The graveyard at Ahmednagar
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| Haal e Kangaal Poster |
I always wondered if Haal-e-Kangaal (The Bankrupts) would
blend itself well with an rural audience. Some of my friends who have seen this
film too have expressed apprehensions about this.
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| Post screening. |
The twenty five screening that I have had of this film were largely
for a city based audiences and in cities. This is an audience that has already
an exposure for offbeat cinema and world cinema. To an extent I found their
positive reactions to the film, not surprising.
But I always wanted a rural or a small town screening. That
is when I thought the 'niche' tag would vanish for this film. I found an
opportunity when I screened the film in Ahmednagar, a small town in central
Maharashtra, at the New Arts, Science and Commerce college.
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| Bapu Chandanshive |
Bapu Chandanshive who heads the Communication Department is
the guiding force behind the film club that the Arts department runs at the
campus. The club is presently managed by the energetic Prof. Rahul Chaudhari.
It
is associated with the Federation of Film Societies of India and it gets its
regular share of films from them. Besides, it also sources films on its own.
They have been running a short film festival in this rusty
town for quite a few years now. Film maker Nagraj Manjule had studied in this
college. Chandanshive himself has made short films and is planning a feature.
They have quality projectors. 'Rarely
does a film maker wants to come here', to show his film, complained Rahul.
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| Rahul Chaudhari |
There were about fifty of them in the audience at
the screening. Almost all of them were from a rural background. Normally, I prefer
to sit in the back row when my own films are being screened, so that I can get
some sense of the reaction of the audience.
But here the hall was packed. I was
made to sit in the front row, where apart from the laughs and giggles I could
gauge nothing.
And then for a few minutes after the screening, no one
spoke. I thought this audience has failed this film. Then slowly the reactions
started trickling in. Apart from the theme and content of the film, people
discussed about the sound pattern, the edit pattern, the short taking, the
usage of space, the script and the narrative pattern etc.
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| A discussion |
With a glow in their eyes some of them said that they had found
out a new way of film making. It had never occurred to them that a film can be
made with two characters and in a single location. It did help that they too
had seen some of the best of world cinema.
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| The audience |
That is when it struck me that I have had a screening in
Kundapur, a smaller town in Karnataka for an audience of about fifteen. There
too there was a great discussion and that select audience too had exposure to
world cinema.
Thanks to the internet and the availability of film
digitally, everyone can have access to world cinema. How mistaken was I when I,
in my own biased little mind, had made an artificial rural-urban division of my
viewers. I now stand corrected.
Next
to the place where I was put up at Ahmednagar was a graveyard. I had to bury this stupendously patronising attitude
of mine in there, deep below in one of those graves.
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| The graveyard |
To screen 'Haal e Kangaal' or any of my other films in your schools, colleges, offices and film clubs
please contact
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