Geography of Cinema

Geography of Cinema

The recently concluded IFFK (International Film Festival of Kerala) has brought that evergreen question into a tight close-up: Why good films are such a scarcity in India? IFFK is not a festival where films from Kerala are paraded. It is not titled “International Festival” like baseball competition between American base ball clubs is titled World Series Cup. It is truly international in the selection of films. Keralites are known for their higher per capita film aesthetics. But still good films are not coming out like one would expect seeing the enthusiasm and the number of people participating in IFFKs. One T.V. Chandran here and a Gireesh Kasaravalli there won’t make a spring of good films.

These rather unkind thoughts were sowed on my mind when I was watching Scream of the Ants by Mohsen Makhmalbaf. It is a film shot entirely in India and its theme dwells with the dilemmas and dimensions of Indian culture. Any good Indian director worth his silver salt would have made such a film. But the only film that analyzed Mahatma Gandhi in a different way as this film does in recent memory is Lagey Raho Munnabhai! Horror, isn’t it? But Scream of the Ants is no roller-coaster comedy aimed to tickle the funny bone of the lay viewer. It is a finely crafted celluloid art work that disturbs you, makes you think and occasionally makes you laugh.

What makes certain places like, say, Iran or Vietnam breeding grounds of such good films like Bride of Silence (a Vietnamese film shown in IFFK in 2005) and Off-side (an Iranian film shown in IFFK this year). Does a country need a turbulent history for its directors to create fantastic films? This is a question very difficult to answer in yes or no terms. May be academic research should help. Anyway, let us hope Indian film-makers will try to emulate Makhmalbaf and Ken Loach (who made a magnificent movie having beautiful frames and a prettier title: The Wind That Shakes the Barley).