INDIAN CINEMA AFTER INDEPENDENCE

Satyajit Ray, a young graduate from Tagore’s university, Vishwa Bharati at Shantiniketan, decided to make a feature film based on the novel. He did some shooting and editing and ran out of money. He approached the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Ray, for assistance.  Dr. Ray was impressed with the rushes of the film and decided to provide government assistance to the young director. Pather Panchali was released in 1955 and won the award for `The Best Human Document’ at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956 and thereafter went on to become one of the most internationally acclaimed Indian films. The film earned and is still earning substantial money for the Government of West Bengal!

In 1960, the government set up the Film and Television Institute of India at Pune, which was located in the compound of the now defunct Prabhat Studios. Formal training in all aspects of filmmaking was provided at the FTII by renowned names from the industry. A large number of actors, directors and technicians graduated from this institution and made outstanding contribution to Indian cinema. Some of the more well known names are Subhash Ghai, Mani Kaul, Jaya Bhaduri, Nasiruddin Shah Raza Murad, Adoor Gopal Krishnan Shatrughan Sinha, Mithun Chakraborty, Tom Alter, Kanwarjit Paintal, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Raj Kumar Hirani. In the long run these steps of the government helped to introduce fresh talent into the industry.

In 1975 the FFC became the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC). This semi autonomous government agency helped promote filmmakers from different parts of the country and film making, which in the early part of the century was centred in Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, now spread to many regional centres across the country in states like Kerala, Orissa, Assam, Karnataka, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

This government initiative also helped promote what is known as parallel cinema. Parallel Cinema as the name suggests, was different from mainstream commercial cinema in both the Hindi and the regional language productions. These films broke away from stereotypical representations and standard formula stories with their dose of fantasy and incredulity and focused instead on real life, both urban as well as rural. Such films gave encouragement to actors who were not necessarily stars but suited the role they had to play; as well as to script writers, music composers and set and costume designers to be innovative and experimental.

Ray’s Pather Panchali, which could be regarded as one of the pioneering films of the parallel cinema movement, had lead actors who were not from the film industry; in fact some of them had never acted before. The music was composed by the brilliant young classical sitar player Ravi Shankar, the costumes were in accordance with the reality that the scenes represented, and the camera work reflected a keen sense of photographic aesthetics that was not always available in mainstream cinema. Other than Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen in Bengali, Adoor Gopalakrishnan in Malayalam, Mani Kaul, Shyam Benegal, Sayeed Mirza and Ketan Mehta in Hindi, Girish Kasaravalli in Kannada and Jahnu Barua in Assamese are some of the film makers who are regarded as important exponents of the parallel cinema in India.