A few hours ago Osian’s became the proud owners of Minerva cinema, the site of what is about to become The Osianama, a unique integrated arts and film institution. Minerva, a historic landmark in Indian cinema, will now become the new house from which Osian’s will begin to interact with the public, a place where our vast archive and library can be stored and shared while inviting the public to come and learn, appreciate, enjoy and research all which is enriching in the arts and cinema with a special focus on India and Asia (…to begin with…)
For six years I have built Osian’s with a relatively clear vision. The vision imposed an institutional format which was instinctively introspective and somewhat aloof while clearly focused upon the dual and simultaneous task of building world-class knowledge-bases and achieving financial independence for the arts and culture. This meant re-creating a system, free from dependency on all forms of patronage, and during this process slowly placing the arts and culture at the centre of India’s developmental framework. Having set oneself a twelve-fifteen year horizon for implementing this task, the purchase of Minerva nearly represents the half-way stage of phase one.
With The Osianama we can now move one step deeper towards rebuilding the infrastructure which supports and nurtures our cinematic culture and sensibility. The simultaneous impact of using India’s first auction house, the world’s largest archive and library on India’s contemporary arts and cinema, the film festival (Osian’s-Cinefan) and journal (Osian’s-Cinemaya), so as to nurture our cinematic sensibilities, can be significant. With Osian’s planned entry into film and television production but a year away, the stage is set to take on an integrated and knowledge-driven attack on transforming certain attitudes and habits regarding cinema, its creative and commercial responsibilities, its inter-linkages with various other cultural disciplines, such as the visual fine and popular arts, photography, design, fashion, literature, philosophy, architecture and music and dance in a few years from now.
It is time to recognize the radical change required in public awareness and participation if the immense passion and tradition for loving and appreciating cinema, is to truly transform itself into a great cinematic culture, which in all honesty, India does not possess compared to the scale and depth demanded by its love and expectations, let alone its miniscule financial stake in the world market. (read more...)
As I write this note, a different smile comes on remembering a joke recently told to me by Mani Kaul, an eminent film director of the ‘parallel art cinema’ of India. He told me the joke with such humour and modesty, and a very minor tinge of rationalised sadness, that it has stayed with me, for jokes rarely stay in my mind. It goes something like this: A man goes to buy a ticket for 'Uski Roti' (Mani’s first film) and then goes to the cinema usher with his ticket so as to enter the theatre hall. The usher refuses the man entry into the hall. They argue for a short while but the usher is adamant in not opening the door to allow the spectator in. The man goes to the manager and calls him, saying he has bought a valid ticket and has a right to see the film. The manager accompanies the film fan to the usher and asks him why are you not letting the film fan see the film? The usher replies I cannot, I already have a captive audience; I will not allow him in.
The manager loses his cool and orders the usher to open the doors and let him in. The usher replies what do you want? Do you want one person to see the film or the captive audience I already have, for if I open the doors they will all be rushing out.
After much laughter, for Mani tells it much better than these words could express, I wonder was the film to blame, should he have made Apna Halwa as Raaj Kumar had recommended, or was it the genre to blame, was the audience not ready, was it an absence of respect for cinematic history, technique, its creative processes, was the absence of the whole multiplex atmosphere responsible, was it poor marketing, or was it naturally a mix of all and more.
It was, and still is, that the great Indian cinematic culture in which a Uski Roti and Zanjeer are contexualized, is not present, on the scale and with the depth that India demands. Pockets of sensibilities are insufficient, only adding to the cynicism when cinema as art fails to find popular respect. Yes, India has one of the greatest love affairs with cinema and still such an inadequate cinematic culture, a sensibility which fails to grasp and respect that cinema is first and foremost a great art form, that great technique is required, the carrying and absorption of the finest minds are required, and then the vast material infrastructure is needed where all the experimentation and commercial formulae can mingle and find their place amid success and failure, where cinema becomes a great mass entertainer only as a by-product.
Today Mani has joined Osian’s as Creative Director for The Film House, given his love, knowledge and dedication to film education and the aesthetics of film-making. Our hope is to bring together a vast array of creative minds who can re-galvanize the belief that cinema is a great creative process and if true to its artistic integrity one can also fulfill the commercial obligations and entertainment duties, provided the material infrastructure is mature enough to take on the task of reaching out to the public effectively.
Today the excessive belief in marketing and all the gimmicks which follow is something India has little understood, only aping the western model where merchandising and the initial marketing blitzkrieg are seen as effective ploys in promoting the film product. The task before us is different, and our vision should be different too. The role the arts and culture can play in the developmental frameworks of our nation is totally different from the established western industrialized models, now entrenched upon a certain path, and unable to significantly break away and provide the arts with a new socio-economic-political responsibility. If India and Asia are to grasp the developmental potential for the arts and cinema, they must rebuild the cultural infrastructure, with the underlying knowledge-bases of creativity playing a new role in this process which in turn means redefining the role and responsibility of the creative mind.
In recent years, building multiplexes is one key infrastructure-building component many others have taken forward, and this change definitely improves the concept of freedom of choice, discrimination, the larger experience and the like, but still you barely have 30-40% capacity for the multiplexes. Thus, either the films being made continue to be of a mediocre persuasion or the audience is not mature enough to make film-going the pastime it should become , or the larger mall concept in which many multiplexes are placed is an inadequate incentive to take forward the process on the scale required.
