One of the most significant phenomena of our time has been the development of the cinema from a-turn-of the-century mechanical toy into the century's most potent and versatile art form
Today, the cinema commands the respect accorded to any other form of creative expression. It combines in various measures the functions of poetry, music, painting, drama, architecture and a host of other arts, major and minor. It also combines the cold logic of science.
India took up film production surprisingly early. The first short film was produced in 1907 and the first feature in 1913. By the twenties it had reached the status of big business.
It is easy to tell the world that film production in India is quantitatively second only to Hollywood, for that is a statistical fact. But can the same be said of its quality? Why are our films not shown abroad? Is it solely because India offers a potential market for her own products? Or, are we just plain ashamed of our films?
To anyone familiar with the relative standards of the best foreign and Indian films, the answers must come easily. Let us face the truth There has yet been no Indian film, which could be acclaimed on all counts. Where other countries have achieved, we have only attempted and that too not always with honesty.
No doubt this lack of maturity can be attributed to several factors. The producers will tell you about that mysterious entity "the mass', which goes in for this sort of thing', the technicians will blame the tools and the director will have much to say about the wonderful things he had in mind but could not achieve because of 'the conditions"
In India it would seem that the fundamental concept of a coherent dramatic pattern existing in time was generally misunderstood.
Often by a queer process of reasoning, movement was equated with action and action with melodrama. The analogy with music failed in our case because Indian music is largely improvisational.
Writer ✍️
[ Satyajit Ray ]