The evolution - part two

Despite unremitting opposition from the Indian press and a walk-out by the audience as soon as a wal effort film came on the screen, a production unit was set up with Alexander Shaw as Chief Producer, with its offices and cutting rooms in Metro House. It comprised three small documentary units with Ezra Mir, Bhaskar Rao and B. Mitra as directors. Desmond Young informed the Board of the government's production/ distribution plans for 1941. As for the newsreels, they were mainly in the hands of the American distribution - RKO dubbed and distributed March of Time and 20th Century Fox, Movietone News.

It appears that much of the planning was done in consultation with the Ministry of Information in London who agreed to contribute 500 pounds towards the cost of each documentary. They also invited Young to submit a list of suggested themes, which he subsequently sent to the Board for approval. Young had also proposed 2-minute comic shorts, dealing with Hitler and Mussolini on the lines of Low's highly popular Hit and Muss cartoons. He suggested to Ezra Mir to produce and direct these if he could get two suitable actors to play the part of the dictators.

Shaw had counselled his colleagues that "the essence of propaganda is that it shall be concealed as far as possible", and that "the blatant propaganda must stand the test of reason when the lights in the cinema go up and the audience faces the journey home". Interestingly enough, Shaw's battles were as much with the Indians as with the British bureaucracy who found some of his ideas quaint, even "outrageous".

J.B.H. Wadia (no lackey of the British, who had in fact extracted written apologies from Shaw and Young on at least two occasions) fired the first salvo when he wrote to P.J. Griffiths (who had taken over from Young after he left India for active service. Later Young would write the bestseller Rommel - the Desert Fox, also made into a film with James Mason): "...I have from the very beginning been a staunch advocate of direct war propaganda in our films... and not merely follow a model that has been found successful elsewhere. The FAB has primarily to deal with Indians, ninety percent of whom are, unfortunately, illiterate... and hence need to be told everything in a straight-from-the-shoulder manner.... If a democratic form of goverment, despite its imperfection, is more desirable than a totalitarian one, they must be reminded of this all-important fact again and again".

Griffiths lost no time in writing back: "My discussions with many people during the last few days have convinced me that it is essential to drive home without delay the realisation of the intolerable conditions which the people of this country would have to suffer if Germany won. I am therefore most anxious to get ahead with some of the direct propaganda films...". It seemed that Shaw's troubles were just beginning. But he surmounted them with great tact (though once he left India, he gave vent to his feelings), by his considerable technical knowledge and by a complete lack of racial arrogance.

Shaw initiated a programme of the films earlier proposed by Desmond Young, which covered a whole range of subjects like the country's transport artery, The Grand Trunk Road; the post and telegraph system, The Dak; its industrial growth, The Changing Face of lndia; the story of census, Four Hundred Million People; a day in the life of an Indian Civil Servant, The District Officer; and women's role in every phase of national life, Women in India. These films seemingly had little to do with the war effort, leading the editor of Filmindia to state: "They may make good documentaries but I doubt whether they will in any way make the Indian people more war-minded". Shaw was clearly on the right track, winning back his audiences.

Shaw left India in October 1941, but during that short period he not only managed to enlist the help of a number of writers and technicians who were later to form independent India's Films Division, but also prove that the documentary film was another way in which Indians could express themselves. The search for a new Chief Producer came to a successful end when J.B.H. Wadia, the chairman of the Board, managed to secure the services of the famous director V.Shantaram who had only recently severed his connection with Prabhat. Under him, the documentary film became an expression of India's past heritage and present reality. Some notable films of Shantaram's period were Handicrafts of India, Our Heritage, on the master builders of ancient temples and Our Valiant Neighhour on Chinese resistance against Japanese aggression, reconstructed through Chiang Kai Shek's visit to India. Significantly, films made under Shantaram's personal supervision carried the title "A Shantaram Production". The audience was clearly in a receptive mood when Filmindia reporting on Our Valiant Neighbour said, "The thunderous applause which the film gets proves the popularity of the subject and Shantaram could be said to have made a splendid beginning, inspite of obvious official restrictions".