Cinema has had that great emotional energy film-making brings to the audience, and of course as the seventh art, it has absorbed dance, music, theatre, literature, art, fashion, into its ambit, and provided our people with nearly a century of dynamic imagery and great emotional sustenance. Yet today it is facing a whole new world, where it has to keep hold of that emotional intensity but evolve with greater technique and respect for its craft, greater awareness and exposure to world cinema’s, and more than any other reason, to embrace the other cultural disciplines, bringing the finest minds from art, literature, philosophy, dance, music, photography, craft, design, fashion and the like. It needs to feed itself to become an intellectually profound area without losing its common touch, while keeping on simmer the eternal emotional intensity which all great film-making must always harness. This requires a systematic infrastructure-building vision and effort.
To this end, platforms such as archives, museums, film festivals, film societies, publications, galleries, appreciation courses and workshops, conferences, seminars and all such somewhat battered platforms of debate and dialogue need to be revived. The Osianama will hopefully take forward rebuilding these processes in a holistic manner. Hopefully this time next year Osian's -Cinefan will be simultaneously functioning in Delhi and Mumbai, itself a major integrating step forward. The nominal ticketing of the 8th Osian's-Cinefan is essentially a move towards involving the public to slowly start taking a small though increasing responsibility in building this infrastructure. Love your contribution, as we love sharing this great creativity with you. Radical change will be inevitable if we sustain this journey. NT
The manager loses his cool and orders the usher to open the doors and let him in. The usher replies what do you want? Do you want one person to see the film or the captive audience I already have, for if I open the doors they will all be rushing out.
After much laughter, for Mani tells it much better than these words could express, I wonder was the film to blame, should he have made Apna Halwa as Raaj Kumar had recommended, or was it the genre to blame, was the audience not ready, was it an absence of respect for cinematic history, technique, its creative processes, was the absence of the whole multiplex atmosphere responsible, was it poor marketing, or was it naturally a mix of all and more.
It was, and still is, that the great Indian cinematic culture in which a Uski Roti and Zanjeer are contexualized, is not present, on the scale and with the depth that India demands. Pockets of sensibilities are insufficient, only adding to the cynicism when cinema as art fails to find popular respect. Yes, India has one of the greatest love affairs with cinema and still such an inadequate cinematic culture, a sensibility which fails to grasp and respect that cinema is first and foremost a great art form, that great technique is required, the carrying and absorption of the finest minds are required, and then the vast material infrastructure is needed where all the experimentation and commercial formulae can mingle and find their place amid success and failure, where cinema becomes a great mass entertainer only as a by-product.
Today Mani has joined Osian’s as Creative Director for The Film House, given his love, knowledge and dedication to film education and the aesthetics of film-making. Our hope is to bring together a vast array of creative minds who can re-galvanize the belief that cinema is a great creative process and if true to its artistic integrity one can also fulfill the commercial obligations and entertainment duties, provided the material infrastructure is mature enough to take on the task of reaching out to the public effectively.
Today the excessive belief in marketing and all the gimmicks which follow is something India has little understood, only aping the western model where merchandising and the initial marketing blitzkrieg are seen as effective ploys in promoting the film product. The task before us is different, and our vision should be different too. The role the arts and culture can play in the developmental frameworks of our nation is totally different from the established western industrialized models, now entrenched upon a certain path, and unable to significantly break away and provide the arts with a new socio-economic-political responsibility. If India and Asia are to grasp the developmental potential for the arts and cinema, they must rebuild the cultural infrastructure, with the underlying knowledge-bases of creativity playing a new role in this process which in turn means redefining the role and responsibility of the creative mind.
In recent years, building multiplexes is one key infrastructure-building component many others have taken forward, and this change definitely improves the concept of freedom of choice, discrimination, the larger experience and the like, but still you barely have 30-40% capacity for the multiplexes. Thus, either the films being made continue to be of a mediocre persuasion or the audience is not mature enough to make film-going the pastime it should become , or the larger mall concept in which many multiplexes are placed is an inadequate incentive to take forward the process on the scale required.
Cinema has had that great emotional energy film-making brings to the audience, and of course as the seventh art, it has absorbed dance, music, theatre, literature, art, fashion, into its ambit, and provided our people with nearly a century of dynamic imagery and great emotional sustenance. Yet today it is facing a whole new world, where it has to keep hold of that emotional intensity but evolve with greater technique and respect for its craft, greater awareness and exposure to world cinema’s, and more than any other reason, to embrace the other cultural disciplines, bringing the finest minds from art, literature, philosophy, dance, music, photography, craft, design, fashion and the like. It needs to feed itself to become an intellectually profound area without losing its common touch, while keeping on simmer the eternal emotional intensity which all great film-making must always harness. This requires a systematic infrastructure-building vision and effort.
To this end, platforms such as archives, museums, film festivals, film societies, publications, galleries, appreciation courses and workshops, conferences, seminars and all such somewhat battered platforms of debate and dialogue need to be revived. The Osianama will hopefully take forward rebuilding these processes in a holistic manner. Hopefully this time next year Osian's -Cinefan will be simultaneously functioning in Delhi and Mumbai, itself a major integrating step forward. The nominal ticketing of the 8th Osian's-Cinefan is essentially a move towards involving the public to slowly start taking a small though increasing responsibility in building this infrastructure. Love your contribution, as we love sharing this great creativity with you. Radical change will be inevitable if we sustain this journey. NT
