BackLimited engagement
Limited engagement
PremiumIndependent’s day: Actor D. Santosh (left) teaches Kartik Krishnan a thing or two about film-making.
Since January, PVR Cinemas has been screening under-the-radar and off-the-beaten-track movies under a programming slot called “Director’s Rare". The title is clunky and can easily change to “Director’s Rear" when a film is bad, but there is no denying the service being provided by PVR. Director’s Rare has gone where Bollywood is too cowardly to go. By setting aside a limited number of shows at select multiplexes in the country, the chain has created a truly rare opening for independent-minded movies that regular distributors don’t usually touch.
The news isn’t all good, however. The films typically get shown at the smaller or smallest screens, such as a 112-seater at PVR’s multiplex in Juhu, Mumbai. Yet, only four movies have managed to get over the two-week hump—Ashvin Kumar’s The Forest, Sandeep Mohan’s Love, Wrinkle-Free, Kshay and Supermen of Malegaon (Khan’s documentary has gone in for a third week).
Directors don’t pay for the screening slot, but they have to shoulder digital projection costs. They also need to foot the bill for the bulk of publicity costs, which becomes even tougher if they’re trying to distract film-goers from the seductions of the latest Bollywood or Hollywood blockbuster. Apart from a torrent of tweets and exclamation-laden Facebook updates, film-makers must also rely on sympathetic journalists, some of whom may suspend their doubts about the worth of such pedestrian movies as Good Night Good Morning (shown in January) and the forthcoming 24 August release Delhi in a Day. An unconventional subject, floor-level budget and unknown actors do not automatically add up to hidden gem status.
Despite the odds, the selection by Shiladitya Bora, Director’s Rare’s heroically enthusiastic programmer, remains reassuringly eclectic. Of all the strange birds that have fluttered into view in the past few months, The Untitled Kartik Krishnan Project (TUKKP) is one of the strangest. The ferociously indie TUKKP opened on 13 July. It has been struggling for distribution since 2010, when it was first shown at the Mumbai Film Festival. Sunderrajan completed another movie, Greater Elephant, while waiting for his black and white debut to be released.
It’s not hard to see why a mainstream distributor who is eagerly waiting for the next ₹ 100 crore wonder won’t touch TUKKP. The far-out story is of an aspiring film-maker who encounters all kinds of strange hurdles (such as violent policemen and a fortune-telling robot) while trying to make a short film. The Untitled… can best hope for a festival screening—or a slot at an initiative like Director’s Rare.
The fact that film-makers have to resort to borderline hectoring on social networking sites to get noticed—and that some movies don’t last beyond a week despite online support—proves that independent cinema has a long way to go before it becomes a habit rather than a curiosity. Several self-proclaimed cinephiles seem more content to pirate obscure foreign films than give independent Indian films a chance. For all their wealth and sophistication, neither Delhi nor Mumbai has arthouse cinemas like the BFI Southbank in London or Film Forum in New York City. In the absence of a space that curates and contextualizes Indian and international cinema, we have to be content with well-meaning gestures or wait for a film festival to show up on the calendar.
Perhaps it’s time to start a new Operation Flood, one that is aimed at promoting independent cinema, especially since milk is now as widely available as water.
The Untitled Kartik Krishnan Project released on Friday.
Write to Nandini at stallorder@livemint.com
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