When thee 'I' play around all diversion...

by Barun Chanda

 

On his 89th birth anniversary, Satyajit Ray belongs to all our possession, an eternal symbol of life that still makes Shyamalendu and all of us, writes Barun Chanda.

It was a fine morning, sitting by the window while I picked up the daily newspaper, I saw the date. It was April 30. Saw the calendar on the wall and realized that May 2 was not far away. May 2 the birth anniversary of world greatest film-maker, director, script writer, editor and many tags can be added behind the name, the name “SATYAJIT RAY”. It seemed as if I went back to the sets of ‘Simabaddha’, where I had met him. It’s amazing that so many years have passed by and still Ray lives, in our hearts. When the whole world acknowledges, applauds, tries to learn, I feel happy, proud to have worked, worked with one of the Pioneers of Indian Cinema, but it is very wrong to restrict his works, the creations within the boundary of India.

It is Ray's 89th Birth anniversary and almost every Bengali TV channels show his movies to pay him homage. Satyajit Ray's relevance is very much important in Kolkata and West Bengal. There are many celebrations planned for the occasion and I believe that this year will not be an exception. On the other hand I remembered the quiz contest which Somnath Roy conducts every year on "Ray, his life, his works" and many college students participate on this contest. It proves interest in Ray is live still and Ray is still alive among us. It just came into my mind at instances when these contestants fail to answer, how easily the audience answers the question. Though the questions are always very integrate about Ray’s works and life. It reassures me that Ray’s relevance will not fade out from the hearts of people of Kolkata.

The most important thing is his work or his creation is his technique of editing, as I have seen. Today’s and tomorrow's film directors should follow his way of editing, specially his style of narrating the whole story. If I talk about the film 'Simabadha', the Shankar's novel 'Simabadha' had changed into the film. Many important elements in Simabadha the book were not in the film and also many important elements in the film that Ray added was not in the book. As an example, in the novel the lead character Shyamalendu had a long dialogue with Shakespeare about the morality of that age, where the character finds it difficult to match the ideas and notions suggested by his idol or inspiration Shakespeare; which has not been shown in the film "Simabaddha". Ray did not want to show the long monologue of Shyamalendu. He always believed that in reality every individual prefers small swift conversation, especially after returning from his work. That what exactly Ray showcased in the Film, he broke up the main conversations into small but significant segments, where a counter question arises. These conversations or dialogues always had a sense of humor to it, making it interesting at the same time conveying the message to the audience with ease. In the book "Simabadha" Tutul is Shyamalendu's sister-in law not more than that, but in the film Tutul is not just sister-in law, she is the contrast of Shyamalendu's character. She in the movie always inquired about the nature of everything, the origin of an event, every desiccation towards her brother-in-law by saying "eta thik na bhul" (is this right or wrong…) in Ray's film. In the film Tutul became greater than her character because her sister was not aware about what actually was going on around her 'peaceful, sophisticated' life. Ray had introduced Tutul as Shyamalendu’s ‘conscience’. Thus by all these Ray always tried to highlight the minute details, which often get unnoticed. He brings out the nitty gritties of life but in a subtle manner. 

For the entire write up follow the link : http://www.thescape.in/newsdetail.asp?newsid=783

Mohsen Makhmalbaf :Flight of A Genius

by Pradip Biswas

Noted Film Critic Pradip Biswas in this invaluable account rediscovers the ideology of Iranian Film Maestro Mohsen Makhmalbaf. His critique on Makhmalbaf films gives a complete domain of understanding of Iranian Cinema.

Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the maestro of Iranian cinema, is now a household name, an artist with a robust conscience. He bleeds for the oppressed and the marginalized people of the globe through his cinema, very soul-stirring and riveting.  His appearance on the horizon of humanist cinema is not a sudden event. Much struggle lies behind his raging rise. His first three films such as Boycott (1985) The Street Vendor (1986) and The Bicyclist (1983), were praised at every corner of International film festivals of the globe. The Bicyclist, it may be emphasized, because of its stark realism and epistemic exposure, has made Mohsen Makhmalbaf an icon of liberating cinema in Iran, affected by class bias, religious bigotry, social orthodoxy and domestic taboos. But despite all kind of threats issued by the establishment and hidebound laws in Iran, Mohsen Makhmalbaf wriggles through these iron bars to snatch global attention for his films. In one word, his films, if counted till this day, are a reminder to the fact that we are not living in the best of all possible worlds. Thus he becomes a citizen of the world; his courage and grit make him a much sought-after director growing out of passion and respect for his total works.

