Speak now
Imagine a South Asian film museum in Kapoor Haveli. Stretching for years in Peshawar, this ruined design is said to withstand decades of heavy monsoon rains and is forgotten is about to be replaced through a grocery mall. This is not a rare destination for an ancient construction in those days. An alternative destination has been planned for Kapoor Haveli, but the budget shortage has blocked this possibility. Whatever the fate of this ancestral site of the prominent Kapoor clan, this ancestral mansion deserves a break. This will give us the opportunity to contemplate how Bollywood has shaped its many layers in our formative years.
In the case of many others who grew up in the early morning of India’s freedom, cinema meant much more than entertainment. Mera joota hai Japani continues to bring a poetic substance to a vast component of Indian urban society that is at a disadvantage from any exposure to poetry and music at school. It was composed through Shailendra, which is perhaps not spoken of in Hindi literature classes, but whose lyrics have given a rare touch to fashionable Hindi.
Mere Joota hai Japani of Shree 420 (1955) continues to bring a poetic substance to a large part of Indian urban society that is disadvantaged by any exhibition of poetry and music in schools.
It is surprising to know that the proposal to turn Kapoor Haveli into a museum faces a monetary problem. How is that possible? If there’s one thing we can be sure about Bollywood, it’s wealth. The combined monetary strength of Lollywood and Kollywood (i.e. the film industries of Lahore and Kolkata) will have to be larger than hollywood.’ And if you come with the cash that supports the film worlds of Chennai and Dhaka, have more than much to finance the Peshawar Museum. And not just to finance it; the contributions of these subcontinental cinemas would also ensure that the museum represents Bollywood’s largest plural cinematic heritage, with the indelible imprint of Raj Kapoor’s artistic excellence.
Vivid memories
Look at Joota hai Japani. The winding country road, camel ride and village women do not make the symbols a little more convincing than the facial gestures and movements of Raj Kapoor’s frame. All of this is so shameful today; to make it look like a classic, you must invoke Charlie Chaplin’s influence. Now turn off the symbol and pay attention to Mukesh’s voice sings Shailendra’s verse. It will recognize what cinema has done for our education society in education. Millions of children, to date, grow up without the joy of being single in attending an engaging music class, yet they have paid attention to thousands of hours of singing, from Can to Sonu Nigam.
At a minimum, the photographs of Pather Panchali (1955) could dissolve the master’s preference for Arengo scholars and use goodness from time to time.
I didn’t forget to be stunned a few years ago at a convention of administrators of all state school education and training councils. No one had noticed Pather Panchali (1955). I was relieved that the director of West Bengal at least found out about it. We spent all morning discussing why our schools are so hostile to art, adding films, adding the ones directed through Satyajit Ray. After the principals sat down with Pather Panchali that afternoon, they agreed to show himself to all the teachers in India. At the very least, the photographs of the story can melt the teacher’s preference to herring the scholars and, instead, use kindness from time to time.
That a lot of cash comes from the film industry to turn the Kapoor Haveli into a museum is, of course, a fantasy, although it would be a fitting tribute to the hopes and preferences that our greatest actors and actresses have kept alive about the film. Decades. Array Today, tweets are split and tweeted to each other. They are also polarized, as are the rest of society. The court scene in so many Bollywood films threatened to cause the last spasm after which the fate of the heroine would be sealed. As the men and women in the room watched, the court ignited the light of truth and everything went well in the minutes that followed. At all times it’s been fantasy and the rest. It comes at a time when the courts did not believe that their own experienced lawyers could be victims of contempt. Perhaps that’s all we can say about our cinema: it gave us the strength to keep fantasizing when we were on a night training elegance after a grueling day at school.
(Courtesy of Mail Today)
Read also: Can it bring about social change?