Loud & Clear: Art cinema's in danger

PANAJI: There's an important lesson to be learnt from IFFI 2006.
The Indian Panorama or the independent, arthouse cinema, is an endangered species, unless the government finds a suitable medium of exhibition for these films which just cannot compete with the big-budget blockbuster.
The Panorama section this year is made up of films which tried to find a release through the regular circuit but ended up being thrown out of the profit-driven multiplexes, even before they completed their mandatory run.
Even the film which inaugurated the Indian Panorama, Missed Call, met a similar fate. It is in view of this dire situation that actor Rahul Bose has called for including the ‘French rule' in the Indian film distribution contracts.
Lamenting the fact that Kaalpurush, Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s award-winning film (with Bose in the lead role) still hasn't been released by producer Jhamu Sugandh, the actor feels it is high time India followed the French system where actors are empowered to release the film.
"The French believe that a film is primarily made for the audience. If the producer fails to reach the film to the viewers, the contract makes it clear that the artists have a right to release the film.
Kaalpurush has been lying in the cans for 18 months and has had just two festival screenings IFFI 2005 and this year’s National Film Festival despite winning sundry awards," exclaims Bose.
Chitra Palekar's debut film Maati Maay was screened here on Monday and won accolades for its compelling performance by Nandita Das as a feisty grave-digger, who tries to fight against social prejudice in an orthodox rural landscape.
The film, according to Palekar, was released in a multiplex in Mumbai, but was arbitrarily pulled out for a blockbuster.
"A festival needs to have a special character", says Palekar. "Here, there is no attempt to help us, independent film-makers, meet buyers and sell our film."
The film-maker feels it is becoming impossible for the small, film-makers to compete with the big corporate houses which are backing film production these days.
Nandita Das, while candidly confessing that "the Bombay film industry seems to have forgotten me, lays down the need for an alternate fora for exhibition" for smaller films which don’t even reach the theatres.
For Rahul Dholakia, director of Parzania, the line of action is clear.