Scholarly take on films
AMITA MALIK
The Art of Cinema: An Insider's Journey Through 50 Years of Film History; B.D. Garga, Penguin India, Rs. 495.
I HAVE been reading B.D. Garga ever since I can remember. One of my most respected colleagues, as writers on the cinema our paths sometimes crossed but not often enough as we led a nomadic existence.
Garga both wrote on the cinema and made films off and on. He spent long periods in London, Paris, travelled to Moscow and in the process increased his first-hand knowledge of international cinema. He was also one of the first in India to cover it as a journalist as well.
I am therefore not surprised that he has brought out a comprehensive book and even less surprised that the book is titled The Art of Cinema. In the days of instant TV, where coverage of cinema is mostly confined to Mumbai cinema and, more often, stars and their professional and personal lives, the balance often tilts towards their personal lives.
Garga devotes his first chapter to "The Men Behind the Scenes", focussing on the workings of the directors, the camera man, the sound recordists and the editor. This gives a clue to the rest of the book, which is more of an encyclopaedia and a reference book for students of the cinema.
He then plunges into the "Greats of Indian Cinema", "the Indian Classics" and then to lengthy analyses of Swedish cinema, Pudovkin, Eisenstein and the Soviet cinema. In fact, he goes on to discuss topics like literature in film, soundtrack of Indian films, sex in Indian films, politics, Satyajit Ray, short films and much more.
But I find the book a little confusing and confused. Short chapters follow very long ones and there is no logical sequence to the subjects. Garga has put down what he feels as he thought about it but it makes things difficult for the reader.
The short film
As a writer on cinema, I found one chapter particularly satisfying, since very few books on Indian cinema devote worthwhile space to the short film. Garga not only describes its fluctuating fortune right down to the annual festival of short films held in Mumbai but also discusses the experimental and often rebellious short films by young Indians who run into problems with the establishment.
More importantly, he describes the golden age of Films Division when J.S. Bhownagary was sent from UNESCO in Paris to head the Films Division; when young filmmakers like Sukhdev, Pramod Pati, S.N.S. Shastry, K.S. Chari and others held sway. Names such as Harisadhan Dasgupta, Santi Chowdhury, M.F. Husain and others outside the Mumbai circuit are also given their due place in the history of documentary films.
The book is a refreshing change from the present books on Indian cinema, which tend to be hagiographic and concentrate on star value rather than focus in Indian cinema down the ages or its place in international cinema. The photographs, from the author's collection, are rare and fascinating.
One is also thankful for the comprehensive index because publishers are beginning to leave it out, thereby leaving readers in the lurch. I wish they had devoted as much thought to the sequence of chapters in the book, which would have made it easier for the readers.
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