National Film Awards
Dogs fight over dead and dry bones
 

The National Film Awards are getting what they deserve, ignominy and ridicule. The dogfights between Mahesh Bhatts and Artfilmwallas are still funnier. Everything seems to be an attempt at hogging the headlines. This way the present controversy has served the purpose of all and sundry, the opponents of the present dispensation as well as its proponents.

It seems that the greatest filmmakers of modern India are Gautam Ghosh, Mahesh Bhatt, Shahsi Ranjan, Macmohan, Dhritiman Chaterjee, and all other names that keep cropping up every now and then around this dogfight.

The other day Mahesh Bhatt was pontificating from the pulpit of FICCI about Cinema and entertainment. He proclaimed very proudly that the task of a filmmaker is to create a world of make believe, and tell stories that deaden the senses of the people, relieving the pain of their day-to-day existence.

I won’t be surprised if Ekta Kapoor will be delivering lectures on how to make great films. She is already pontificating on how to make great TV serials.

Gautam Gosh and the entire leftist lobby that has been used to being sustained and supported by various publicly funded govt. bodies are bound to be upset. If the present trend continues, they will cease to be part of the establishment and thus will not have their share of the booty.

The dogs are fighting over dead and dried bones to the benefit of the rapacious TV media that is ever ready to lap up useless pop masala to boost the TRPs of its generally low quality news coverage.

None is concerned about promoting excellence in cinema. The BJP, bereft of a vision, follows into the footsteps of the past governments and offers prized nominations on various committees to those who are close to its big bosses irrespective of the fact that they do not deserve to be there. Macmohan and Shashiranjan are examples of this foolishness. Sushma Swaraj does not even take the trouble to find out that there are many saffronites in the film industry who could justify their presence on those panels by their good credentials.

The BJP talked about bringing the lost glory of Bharatvarsha back and place this country in the forefront of the march of nations as a Jagadguru. It looks as if it was all bull. Most of the BJP characters were not sure of how this was to be done. There is one exception though, Murli Manohar Joshi. He knows what he has to do and he is doing it methodically. I wish he could be a little more aggressive in countering the propaganda of leftist implants in the media.

The regeneration of society does not begin by placing your favorite darbaris in the positions of power. It happens when we seek the really talented people and encourage them to explore and experiment without fear and favor. It is imperative that the leaders work with a definite and untainted vision. It also requires integrity and commitment borne out of conviction in one’s professed ideology.

The keenness with which the BJP leaders have adopted to the politics of lobbying disappoints those who once shared their grand vision of resurgent India. It is surprising that there are many in this new dispensation who talked unendingly about it. What happened to it? It has obviously been replaced by an ‘Ambani’ or a ‘Hinduja’ vision and at its worst the WTO vision.

Now, I am afraid we will have to contend with a ‘Mahesh Bhatt’ vision of how the Indian film industry will be in the vanguard of the great cinema resurgence instead of a ‘Gautam Ghosh’ vision. The Indian cinema will remain where it is - in dumps.

In the mean time, Sushma Swaraj will continue working as the grand dame (or maid?) of the film industry organizing funds for them by talking to her admirer Yashwant Sinha. She may feel like an all powerful queen bee while attending star studded gala functions, but her contribution to promoting the art and craft of great filmmaking will be a big zero. Why will it be so? Because she does not have a vision.  She is happy being a Chaprasi who feels proud in moving files from one table to another and being applauded for that.