This post is a sequel to my previous post which was mostly in the form of trivia. Herein, I place the few remnants of the experiment, fortuitously preserved by me . Those who were part of the venture may like to reminisce about the good old days. To those others, who were not part of the endeavour but love Ottapalam and Good Cinema , here's some thing which will tell them, 'we did our bit'. It is for them to start it all over again.
This post does not purport to be the whole story. There are many others who can supplement my modest effort. To them my request is please share the memories you have. Further, I'm aware, the story is incomplete in one respect at least .... about the 'end ' of the venture.
This (picture on the left) was the model we followed. Chitralekha Film Society Trivandrum Annual Report 1970-71. Look at the great names. Ours , Sathyajit Ray Film Society ,Ottapalam was a modest affair. We had no great names and worked on a shoe string budget.
An intimation circulated among members.Mukundan's single finger effort. Kesavan chipped in seeing Mukundan's struggle with the type writer.
Some of the foreign language films shown. The notice, as you can see, was painfully and patiently typed by Mukundan. The matter was given by the FFSI or the National Film Archives. Most of the films were 16 mm. Some were silent and many had English Sub Titles.
D W Griffith's classic silent movie 'The Birth of a Nation' . Did we create history of screening the first silent movie? For most of us this was the first time. By the time Ottapalam got its first permanent theatre, Laksmi (then owned by entrepreneurs EP Brothers), the talkie movies had already come and were in vogue.
World Classic Akira Kurasowa's Throne of Blood (1957)
One year of existence. The Notice for the annual general body meeting . Was a tame affair. The statement of accounts was presented by me . I do not have a copy of the accounts , but I think we had a surplus.The accounts were approved without much ado. Somebody , though, made a caustic comment ,more in jest than anything else.... we spent more on refreshments!
This post does not purport to be the whole story. There are many others who can supplement my modest effort. To them my request is please share the memories you have. Further, I'm aware, the story is incomplete in one respect at least .... about the 'end ' of the venture.
This (picture on the left) was the model we followed. Chitralekha Film Society Trivandrum Annual Report 1970-71. Look at the great names. Ours , Sathyajit Ray Film Society ,Ottapalam was a modest affair. We had no great names and worked on a shoe string budget.
Most of the films we screened were 16 MM prints. These films were shown at the NSS Training College which had a 16 MM projector Raman, the operator, was from Mayannur, across the river (after 35 years we have a swanky bridge across Bhartha Puzha) and on many an occasion he would have missed the last boat and had to make it to the other side wading through water. We are obliged to you , Raman, wherever you are!
Synopsis of three movies:
Hello Elephant(Italy)
Apanjan (Bengali/Tapan Sinha)
A Blonde's Love ( Czeck/ Milos Forman , later well known for his movie
"One flew over the cuckoo's nest" )
Chaplin movies like The Gold Rush , Modern Times could easily connect with the audience even if the underlying pathos escaped a few at least . Vittoria DeSica’s Bicycle Thieves did indeed receive sympathetic response.
Some of the foreign language films shown. The notice, as you can see, was painfully and patiently typed by Mukundan. The matter was given by the FFSI or the National Film Archives. Most of the films were 16 mm. Some were silent and many had English Sub Titles.
The language , grammar or spellings in the notice were not of much concern to us. What mattered was seeing the movies and keeping the cost at the lowest. Remember, we did not have computers or xerox machines. The most advanced technology in use was the type writer and the stencil cutter!
D W Griffith's classic silent movie 'The Birth of a Nation' . Did we create history of screening the first silent movie? For most of us this was the first time. By the time Ottapalam got its first permanent theatre, Laksmi (then owned by entrepreneurs EP Brothers), the talkie movies had already come and were in vogue. The one film which found a ready acceptance amongst all was the brilliantly made ‘The Incident at Owl Creek’ directed by Robert Enrico . I still remember the storyline, the hallucination and hope of the protagonist, moments after the noose is tightened and just before his fall to death at the gallows. The shock among the audience was palpable.
Ritwick Ghatak’s SubaharnaRekha, a movie set in the backdrop of the partition of Bengal was another movie that struck a raw chord with many a viewer. I particularly remember a slow trolley shot on Madhabi Mukerjee whose close up almost hits you on the face.Tapan Sinha’s ‘Ankush’ ( based on Narayan Ganguly’s story Sainik) where the central character was an elephant ,was shown in the local theatre, open to public .That was a decision we regretted later as the front benchers started to show their restlessness on the benches, much to the displeasure of Sethu. Mercifully they settled down to our entreaties.
Tapan Sinha’s Apanjan and Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome , Interview , Calcutta 71 and Chorus were some of the other movies we exhibited in the theatre and had smooth passage.
Synopsis of Luis Bunuel's Cannes Festival (1959)Award winner Nazarin.
The Golem , a milestone silent movie of 1920. The earliest of Monster movies.
Most of the movies had little entertainment value. They were either world classics or milestone movies.Another movie in this genre was the 1928 movie The Passion of Joan of Arc with the close ups of Joan that would haunt one for a long time.
World Classic Akira Kurasowa's Throne of Blood (1957)
How I wish we had more insights and access to critical reviews of the movie then. Did we also get to see Kurasowa's Rashoman? I doubt.
Memory fails me as to whether we could get Ingmar Bergman (Wild Strawberries) , Eisenstein (Battleship Potemkin) or Fellini. There were many who wanted to see these movies. Perhaps , these would have been brought by the new team that took over, before the venture folded up.
One year of existence. The Notice for the annual general body meeting . Was a tame affair. The statement of accounts was presented by me . I do not have a copy of the accounts , but I think we had a surplus.The accounts were approved without much ado. Somebody , though, made a caustic comment ,more in jest than anything else.... we spent more on refreshments!
Well , these are the materials that I have retained. I'm sure some like Mukundan must have preserved a few. I put this in public domain before my memories fade and the papers disintegrate .
Hopefully , this post would inspire a renewed effort .
Hopefully , this post would inspire a renewed effort .
I have been seeing the portends of the imminent birth of this blog in my dashboard for sometime now. I almost missed opening this thinking that it was the the same post that never was!
ReplyDeleteSurviving long enough to present an Annual Report is itself an achievement in a place like OTP.And an attempt at 'casting several pearls' before the OTP public required rare courage.
the portends that you have been privy to was the result of an unintended leak from the draft stage. a few hiccups in uploading the pics!
ReplyDeletebravado would be the word to describe it.
yes, the word bravado suits well in this context.
ReplyDeletewe had also formed a film society at palghat by name darsana film society, and screened all the films you mentioned here. .THE INCIDENT AT OWL CREEK still haunts my memory.