The pangs of Manipuri film industry

By: Oinam Doren *

The osian's cine fan festival of Asian cinema concluded in New Delhi recently.

Unlike every year which was free for all, the organizers this year have become shrewd and more business savvy. This year the avid cinema lovers have to shell out a levied price of 20 Rs for each screening.

"Rouge" - A Chinese Film screened at the Fest

More judicious this may sound; every film was unanimously worth a 399 bucks (Dvd price in Indian market). Ardent fans were intrigued to see cinematic images from china, the Arab world, Taiwan, Thailand, Korea or Indian films unreleased in theatre.

Consuming sumptuous carte du jour of another world culture, themes, styles and issues makes for a treasured visceral experience.

Delving into the discussion forums, having a quizzical personal chat with the producers or filmmakers or even the artist or exchanging cards makes attending film festivals quite a stirring experience.

Year after year, I have been a voracious consumer of some of the prolific national and international film festivals in New Delhi. But its tear-jerking to acknowledge the gospel fact that the Manipuri cinema is buried six feet under in the grave of history.

"Offside" - An Iranian film screed at the film fest.

The golden era of A. Shyam Sharma or Narayan Sharma is a bygone elusive dream. I can only lament 'those were the days'.

A peek into the contemporary Manipuri film industry, one realize that melodrama, song and dance sequence seems to be their forth, a blatant imitation of Bollywood. And they do find its share of loyal consumers in the valley districts of Manipur.

On an average at least 70 films are made very year in Manipur. That excludes films in other ethnic languages-Mizo, Kuki etc. That's quite a number for a small state. But do the regional industry garner enough returns to keep the ball game rolling? Lets look at this ambiguous situation.

At one time, there were about 12 single screen theatres in Imphal. (Lets ignore the other towns here). Now due to the quiescent burial of Hindi films by the insurgent groups, they have been pathetically reduced to 4. So the producers has to wait months and even a year to screen their films. Secondly, piracy is blooming like AIDS.

Stanley Kwan - A Chinese Filmmaker

The solicited influx of cheap CD & DVD players from China through the international border and the easy accessibility of cd & dvd writers have beaten the crap out of every producer.

Now it is almost difficult to locate any Manipuri households without a CD / DVD player.

In addition, we all know the gross income in the regional film market is quite marginal.

Ergo I can say, the Manipuri market is damned; every filmmaker or producer's nightmare. In a further addition to this, you insert the dilemma of films that doesn't always find audience. You can't always make hit films. That's the ruse in this line.

Therefore, in such a paradoxical situation, what is the primary solution?

Firstly, expand the market.

Attending this film festivals or DVD shopping often gives me delirious dreams. Why can't we make films that would exorbitantly expand the target audience? I know it is a difficult task. But every procreation of man's artistic finesse will draw its fair share of admirers.

I guess the Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Laos, Indonesia or any neighboring country is quite arguable. Even dubbing the films in other NorthEast ethnic languages is another option we can prod given the fact that in NorthEast India, Assam and Manipur is the only major film producing states.

It is hard to imagine Manipuri films being screen in a multiplex in Delhi or Bangalore. Bollywood and Hollywood are the ruthless devils here.

Secondly, one can at least expect to see Manipuri films in film festivals and grandiosely expose them to another section of anonymous audience. This might attract reviews in the national or foreign press or awards.

Such festival screenings also serves as gossip menu for people of another culture, city or country. One can even look forward to attracting foreign co-productions or even funding from agencies across our own state. This would reduce the risk of lost often face by the local producers.

Thirdly, frequent hosting of film festivals in the state like the Osian's Cine Fan Film Fest.

This is quite a cumbersome and expensive venture. I appreciate the economical strategy devised by filmmaker / producer tamo Lancha Ningthouja (Mamikon). He collected high quality international and local films on DVD and screen them in a very small organized way.

The local populations incline more to Bollywood masala ingredients due to consistent feeding and the upcoming young filmmakers need to be persistently exposed to alternative world-class cinema to elevate their flavor.

A Manipuri Film poster

With globalization, the world is residually becoming smaller, cultures more friendly and familiar. The metamorphic Manipuri society wades into comprehensive fundamental issues every day, which serves enormous creative fuel for filmmaking.

Why should some sassy Mumbai or Delhi filmmakers rush to Manipur now and then to make films?

Because they are voluntarily smarter than the Manipuris, they recognize there are human-interest themes in Manipur that sells, that would definitely draw audience in India or abroad. I am convinced haughtily; the Manipuri artists do not lack talent or culture.

Our past filmmakers from the golden era or the theatre scene graphically prove we have the caliber. What is radically missing in the crossword puzzle is that the Manipur film fraternity should start leaping a little higher or seize a bigger weight like Miss Kunjarani, the world weight lifting champ.

God bless the Manipur film industry!

Competing ourselves solely with Bollywood song and drama sequence of 'love you love me' theme is detrimental to our real culture and the gargantuan potential good cinema provides to the artist or the industry or to the state.

I wish we should also develop local cinema for a niche audience; a brand of our own identity that intrinsically reflects our real society, culture and its core issues that will irrefutably unearth anonymous audience outside the state.

Lets rise a toast to the hope of seeing some classy Manipuri cinema.