Writer-director Kranti Kanade, whose film CRD releases on September 29, was in the city to talk to students about the art of filmmaking.
The seminar was organised by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication of Christu Jayanti College, Narayanapura Road.
Starting with the screening of two of Kranti’s short films — National Award winning period film Chaitra, featuring Sonali Kulkarni, Idol and a few scenes from CRD. Talking after the screenings, Kranti said, “The three films you saw took you through different emotions. You must have felt a disconnect with Chaitra, set in the 60s. You related with Idol as it is about a young boy and football. CRD, which is more intense must have made you go ‘Whoa!’ I as a filmmaker know what I am narrating. A director uses cinema to narrate different stories.”
Describing films as powerful tools of communication, Kranti bemoaned the quality of content on television. “How are we depicting women on screen?
Television is responsible for depicting women in a regressive manner. Television revolutionised us in a powerful way when it started.
“It brought back our mythology with serials like the Ramayana or the Mahabarata. But, then the K-series happened. These serials have projected women in a shockingly pathetic manner. Every serial shows a beautiful woman, bedecked with jewellery and finery as the daughter-in law of house. Aren’t these false concepts?”
According to Kranti, cinema is so powerful that the poorest and the richest, the educated and the uneducated, all know their actors by name and the films. “Cinema did not become a medium of change, but got engulfed in the idea of entertainment.
And so has the television. These have became a part of our subconscious mind that we have stopped thinking about what we are watching.”
Then he spoke to the students about being responsible in what they read or watch. “When education can imbibe values and creates awareness, then why can’t cinema?” he asked and lamented the fact that educational institutions do not teach Tagore, Adoor Gopalakrishnan or Girish Kasaravalli.
“How can you separate physics, sociology and politics? Are they not all connected? So is cinema, TV, the internet and our lives. If we are sensitive, we understand the power of cinema. If we dumb ourselves down, we will end up with dumb films.
Do you want to have a future like that? A country like that? You are the future and you have to think twice about what you read and watch.”
The director blamed the people for being “passive and not speaking up”. Then he also spoke about how our lifestyles are dominated by multi-national companies. “They tell us that if we buy this or that, we will be happy. Who decides for you to be happy? Can you be happy with materialistic things? The companies don’t care for you. They just want to sell you big cars. You buy it and are stuck eternally in the Bengaluru traffic. All these things are connected. We have to learn to live simple lives.”
Saying that our cinema is stuck in a time warp, Kranti said, “How is Judwa 2 of any use to our country? Even after 20 years, it is still the same song, ‘Chalti hain kya nao se barah, tan tana tan tan tara.’ But you can change it. Seek films with meaning. And, if you decide to become a filmmaker, make a vow that your films will make a difference to the society and its thinking,” Kranti said to a standing ovation.