur-Santiniketan. For all these years it has enjoyed good patronage from all sections of people — from octogenarians to students alike. Organising seminars, tete-a-tete with directors, workshops for students and certainly screening good films — it has done a lot to reach out to people of a popular Bengali cultural hub which did witness failed beginnings of film clubs in the past.
What it could not do on a regular basis is conducting interactive “adda” sessions before or after screening a film. This, i feel, is essential for Bikshan or any other cine clubs to make people aware of the film society movement. There are two different ways of approaching this movement. One, just screening quality films for an audience who could not see such movies in their lifetime, but there is another purpose too. This is more of a constructive manner of approaching a film; this carry technical and intellectual overtones. A film like Modern Times of Chaplin could be a kid’s movie, and it could be on the syllabus of a university to show how alienated workers could be during industrial revolution. In fact, i was told by a reporter friend that prior to the Bengal Assembly elections of 2006, Chaplin films were often screened by Maoists in rural areas untouched by development. For the Naxalites, the same films would have served a different purpose that we can’t even think of.
Back to film society movement. I am not saying that all film clubs should take the Drishya route. Drishya, a four-year-old organisation, has trodden a road hardly taken by any one of us. The youngsters of the Calcutta organisation has till date screened films — most in DVD formats — in thousands of villages and small towns in India. Their effort, i would say, is a revolution in the film society movement. They used to talk about the film before screenings, as common people might not make out every detail of an Eisenstein montage or a Ray angle. But after the introduction, screening of the film and subsequent short interactive session, the so-called aam admi would leave the venue with a different set of mind. Why can’t Bikshan initiate such efforts? It can also produce a monthly film bulletin which would include discussions on films — classics and new releases across the world — not just announcing future screenings, as it’s done at present through an irregular newsletter.
Sunday 23 November 2008
Sunday 16 November 2008
Bus blues
For a person from Calcutta who is dependent on public transport system for travelling around, a visit to Nagpur or Patna or any other emerging cities could be an eye-opener as far as commuting is concerned. Calcutta, according to a survey by the Union ministry of urban development, has the highest share of public transport among the 30 cities studied this year.
We don’t know how much fortunate we Calcuttans are. An average daily passenger in Calcutta can avail local rickety decades-old bus, short-distance high speed WBSTC bus, Whiteliner AC bus, back-breaking CSTC bus, overcrowded mini-bus, suburban EMU train (covering 100km to north, 107km to west, 130km to southwest, 60km to south, 75km to east), underground Metro, yellow taxi, AC taxi, black-and-yellow smoke-belching autorickshaws and moreover, a dedicated ferry service on the Ganga throughout the day! How many cities in India would offer so much of transport facilities for common masses?
Still we crave for SUVs and Nanos forgetting that average speed of vehicles on Calcutta streets is merely 18kmph. After the launch of a Rs 1-lakh car, one can easily imagine the congested Calcutta we had never seen before. My intention is not at all to contain the growth of the recession-hit automobile manufacturing sector by requesting fellow Calcuttans not to go for personal cars, but to ask them not to hit the streets — which is just 6 per cent of the total area of the city — with such vehicles to make a chock-a-block condition. Does it take less time to drive from Dum Dum to Tollygunge than taking the Metro? Can’t be. We have a good public transport system, which may not be world class but far batter than any other city has in the country.
What prompted me to write this blog has its roots in my last week’s visit to one of the emerging cities in central India. Hardly there was any suburban train service in the city, which though connects Kanyakumari with Kashmir and Gandhinagar with Guwahati. City bus service was though remodelled with introducing new fleet of Starbuses, it cannot better the revenue generated by two- and four-stroke autorickshaws that ply in several thousands to ferry ever-growing number of passengers. One of the senior journalists i met there possesses a four-wheeler and a motorcycle too. Same is the condition with lakhs of people living there. The streets as usual remain highly congested during the morning and evening peak hours with every mode of personal transport clogging even the arterial roads and flyovers. The only solution lies in developing a proper public transport system, at least like Calcutta to start the process.
We don’t know how much fortunate we Calcuttans are. An average daily passenger in Calcutta can avail local rickety decades-old bus, short-distance high speed WBSTC bus, Whiteliner AC bus, back-breaking CSTC bus, overcrowded mini-bus, suburban EMU train (covering 100km to north, 107km to west, 130km to southwest, 60km to south, 75km to east), underground Metro, yellow taxi, AC taxi, black-and-yellow smoke-belching autorickshaws and moreover, a dedicated ferry service on the Ganga throughout the day! How many cities in India would offer so much of transport facilities for common masses?
Still we crave for SUVs and Nanos forgetting that average speed of vehicles on Calcutta streets is merely 18kmph. After the launch of a Rs 1-lakh car, one can easily imagine the congested Calcutta we had never seen before. My intention is not at all to contain the growth of the recession-hit automobile manufacturing sector by requesting fellow Calcuttans not to go for personal cars, but to ask them not to hit the streets — which is just 6 per cent of the total area of the city — with such vehicles to make a chock-a-block condition. Does it take less time to drive from Dum Dum to Tollygunge than taking the Metro? Can’t be. We have a good public transport system, which may not be world class but far batter than any other city has in the country.
What prompted me to write this blog has its roots in my last week’s visit to one of the emerging cities in central India. Hardly there was any suburban train service in the city, which though connects Kanyakumari with Kashmir and Gandhinagar with Guwahati. City bus service was though remodelled with introducing new fleet of Starbuses, it cannot better the revenue generated by two- and four-stroke autorickshaws that ply in several thousands to ferry ever-growing number of passengers. One of the senior journalists i met there possesses a four-wheeler and a motorcycle too. Same is the condition with lakhs of people living there. The streets as usual remain highly congested during the morning and evening peak hours with every mode of personal transport clogging even the arterial roads and flyovers. The only solution lies in developing a proper public transport system, at least like Calcutta to start the process.
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