The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Introduce cinema in primary education: Ananthamurthy

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Sunday, Aug 24, 2008
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Introduce cinema in primary education: Ananthamurthy

Special Correspondent

‘Cinema is a powerful tool in developing regional languages’
Film appreciation course being held outside Pune for the first time

— Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

Helping critics: U.R. Ananthamurthy (right) with National Film Archive of India Director Vijay Jadhav at the inauguration of a film appreciation course in Bangalore on Saturday.

Bangalore: Chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, U.R. Ananthamurthy has suggested that cinema be introduced as a subject from the primary level of education.

Mr. Ananthamurthy was speaking after inaugurating the film appreciation course organised by the FTII and the National Film Archive of India, here on Saturday.

Relating the popularity of fiction, its influence on women and its overall development as a major literary form with the advent of printing technology with the development and influence of cinema, he said that introduction of cinema as a general course in the formal education would help the development of mind as a matter of cultural experience and self -reflection.

Citing a critic, Mr. Ananthamurthy said that film appreciation courses would make the students of cinema to “discriminate and resist” their own experiences in the course of watching the cinema and lead to cultural dialogues with a perspective in the passage of time.

On the issue of the growing socio-political vitality and impact of commercial cinemas as evident in the cases of popular film artistes entering politics and the public response, he said that cinema was also a powerful tool in inculcating and developing the regional languages.

Although the thespian of Kannada cinema the late Rajkumar spoke literary Kannada in his films, he was responsible for the development and popularity of Kannada in general despite the differing regional characteristics of the language, he added.

On the question of writing on cinema, the septuagenarian Jnanpith award winner Kannada writer said that he had been making efforts to write on cinema in his own fashion. Incidentally, his insightful writing on some Kannada cinema such as Bangarada Manushya and Nagarahaavu had kicked off heated debates in the Kannada literary and cinema circles in the early part of 1970s. Besides, the acclaimed film Samskara based on his novel had open the floodgates for the parallel cinema in Kannada and accommodated serious debates on the ethical and political aspects of caste based social orders and its customs.

Cinemas such as Bara and Ghatashraddha, based on his works, had brought national and international honours to Kannada cinema.

Director of NFAI Vijay Jadhav said that response for the film appreciation course had been growing tremendously. The course was being held outside Pune for the first time to accommodate more number of aspirants at their doorsteps.

Tamil filmmaker Hariharan and the director of the Suchitra Film Society V.N. Subba Rao were present.

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