Said Mohsen Makhmalbaf: “I made a film named Bicycle Run/Bicyclist, having Afghanistan as subject. To make that movie, I travelled to Pakistan, crossed southern parts of Afghanistan and shot parts of the film in Pakistan.” The Bicycle Run is the story of an Afghan émigré who’s wife is in hospital and to meet the expenses, he has to work seven days a week, riding on his old bicycle, running from one side of the city to another and, as he gets weaker and emaciated, a Bazaar that is in the making is getting larger, stronger and fatter every day. The job is sternly demanded by the stark necessity to save a human life, in this case his wife. Its structure is strongly straightforward but also elliptical at the same stroke. One seems easy to get the drift of the film and enumerate the ribbon of hard hours, days, weeks and slogged-times, a force the petty commoners must have.

In this context, I like to reveal to the cinephiles how Mohsen, given rough-hewn reality and red claws, did summon courage to make and present the film to the world audience. Said he: “I used that metaphor to highlight the realities of Afghanistan of those years, when the Russians were still in Afghanistan, caught in an internal-nationalistic and epic war that was ruining the country while some were getting fat, a war the West, confronted with the Eastern bloc, would approve of.” There is a tale about the film. It is like this: In fact, the idea of making another film about that country that was always under foreign yoke that brought nothing but poverty and destruction was in his mind. After Mollah Mohammad (Omar, the Taleban’s supreme leader) whom no one had heard his name came with a white flag, the poor Afghan people, tired and sick of years of internal wars, welcomed him without knowing that the government he represented was a joint product of the Saudis and the Pakistanis. Mollah Omar had never written a letter to see if he makes mistakes or not. The anecdote is nothing but a wave of vibes the film evoked during its life-time run at theatres. In Iran, however, the Bicyclist did raise eye-brows and hiccups among the Islamic groups, controlling the Government stridently. The pity is that the same film is banned in Iran even today, even now. This in a way truncates the freedom of an artist, director who sensibly cares to open the wounds of a society, antagonistic to the ordinary living of the masses.

A critic normally travels by analogy while engaged in critical study of any work of art. One has to remember one De Sica rose to limelight with his film Bicycle Thieves in the forties when the movement of neo realism just started with a splash. The film in course of time became an epic work and a primer to all beginners in filmmaking. In the process, the neo-realist movement bred a band of very strong filmmakers all over the world, sparking off a history of sorts. The record remains still unbroken. Mohsen, however, has not definitely drawn any elements but inspiration from De Scia for his cinema. Like other directors, Mohsen seems surely enthused and inspired to pick a name “bicycle”, maybe, from the past experience. His film discoursed above modestly mirrors it.

Given the agitation Mohsen has suffered due to various shortcomings in Iranian society, he chose the subject of a blind boy Khorshid in his film The Silence (1998). In many a way, the The Silence is a sympathetic tribute to the cursed blindness that grips millions of children all over the world. In the film, the focus is much on ambience in Iran where the blind boy, out of dark tunnel, gradually sees and perceives nuances of music of life and living. Here again, there is no similarity between Bergman’s renowned film The Silenceand Mohsen’s The Silence. While Bergman captures the elements of alienation and lack of communication between two souls, Mohsen’s The Silence pins on the elegy of the blind boy and his transcendence to pulsation of realization leading to the meaning of life on a barren, loveless society. The noted critic Jeffrey Anderson hails the films thus: “Makhmalbaf is mostly concerned with the specific world that Khorshid has created for himself. He hears music everywhere he goes and becomes obsessed with Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which he equates to his landlord's knock on their door.”

For the entire write up follow the link : http://www.thescape.in/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1735

The Nature of 'Love/s' in Shakespeare's Sonnets

by Paramita Dutta

Mario Ruoppolo has fallen in love, and as he avers passionately to Pablo Neruda, ‘really, really in love’. Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet, who has been exiled to Italy for his communist ideas, is staying there on a beautiful island where Mario is the temporary postman, appointed to deliver letters only to him. The first word that Neruda says, on finding out that Mario’s beloved is called Beatrice is ‘Dante’. The semi literate postman does not understand what the great poet means. It is left to Neruda to elucidate that Dante Alighieri, a great poet, ‘fell for a certain Beatrice’ and that ‘Beatrices have inspired boundless love.’ Mario’s intention is not to bother Don Pablo, but he has a very simple request. He’d like Neruda to help him out and write a poem on his behalf for his Beatrice. Neruda walks out visibly ruffled and remarks, ‘I don’t even know her.’ He explains, ‘A poet needs to know the object of his inspiration’ and ‘I can’t invent something out of nothing’ (emphases mine). Mario, who had previously laboured to understand the meaning of the word ‘metaphor’ in his discussions about poetry with Neruda, quite fails to appreciate the demands and nature of poetic inspiration and exceedingly disgruntled, complains that if Neruda were to make such a fuss over writing a single poem then winning the Noble Prize would forever remain a distant dream for him.