This was the period of Gandhi's "Quit India" movement. Most of the national leaders were behind bars, public resentment against the British ran high. Shantaram resigned. The documentarv cell was re-christened the Information Films of India (IFI) and on February 1, 1943 the Government of India assumed its direct control. Ezra Mir succeeded Shantaram while the Indian News Parade had William J. Moylan as Director of Productions. The distribution of films by these two organisations was assured when the Government of India took refuge under the Defence of India Rules (Rule 44A) and compelled exhibitors to include in every programme, a maximum of 2000 feet of "approved" film. The basis of this compulsory distribution exhibition was later continued after Independence and greatly benefitted the Films Division.

Ezra Mir who took charge of the IFI in October 1942 and stayed with it till it was disbanded towards the later part of 1946, considerably expanded its activities. He inducted many new directors and technicians to cope with the increased production, covering almost every area of Indian life. Films like Winged Menace, Soil Erosion, School for Farmers, Need of the Movement, dealt with the more immediate agricultural problems. A film of abiding interest was Bhaskar Rao's Tree of Wealth in which, through the various uses of the coconut, he explored the entire pattern of life of the people in Kerala. This was the first Indian documentary to win an international award (Edinburgh).

The popularity of Our Heritage prompted the IFI to make a series of films on Indian dances, handicrafts and musical instruments. There was also a film on tribal dances which brought to the screen, perhaps for the first time, the dances of the Nagas of Assam and the Khatak dance performed with flashing swords by the Pathans of the North West Frontier. The IFI even made a film on the film industry which became very popular.

A reportage film of high competence was A Gallant Effort which covered the controversial Cripps Mission. Congress had rejected the British offer of Dominion Status for India after the war, which Gandhi termed a "postdated cheque on a crashing bank". During the course of parleys betweer. the British team and the national leaders, Ezra Mir who produced and directed the film, caught Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah, Azad, Cripps and others in a whole range of moods, almost like the photographs of Henri Cartier Bresson (chunks from this film have been recently used in the "Freedom Struggle" series of films).

Another very interesting film was the Voice of Youth, on the youth conference held at Delhi which was largely an interview film showing the youth of India opposed to Fascism. I also remember a film on the press in India which traced the history of Moghal court chronicles to the dramatic progress of the press in our own time. Last year I screened a few of these films during the course of a lecture at the Film Institute and was surprised at the warm response they evoked. The films had neither "dated" nor lost their relevance.

A film picked at random, Vanishing Trick, on hoarding money and the shortage of coins, made in 1943 could have been made yesterday. Even in technique it had an edge over present day Films Division productions. In particular, its narration was not only well written but rendered with admirable ease and naturalness. There was no attempt at putting on a fake BBC accent as some of our narrators do today. The credits of some of these films contain names like Aubrey Menen, Minoo Masani, Frank Moraes, D.F. Karaka as writers, Jean Bhownagary as a researcher and Brian Eastdale (who was to later compose the music for Black Narcissus, and The Red Shoes) as composer. All of which ensured quality and credibility, two elements sorely missing today despite all the technical bravura. It is about time that we shed some of our prejudices and re-evaluated the work done during this period. There may be much to learn.

In the period between the fall of France and Pearl Harbour, India with Australia had become an important supply centre for the mideastern theatre. This brought an economic windfall in its wake. These developments, military and economic, altered the social landscape and affected, though imperceptibly at first, the minds and emotions of very many Indians. Public resistance to these films was minimal. The idea of documentary film had also taken firm root. In 1943-44 when the IFI advertised for apprentices, its offices were flooded with applications from young men all over the country. There was another reason. The British had managed to contain the 1942 movement, though liquidation of the Empire after the war seemed almost certain.

The year 1944 was highly productive for the IFI. It not only produced films on its own but issued 60 licenses to independent producers to produce short films. While the scripts for these films were approved by the department of information and broadcasting, the producers were allowed a very large measure of freedom in the selection of subjects and the shaping of their material. The producers were also encouraged to distribute their own films commercially. The situation was vastly more encouraging than the mundane and uninteresting prospects today.

In 1946, the interim national government cut off the grant to the IFI as it remembered that the organisation had "tried to dragoon an unwilling nation into the war". It was an unwise decision because when India became independent there was no official film unit to record India's "tryst with destiny" [citazione dal discorso dell'indipendenza tenuto la sera del 14 agosto 1947 da Javaharlal Nehru all'assemblea costituente di Delhi].