Short movies go a long way

As more and more short and documentary films are creating a buzz and finding an enthusiastic response, India seems poised and ready to accept non-feature films as an alternative means of entertainment
Nonika Singh

From left: Stills from Miriam Chandy’s Rat Race, Shubhashish Bhutiani’s Kush, GS Chani’s Yakshagana and Daljit Ami’s Not Every Time

* Miriam Chandy’s Rat Race and Anand Patvardhan’s War and Peace found a theatrical release something quite unheard of in India.

* Pan Nalin’s Samsara rocked the international circuit and his latest Faith Connections on the Kumbh Mela moved audiences across the board.

* Indian director Shubhashish Bhutiani’s short film Kush was selected in the shortlist of 10 live-action shorts in the Oscar race.

* Mumbai International Film festival, all set to unveil in the first week of February, which received 600 entries in short film, documentary and animation categories has shown a slow but steady increase in participants.

* Fire in the Blood set a record for the longest theatrical run by any non-fiction feature film in Indian history as it ran for five weeks in Mumbai.

On the face of it, the scenario of short and documentary films couldn’t be rosier. Non-feature films perhaps never had it so good. Be it social networking sites or film festivals, it’s these films that are creating as much if not more buzz than the feature films.

Gurcharan Singh Chani

Daljit Ami

Miriam Chandy Menacherry

Pan Nalin

Prior to moving up in the Oscar race, Shubhashish’s Kush had already won the Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film at the 70th Venice International Film Festival 2013 and jury prize at Hamptons International Film Festival.

It doesn’t take an Anurag Kashyap to tell us the future belongs to short films, many like Pan Nalin feel that the future is already here. With technology facilitating makers and YouTube proving to be the new Mecca for aspiring filmmakers, the tidings are bright. Miriam Chandy Menacherry, a journalist-turned-filmmaker, whose film The Rat Race was one of the first few films to be released in theatres nods. She believes documentary films have come of age in India.

GS Chani, who has made many documentaries on Indian arts and heritage, agrees that we have come a long way since the times when the only exposure to documentary films would be by way of newsreels shown before the screening of films. Today, the avenues have grown and the number of channels multiplied. In a country where entertainment meant only cinema, suddenly people are interested in history, culture, environment and a whole range of subjects social as well as political. In short, people want content not just fluff and catering to this need there is a fresh wave of talent many of whom are young and gifted. However, Chani is not sure whether all films that are making a noise are actually offering anything of higher value. Renowned documentary maker Sanjay Kak asserts that the biggest challenge is to keep the audiences engaged with our ideas and our craft, not by seducing them with some lowest-common-denominator trash. All agree that there is an increasing hunger for films outside Bollywood and Hollywood. Makers caution that increased viewership, the staggering number of hits on the Internet could well just be much ado about nothing. Says Daljit Ami, "As with mainstream films, these too could well fall prey to populism." Besides, many feel that this hunger need not translate into anything substantial at least monetarily. For instance, each time Ami’s film Not Every Time, on gender violence, is screened, it triggers a heated debate and a thoughtful discourse. But rarely ever does it motivate people to shell out money to buy a CD. Kak, however, differs and can sense an encouraging trend wherein people do choose to buy cds of films they like and are even disturbed by. Nalin’s last film Samsara did a brisk business of Rs 120 core at international circuits. The international funding which no doubt has grown over the years, argue the sceptics, is open to the select few. According to some, even worse is that there are not very many luminaries in the realm of this genre. Even acclaimed directors are not known outside a limited circle. But what of the fact that now celebrities from mainstream cinema are being roped in to act in such films. Certainly it would not hurt the cause of filmmakers or films when well-known filmmakers like say a Karan Johar or Anurag Kashyap decide to step into short-film making. Last year, Bombay Talkies, a compilation of four short films, was made to mark the 100 years of Indian cinema. This experiment bodes well. Veteran filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta, however, warns, "Let’s not delude ourselves. It will take a long time before a documentary culture can be fostered here." Unlike the West, where a steady audience for such films exists, he feels it’s near-impossible here to make a political film. Not that it stops committed men and women from taking the road less travelled. Directors like Sanjay Kak have not only made films on ticklish subjects such as Maoism and Kashmir but even dared to take a stand and thus turned the idea of objectivity on its head. Indeed, today’s filmmakers are challenging the conventional definition and grammar of such films. They are making films in exciting, story-telling formats, often fusing fact with fiction. Questions Miriam,"If to engage with more audiences, makers are using elements like humour or new techniques, I see no harm." Nalin feels that in an information age, where facts are anyway just a click away, the emotional connect is what matters most. Buoyed by the response to Faith Connections, he is upbeat about the release of the film for which viewers are paying on the Net.