I have chosen this sequence from the heart warming and poignant film Il Postino (The Postman) directed by Michael Radford[i] to begin my discussion, because it talks about love and essentially about poetry inspired by love. Neruda’s poetic credo as described in the scene above would reinforce the common perception that a love poem needs to be inspired by and addressed to a specific person and that ‘something’ cannot be invented out of ‘nothing’. If we look at the literary tradition of writing sonnets and love poetry, we will see that in thirteenth century Italy, Dante addressed his passionate sonnet sequence La Vita Nuova to Beatrice Portinari. A century later, Petrarch in his Rime Sparse or Canzoniere detailed his tormented love for his beloved Laura. When the vogue of writing sonnets travelled to England from Italy, we have in the sixteenth century Philip Sidney’s sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella addressed to his beloved, the married Penelope Rich and Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti written for his future wife Elizabeth Boyle.

The ‘object[s] of inspiration’ of the poets mentioned above are all creatures of flesh and blood and can be assigned specific names. It is only with Shakespeare’s Sonnets (published in 1609) that this simple logic falls apart. Who is the elusive ‘W. H.’ who is regarded as the ‘onlie begetter’ of the one hundred and fifty four sonnets on the title page of his sequence? The thirst for finding out the addressee/s of Shakespeare’s poems have churned out speculations, debates and conjectures through centuries especially by those critics, who unlike Mario above, refuse to treat poems as fictional constructs, as mere figments of a fertile imagination.

For the entire write up follow the link : http://www.thescape.in/newsdetail.asp?newsid=927

Media Convergence in the World Market Whither India?

by Avik Dutta

Media Conglomeration in today's world has already encroached nationalist domains to take-over the global cultural and political space. It is not about a gradual development of simple media ownership transformation, but an imperialist accumulation toward unipolarity of global media. Noted Journalist Avik Dutta rediscovers the development of global media.

Introduction

The public medium of information and communication* have undergone a sea-change in recent years. The main feature of this change, which seems to be unstoppable, is that in the past, technology was dependent on a huge amount of capital, whereas now it is much cheaper and more easily available.

Secondly, even as we are excited by the new media technology and regard it is as omnipotent, it is worth remembering at the same time that the media is still inaccessible to the great majority of the world population. But the scenario is fast changing, with the underdeveloped countries trying hard to keep pace with the developed world.

The third important factor is the mixing and mingling of technologies; one single gadget is now able to offer a dozen facilities. News has become entertainment, and entertainment has taken on the aspect of news: in short, infotainment. This convergence between content and technology is now used as an instrument – or rather, a weapon – to boost the further development of the media. The increasing demand for satellite technology and information network; the craving for news spiced up with entertainment; the united assault of the radio, TV, computer network and the good old press or newspapers on the public mind – they have all conspired to present the media in a totally new garb.

The last point to note by way of introduction is that 90% of this union between technology and content is under private control, not only in the USA but also in India. Now that we are approaching the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the question that comes up uppermost in our mind is what kind of media is awaiting India in particular and the world in general.

Media and One World Market

Capitalism and globalization are co-eval. From its very birth in western Europe towards the end of the 15th century capitalism sought to develop a world market through its imperialist and colonialist henchmen in Asia and Africa. However, a single world market remained a dream, for by the beginning of the 19th century the world had come to be divided into two distinct parts: on the one hand, there were the militarily powerful and industrialized states and on the other the undeveloped and economically weak nations, some of them independent only in name. An additional factor, – namely, the international rivalry between the industrialized states and the empire – builders acting on their behalf – stood in the way of building a unified world market. Thirdly, in the mid-20th – century years of decolonization the USA emerged as a world power, seeking to economically take on the role of the old-style imperialists and lord it over the world. Simultaneously, during the post-colonial age the newly independent countries, too, were engaged in a struggle to rebuild themselves industrially. In this endeavour, many of them received the support of the Soviet Union, much to the chagrin of the USA. The cold war between the American and Soviet camps thus turned out to be a stumbling block in the path that could have led to the formation of a single world market.

