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INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Glimpses of India’s firstGautam Kaul I missed the first International Film Festival of India, because I was too young to be allowed to see the festival films. There was a precondition that only ‘adults’ were allowed to see the programmes. I had to wait my time. The late Ms. Amita Malik, who was then a broadcaster in All India Radio and an art critic in private, was suddenly asked by AIR Delhi to move to Delhi overnight to cover the film festival in sound. The local news daily, The Statesman roped her to file daily reports on the proceedings. She later gave me, some years later, an eyewitness account of the first film festival organised in India as it developed. Besides her writings for The Statesman on this event, her autobiography provided for additional details. To say the least, this film festival was poorly archived for future generations. As we approach this year, marking the fiftieth edition of the international film festival of India, there is a major problem to find those who were there in the crowd.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Our story must begin from mid
August 1947, when Jawaharlal Nehru
made a policy statement for this
government when the issue came
whether India should join the British
Commonwealth organisation, or not.
Jawaharlal Nehru had observed that
India shall open all its windows to
allow the entry of all that was good in
human progress and ideas. The film
festival was also a good idea.
R.R.Diwakar
On a fair day of 1950, the newly
appointed State Minister of
Information and Broadcasting,
R.R.Diwakar, found a note written by
Nehru asking him to explore ways and
means to hold an international film
festival in India. The idea was that
such a festival will prompt the Indian
film industry to be projected before
an international platform and begin
an exchange of cinema fare and
intellectual ideas. Bhowanagarey reached out to the various regional film chambers of commerce to get their involvement. Most of the office bearers were ignorant of what help they were expected to do, but soon enough they got the message that the Indian film industry under them, would need to put up exhibitions extolling the growth and impact of their products.
In Bombay the Azad Maidan next
to Metro Cinema, was booked and
converted into an Exhibition ground.,
Stalls were marked and allotted to
film distributors who were supposed
to pay rental to the Film Division
which would provide for some pin
money to overcome expenses . The
stall owners could put up their film
fares. Most the stall holders erected
film posters of the films they had
produced or were making during the
year. The Festival finally saw the participation of 23 countries, including, USA, UK, USSR, China, India, Egypt, Italy, France, East Germany, FDR of Germany, Sweden, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Turkey, Spain, Malaya, Japan, Hungary, Sri Lanka, and Canada, among others. The film festival itself featured in all, 40 feature films and about a hundred short films and documentaries. The feature films screened, included: The International Film Festival was officially inaugurated in Bombay on 24th January 1952 , by the State Minister for I&B, R.R Diwakar; in New Delhi, the Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru took centre stage on February 16. In Calcutta the Festival was inaugurated on 29th February 1952 (It was a leap year!). When the Festival moved to Madras to be inaugurated on February 7, 1952 the sudden death of King George VI in England sent the Indian Government into a flurry of protocol activity. It was resolved that all the films from England in the Festival would be withdrawn at once, and the Union Jack was flown at half mast. Yukiwarisoo (Japan), Fall of Berlin (USSR), Bicycle Thief (Italy), White Haired Girl (China) The River (USA), Dancing Fleece (UK), Miracle of Milan, and Rome Open City (Italy). India offered Awaara (Hindi), Patal Bhairavi (Tamil), Amar Bhopali (Marathi) and Babla (Bengali). Film Awaara was not screened in Calcutta when the package went to that metro. At the conclusion of the travelling Festival, there was widespread opinion that the exposure of film artists and technicians of the Indian film industry to the works of international cinema was meaningful and an eye opener. Film Yukiwarisoo was immediately made into an Indian clone called Bhagyawaan. The neo realist Italian cinema influenced Bimal Roy and his friends and they went on to make the celebrated Do Bigha Zameen. Raj Kapoor armed with his IPTA membership, financed Boot Polish. The International Film Festival was officially inaugurated in Bombay on 24th January 1952 , by the State Minister for I&B, R.R Diwakar; in New Delhi, the Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru took centre stage on February 16. In Calcutta the Festival was inaugurated on 29th February 1952 (It was a leap year!). When the Festival moved to Madras to be inaugurated on February 7, 1952 the sudden death of King George VI in England sent the Indian Government into a flurry of protocol activity. It was resolved that all the films from England in the Festival would be withdrawn at once, and the Union Jack was flown at half mast. While in Bombay the official function was held in The Regal Theatre, in New Delhi the newly constructed auditorium of the National Physical Laboratory at Pusa Road, was selected for the official function. In Calcutta, the open ground outside the Eden Garden Stadium was partially converted to act as the main venue for the opening ceremony, while some marquee movie halls were booked to screen the international film programme. In Bombay, Calcutta and Madras the programmes for the foreign delegated included visiting some film studios. In Bombay and Calcutta the foreign delegates were impressed by the use of outdated film equipment to make still good quality films. In Delhi the film delegates were all sent to Rajghat to offer their respect to the Father of the Nation, and one of the evenings was booked for tea with Dr Rajendra Prasad, President of India at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Those who wanted to visit Agra for seeing the Taj Mahal got a good glimpse as the Taj Mahal was closed to public access that day.
Most of the film delegates from
foreign countries thinned out their
stay in India after the opening
ceremony in New Delhi. Frank Capra
still pushed himself to Calcutta. No
foreign delegate was reported to be
present in Trivandrum. In fact
Trivandrum was not even on the
circuit map of the film festival. It was
added by the government when many
film makers in Kerala protested for
being ignored. Therefore, official
brochures do not mention
Trivandrum as one of the festival
venue while media reports of the day,
mentioned the screenings. At the end of this film jamboree, the Indian government could not make up its mind whether to make the event an annual feature for India or not. The original festival had been bannered as ‘International Film Festival’ or “IFF”. In the intervening years, the government was told to call it the International Film Festival of India or IFFI. This was the first film festival in Asia, and the third in the world after Venice and Cannes. It took a lot of push to recall the whole exercise in the second International Film Festival of India, in 1961. Four years later in 1965, IFFI was made a competitive film festival, By this time the writer of this feature had reached the age when he could see the ‘adult films’ of the IFFI, and gain entry to the movie halls in Delhi/New Delhi with paid tickets in hand. |