However, Ami reminds us how Patvardhan’s much-acclaimed film flopped at theatres. Menacherry’s The Rat Race may not have set the cash registers ringing but the fact that it got the space along with Bollywood releases, is an achievement by itself. She refuses to endorse the viewpoint that using the yardsticks of bazaar is antithetical to the nature of documentaries and the success of an odd film will have no impact on the box office. She argues if a film like Fire in the Blood, a very political film can run successfully at PVR for five weeks why should makers be satisfied with remaining on the fringes and niche viewings? She dwells on the need for promotional budgets, following the model of the West, where educational rights grant filmmakers license fees to screening films at institutions. Fortunately, many institutions are more than willing to pay a screening fee, howsoever nominal. Of course, making documentaries and short films will remain an uphill task. A country that loves fiction the going for short films isn’t easy either. For the greater challenge here is screening as well as monetisation. With the tribe of thinking curious minds wanting a counter point and debate, with funding becoming more accessible, with greater coordination between funding agencies and makers, VS Kundu, Director MIFF is certain a new beginning has been made. Whether it will lead to documentaries and short films emerging as an alternative means of entertainment, whether people will be receptive to the idea of buying a ticket or not.... there is no denying the paradigm shift in both perception and reception to non-feature films.

Winds of change  Well-known actor and comedian Jaaved Jaaferi launched the Indian Documentary Foundation (IDF) an organisation that aims to take the documentary genre to mainstream audiences in collaboration with the International Film Festival of Kerala. It funded The Rat Race.  A new initiative called Trigger Pitch was launched by the Kerala State Chalachithra Academy and the Indian Documentary Foundation, to bridge the gap between creative and marketing sections of filmmaking. The idea is to create a wider audience and awareness. The 2014 edition of MIFF will bring internationally acclaimed pitching forum Good Pitch Squared' partnered by BRITDOCS and the Sundance Institute Documentary Program to facilitate funding. MIFF will confer technical awards, thus playing an important role in enhancing creative satisfaction levels of those involved in the onerous task

With Thanks from The Tribune, Sunday, January 19, 2014, Spectrum

On a path less trodden

Daljit Ami’s tenth short film Seva not only underlines the significance of preserving heritage, but also salutes the contribution of those devoted to the onerous task of conserving it
Nonika Singh

The image of SRK prancing in the mustard fields of Punjab might have been immortalised in cinema… Daljit Ami, a man of rural roots, knows too well it’s nearly impossible and impractical to do so in real life. In fact, back in time he realised that the Punjab depicted in Bollywood and Pollywood is far removed from the actual reality.

So to bring out the real Punjab and its people Ami turned a filmmaker. Making films shorn of commercial razzmatazz, he focuses on flesh and blood people engaged in varying pursuits that have a larger import. Today he is ready with his tenth short film Seva that underlines the significance of heritage and brings alive men and women who are at its service. He says, “Be it literature or cinema it’s about time we turned our attention to non-fiction. Till we do so we will not be able to evolve a sensitive society.”

Heritage, the civilizational connect in particular, he asserts can make us better human beings. Alas, he rues it remains an absolutely neglected domain that simply doesn’t exist on the radar of people. That’s why he chose the popular medium of films to bring it into focus. Of course, as he brings together five different persons devoted to the cause of heritage he even links it up with the damage that has been played out on the world stage. In Punjab he gives full marks to the Punjab Digital Library, which he feels is doing both stellar and pioneering work. He gushes, “Imagine till date they have digitised 7.5 million pages.” In times to come, he observes, it would become an institution to reckon with and perhaps an independent subject of his next film.
In his lexicon of filmmaking, audience does not comprise bumbling idiots but intelligent, thinking beings who don’t have to be spoon-fed. Drawing them into his creative maze he wants viewers to decode on their own. No wonder he doesn’t offer any linear narrative in his films. Nor does he stick to the oft beaten path.

So when the entire country was harping over the plight of debt-ridden farmers, he made a film on landless labourers who he observes are born in debt and named his film so. In Not Every Time he talked of a movement in Barnala district that raised a voice against sexual crimes that few urbanites had heard of. On urbanites, especially residents of City Beautiful, he is candid. He quips, “Short film festivals that happen in Chandigarh have nothing to do with the region.” Even otherwise he feels Chandigarhites identify with New Delhi and New York.
Indeed, making the kind of films he does is no cakewalk. Even more difficult is marketing these films. Yet moving against all odds his films have found receptive viewers.
Kar Seva on the green crusader Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal has been viewed by millions of people as it has been screened across the length and breadth of villages across Punjab. With the latest Seva he hopes to target schools and colleges.