The political disintegration of the Soviet Union has removed a serious obstacle in the path of American capitalism. It has come to dominate a unipolar world almost unopposed since the last decade of the 20th century. The political hegemony of the US has furthermore been bolstered by the development of electronic technology which seems to obliterate political boundaries. The new-born Multinational Companies (MNCs) have no respect for national identities; they are international. The owner of an MNC could be an American holding a German passport or a German carrying an American passport! Today’s media has likewise assumed the variegated character of modern multinational economy, being dependent on news and entertainment rolled into one: infotainment. No longer known by any distinct local or national birthmark, today’s media is a universal enterprise or a global industry.

The world has reportedly become a global village. But to what extent has the global media industry been able to spread its net among the people? How large is the audience composing today’s information society? Which part of society is reflected in this universal media enterprise? How extensive is the information society which is so hyped about? Would it not be correct to say that it is but the people of the more developed nations who really enjoy being part of the information flow? In other words, is the new infotainment really aimed at catering to the needs of the underprivileged many, regardless of their age and gender?

For the entire write up follow the link : http://www.thescape.in/newsdetail.asp?newsid=827

Miguel Littin rips open wounds of Chilean history in film DAWSON ISLAND

by Pradip Biswas

This critic has met Miguel Littin, the rebel director of Chile at least four times in India. He is also a close friend of Mrinal Sen whose films have inspired him a lot. On each occasion, we have renewed our camaraderie and vowed to make and write cinema that has an aesthetic assault on conservative taste. Our friendship is still in tact and grows from strength to strength. A book authored by this critic called CINEMA OF MIGUEL LITTIN is now in the pipeline.

The agitprop director Miguel Littin of Chile has since ripped open the cruelty and wounds of political history of Chile during the era of Salvador Allende, the first communist President of Chile through his latest film on Dawson ISLAND, 10. Based on the diary of a prisoner of war by Sergio Bitar, the film traces the darkest times of Chile when the CIA along with the rabid cruelty of the military Junta overthrew the legitimate, popular Government of Allende, destroying the democratic power-sharing of thousands of Chileans. "A story starts when someone is born, someone dies, someone leaves, or someone arrives."—says director Miguel Littin, quoting Ernest Hemingway. Dawson Island 10 is a cinematic manifesto that highlights the abysmal horrors imposed upon the ministers, senators and deputies of Allende who were banished in a hill-ridden, deserted island by the Military regime backed by CIA.

The digesis of the film exposes the arrival in September 1973 of approximately 50 former Chilean President Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity ministers, senators and deputies to Dawson Island, a concentration camp "at the end of the world". The latitude estimated signals 53 South at the western end of the Strait of Magellan—and introduces a political crime largely unknown by the world, let alone most Chileños; a calculated historical omission that acclaimed Chilean filmmaker Miguel Littin sought to redress through his feature film Dawson Island 10 (2009)."We wanted to change history, but destiny led us to this strange sensation of uncertainty and defeat. What did we do wrong? What mistakes did we make?", lamented Sergio Bitar, a Dawson Island prisoner, and author of Isla 10. To bolster the significance of the political film, Baldovino Gomez, Dawson Island prisoner said: "I felt like the protagonist of one of those World War II movies. When we arrived at the camp, some of us cried to see so many wire fences. There were 27. It was difficult to believe”. The film is the first Chilean-Brazilian co-production and likewise represented Chile at Spain's Goya Awards.

While tackling an issue of highly pointed political nature, Littin hinges much on obtaining materials and memoirs related to Jose Tohá whose testimony at the Chile Information Project looks vital and relevant. According to Jose Toha: "The island produced an enormous feeling of isolation, of intense cold, wind, few sunny days. It was a prison, surrounded by water, with absolutely no escape. One of the great things was to be allowed to carve the stones: it relieved the stress and for some brought in some income.” Sharp agonies of the prisoners and their hellish life in concentration island is captured with vibrant authenticity by Littin. Each political character, given his cool and polite tolerance under cannibalistic ruling force, stands out. What is sharply evident is the inhuman tortures and humiliations inflicted on the innocent politicians, more human than humans. A reading into the ensemble visual frames, marked by treachery, damn lies and furious military treatment, tends to acquaint us with the tragic history of betrayals, ignominy, animalism and macabre acts of CIA pulling the strings. All that appears is ghastly, infernal and subhuman. Littin has made it clear in his interview: "that the book and the film were two different bodies, but with the same soul." 

For the entire write up follow the link : http://www.thescape.in/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1515

Jhumpa Lahiri: The Immigrant Experience In Unaccustomed Earth

by Dr. Anushna Biswas

Dr. Anushna Biswas in this account unfolds not only the Unaccustomed Earth or Jhumpa Lahiri but the supercultural association of women with the contemporary postglobalized world.

