Filmindia (1941)

August 1941 FILMINDIA through the medium of the screen, it has proved an invaluable help to the spread of ideas and information and the general cultural awakening of the people. Among these one may mention Soviet Russia, U.S.A., Britain, Germany, Italy and Japan. But, here again I have to reassert that a powei'fui educative force like the cinema can he abused. I have seen the educational films produced in Germany, Italy and Japan but I certainly would not like India to follow their example, except in so far as to learn their technique and methods of organization. In all these countries, educational films, like education itself, have been subordinated to the needs of the Jingo ambitions of the Fascist rulers. In Soviet Russia, maximum use has been made of films as an instrument of mass education. Through the medium of the screen, they have been able co spread literacy in a country that, 25 years ago, was steeped in illiteracy— even worse than India. Through the same medium they have been able to teach the ignorant peasantry improved methods of agriculture, hygiene and community organization. What is most important, however, is that in a country where conservatism was rooted deep in the soil, they used the screen to propagate progressive ideas, break down orthodoxy and social reaction, create industrial consciousness and to awaken interest in cultural life. NO BOX-OFFICE IN RUSSIA But, then, Russia is a communist state and conditions there are radically different from those that prevail in India. The Soviet state owns all the theatres and all the film studios. It is, therefore, possible for them to make whatever type of pictures they like and to exhibit them everywhere. There are no distributors, no exhibitors, no cinema lessees, no question of minimum guarantees, no percentages, no free passes, no need for sky-rocketing of stars, no special publicity. In one hyphenated word, there is no BoxOff ice. They have no distinction between educational and entertainment films. Every film they produce is an educational film! How can we, then hope to emulate their example? For our purposes, it is better to study what has been done in this connection in countries like America and Britain. The production is carried on, no doubt, under a capitalist profit-motive system but an enlightened capitalism and an enlightened administration have combined to make considerable use of the motion picture for educational purposes. To many people, an "educational film" somehow sounds like a terribly dull and dreary affair. They visualize long footage being devoted to the microscopic analysis of a drop of water and frightening closeups of the tsetse fly. This is only a narrow conception of the educational film. Go to any cinema showing foreign films and you will see two or three 'shorts' many of which are nothing but educational films, in the best sense of the term, though you may never have suspected that. In this category I may mention such outstanding and popular features as Warners' historical vignettes, Pete Smith Specialities, Crime Does Not Pay and most educational of all educational films, the March of Time! The American producer has combined education with entertainment and thereby secured profits even while rendering public service. The advantage in this type of educational film is that they are produced in an interesting popular style and are shown along with entertainment films and, therefore, they reach a vast mass of people in an unobtrusive manner. In England, the documentary movement provides an excellent parallel. Here are a band of pioneers like Paul Rotha, John Grierson and Basil Wright who have been experimenting with the wider educational use of the film mediuin. Mainly helped by some Government departments like the General Post Office and a few big industrial concerns, they produced a number of films about such diverse phases of life as the depressed industrial areas, fishing in the North Sea, the gas industry and railway coiamunications. (To-day, of course, they are all engaged in producing wsv propaganda films). Like the American 'shorts', the British documentaries are also exhi After a long time, almost an age, Devika Rani comes to the screen loith Ashok Kranar in "Anjan" a social picture of Bombay Talkies. 59