One day he might move to larger-than-life cinema but his subjects would still be drawn from contemporary non-fiction and mirror everyday concerns of the common man. Picking up threads from the hidden pages of history right now he is planning to make an ambitious film on the Singapore mutiny in which 41 Punjabis lost their lives.
Love for cinema might have rubbed on to him perchance when as a college student he shared a room with the National Award winning director Rajeev Sharma. Today it’s a passion that finds sustenance in his ability to sail alone, more often than not, against the tide.


With Thanks from The Tribune. It was published in The Tribune on April 26, 2013 The writer can be reached at nonika@tribunemail.com
(http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130426/ttlife1.htm#1)
The photograph was taken by Mangal Singh.

‘Punjabi cinema lacks conviction’

Nonika Singh talks to Rajeev Sharma Punjabi filmmaker who won a National Award

“I don’t make films for festivals nor for money.” With these words filmmaker Rajeev Sharma takes a well-deserved bow. As his debut film Nabar picks up the National Award for the best Punjabi film, an honour that comes to Punjabi cinema only once in a while, he looks back at his journey in the arc lights that started with theatre. An alumnus of the Department of Indian Theatre, Panjabi University, Chandigarh, his theatre group Lok Kala Manch Mandi Mullanpur, Ludhiana district, is set to celebrate its silver jubilee this year. While theatre remains his first love, his career graph has seen him halting at senior positions with many television channels. Last year his short film Aatu Khoji won critical acclaim. He made documentaries on Punjab’s revolutionary poet Avtar Pash and the famous dhadi singer Idu Sharif. He is looking ahead at another film Rakaan-s and is neither eyeing houseful theatres nor film festivals. A director who asserts he is not a festival kind of director, Sharma dedicates his National Award to those who have dared to fight injustice. He talks of the award and the kind of cinema he believes in. Excerpts:
Do you think two National Awards in a row for Punjabi films will open doors for other filmmakers?
I can’t say for sure whether Gurvinder Singh’s film Anhey Ghode Da Daan last year and mine picking up the National Award this year will set a new trend of meaningful films in Punjabi cinema, but yes my short film Aatu Khoji did inspire many youngsters to work in the realm of short films.
Why did you feel the need to switch to feature film?
After watching Aatu Khoji many viewers felt that the film was good but too brief. Perhaps audiences in India are trained to watch longer films and feel a trifle dissatisfied with a shorter format and hunger for a longer run time.
What clinched the award in your favour?
I think it’s the subject and the music as I used Gurbani and gave it a contemporary twist.
Your film deals with immigration racket, a problem that has devastated many families in Punjab. How did you think of making a film on this?
Herein I owe a debt of gratitude to journalists. Reading a newspaper report about a High Court judgment on the murder of a young boy duped by illegal travel agents set me thinking. The fight of the old man who had lost his son truly moved and impelled me. Thereafter, I wrote the script and the screenplay.
Was finance a big issue?
Indeed it was, to begin with. Whoever I approached, pressured me to take big actors and make a commercial film. I did toy with the idea of casting the singing icon Gurdas Maan. But ultimately after finding my producer in Jasbir Singh Derewa, I settled for lesser-known actors. The best compliment I have received so far is “your actors look like characters”.
Is it difficult to market such films?
Making a film is only 25 per cent of the job. The real crux lies in how to take it to people. But I must clarify that I am not looking at screening my films in multiplexes which cater to the urban and neo-urban audiences. My exhibitors are not cinema people. I have made this film for the common man who lives in villages. Since he can’t afford high-priced tickets, I intend to reach out to him. Actually, I am in the midst of evolving an alternative system of distribution.
Today Punjabi cinema seems to be in an exciting phase and new films are being announced every other day. What is your take on the Punjabi film industry?
It’s not a cinema of conviction, but that of bhed chaal and fads. Sure, a few films did good business but many have flopped too. Anyway it’s the kind of cinema that doesn’t interest me at all.
How would you describe your film?
It’s serious cinema with a purpose through which I hope to inspire not other makers, but the common people.
Do you feel bogged down by the weight of expectations after the National Award?
Not in the least. I have already moved on to my next film Rakaan-s, an ode to women that will bring together narratives of four women and deal with burning issues of drug abuse, land-grab and also a flashback to the ’84 riots. Through my films I also intend to create a dialogue between the urban and rural populace. I think the urban class must empathise with the man living in villages whose reality is very different.
You pick unusual names for you films. Any particular reason?
Yes. nabar means rebel and rakaan in Punjabi refers to a woman with an attitude, a dare and an independent mind. These words are no longer heard. Through my films I want to save words that are fast vanishing from our language.
Will you always make films in Punjabi?
In all likelihood, yes.

(With thanks from The Tribune, March 24, 2013)