In the works of immigrant writers, the focus on women seems to be worked upon in the light of ‘globalization’. Women now are no longer confined within the four walls of a family. They deftly handle both looking after their family as well as their external jobs. They have set foot on the moon, they are computer wizards and they largely occupy the pasture of profession dealing with the media. The space of identification with the world has expanded for women. They are no longer culturally specified. They can be seen in crossover to an international diaspora. Their struggle is no longer confined to gender bias but also against alienation in a foreign land. Women are now found to be the confluencing point of the East and the West. Here, it is important to observe how they succeed or fail to walk the tightrope of the freedom of the West and the ethos of the East.  In this context, I have tried to anatomize Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earthwith an impartial scalpel. It may be mentioned the title of the book is borrowed from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s quote and strongly so.

In society a woman plays the role of both a maker and a breaker of a family. She is the one who preserves the family ethos. But when she is brought to the verge of rebellion, she has the power to debunk all the blueprints of the society. Woman’s role defines the greater sociological matrix of the society. Through the image of a woman the writers construct and deconstruct her identity vis-à-vis the family and the society. Such portrayals, as Patricia Meyer Spacks says, in her Female Imagination: “to investigate how to use their creativity and to combat their characteristic difficulties”.

A woman seeks not just empowerment but also recognition of the self. In her comparative analysis, Meyer Spacks points out that there are two writers who believe that it is emotionally possible for a woman to achieve what they want. They are Charlotte Bronte and George Eliot. In marriage, motherhood and taking care of husband and children a woman discover her ‘self image’. It is important in social system to see how a woman struggles to discover her support system through her strength of survival in the society. A woman is supposed to balance her emotional and practical needs which often do not get recognized. About such mind-set, Meyer Spacks intones: “Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell define in fictional terms the delicate emotional balancing point on which women must poise between commitment to others and preservation of their selves”.

For the entire write up follow the link : http://www.thescape.in/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1578

The Scape Exclusive:Up, close and personal with Annie Griffiths

by Abira Pathak
 

The city of Kolkata had a rare date with Annie Griffiths Belt. Photographer extraordinaire, she has been one of National Geographic’s foremost photojournalist and lecturers, joining the house in 1978. Her passion has taken her across thousands of nations and she has garnered a gamut of experience. She has worked in dozens of magazines and global projects, some of which are the rarest and choicest works in photojournalism across the globe. She was a visiting professor of photography at Ohio University in 1986-87. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Ripple Effect Images, a non-profit organization, which documents the effect of climate change on communities around the world, as well as the programs that help poor women cope with environmental change. Born and brought up in Minnesota, she commenced her professional career while she was still in school, working as a staff photographer for the Minnesota Daily. She was awarded from the National Press Photographers Association, The Associated Press, The National Organization for Women, and the White House News Photographers Association.

She has several publications to her name. A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel, a photo memoir, published in 2009 created ripples around the world. Her latest publication, Simply Beautiful Photographs, published in October, 2010, is a visual extravaganza that appeals to the aesthetic. It comprises of some rare, unused photographs from the archive of the National Geographic Magazine. She graced the ongoing 35th Kolkata International Book Fair partially to promote her publication and as a part of her ongoing tour of discovering India. Our Scape correspondent, Abira Pathak, was lucky enough to have a one-on-one tété-a-tété with this very unassuming and elegant lady:
Scape: You are one of the first women photographers in the stalwart channel, National Geographic. How was the journey?
 

Annie: I think being a woman, it has been a wonderful advantage…I really do. You know, I think it’s an advantage because women are less threatening and the kind of work that I do, you want to blend in. you don’t want to draw attention to yourself…and so people are less intimidated by a strange woman walking into their neighborhood in a strange way! I always thought and found it to be an advantage… (Smiles)

Scape: You have had an extraordinarily illustrious career with zillions of experiences almost everyday! Any certain incident or incidents that you would like to share with us…

Annie: I did another book a couple of years ago that’s called, ‘A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel’…and it’s like a photo memoir…of memories that I have in kind of my journey through all of that! And there are just so many. There are just days when I used to connect with the people… I had a very very touching day in Pakistan one time and I was in this very very remote village and the people were very poor and yet they showed me every kindness. They offered to let me sleep there, they fed me and they played music for me. It was like even though they had nothing but they gave everything to a stranger. Those days really…you know…they can’t be replaced. It was such a privilege! 

For the entire interview follow the link : http://www.thescape.in/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1806