THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Certain disturbing signs were evident at the 46th IFFI in Goa in the last week of November 2015. One of the films featured in the Indian cinema section began with profound thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his sober confident visage right in the middle of the screen, like he was some deceased great to whom the film was dedicated. Half the audience left the theatre in disgust; the reaction was so spontaneous that it looked orchestrated.
Now, the 63rd national film awards have confirmed the fear. Creativity will be judged according to the whims of the party in power.
“This was a total sell-out to commercial cinema. The art form has been treated just like a product whose value has to be measured in terms of demand. Not a single experimental film seems to have been considered,” said C.S.
Venkiteswaran, a ‘national award’-winning critic. “The central government, it is clear, understands cinema only as a trade activity,” he added. Film academic Louis Mathew said that it would be ludicrous to respond to the choices of a jury that has selected Bahubali as the best film. “The worst film jury in the history of national awards,” he said. “It is better to stop giving national awards if this trend is going to continue,” he added.
For young indie filmmakers, who are just about spreading their wings, the award announcement might have sounded more like the menacing crush of military tanks rolling into their neighbourhood. “It is scary. My politics has no space in their scheme of things. I am sure it will be like this for the next three to four years,” said Sudevan, the maker of CR89.
“There is no point in even sending your entry to the awards or even to the IFFI Panorama,” Sudevan said. Sajin Babu, who made the highly feted Unto the Dusk, is so appalled by the choices that he just cannot stop laughing.
“BJP has a fascination for myths, everyone knows. They pointed at our elephant-god Ganesha and cited him as proof that plastic surgery thrived in ancient India. For them, myth is the real thing. Then, is it any wonder that for them Bahubali and Bajirao Mastani are the paragons of good cinema,” Sajin Babu said.
He said it was shocking that Gurivindher Singh’s Punjabi film Chauthi Koot, which was screened at Cannes, and Raam Reddy’s Kannada movie Thithi, which had won big at Locarno, were not considered worthy.
Malayalam films with a lot of expectations riding on them, like Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s Ozhivu Divasathe Kali or Manu’s ‘Mundrothuruthu,’ were cast aside. In fact, Sanal Kumar, in a Facebook post, said that he was “happy and proud” that his film did not find a mention, as if greatly relieved that he was spared the embarrassment of having to figure in such a winners’ list.
The national awards might precipitate what Sajin Babu calls a ‘creative crisis.’ “We make films not for money but for their own sake. But now a new filmmaker might hesitate to experiment, he too might seek commercial gains right off the bat,” Babu said.
