National Seminar Mayabazaar: Reviewing 100 years of Indian Cinemas 19 – 20 February 2014

Mayabazaar: Re-viewing 100 years of Indian Cinemas helped participants explore and understand the emerging concerns, the potent areas of research and the varied perspectives that have entered Indian Film Studies. A three day workshop was conducted prior to the seminar by Prof. Indranil Bhattacharya from FTII.

The seminar proceedings began with the formal inauguration followed by the keynote address by eminent Kannada film maker Mr. T.S. Nagabharana who questioned and problematized the use of the word Indian Cinemas and its representations. This was followed by the release of book of select papers.

The panel discussion with scholars and veterans like Mr. S. Theodore Bhaskaran, Film Historian, Mr. C.S. Venkiteswaran, Film Critic and Documentary Film Maker, Ms. Bina Paul, Mr. Jaideep Varma, writer and Film Maker, and Mr. Gnani Shankaran, Writer indeed provided us with wonderful insights into the various domains of discussions.

A documentary tracing the 100 years of Indian Cinemas done by the students was screened. This was followed by two invited talk sessions. “Iconic Narration in Indian Cinema” by Dr. Moinak Biswas and “Film on Film: Self-reflexive Modes in Indian Cinema by Prof. Indranil Bhattacharya.

The second day began with 37 paper presentations in four different venues with internal and external moderators for each of the venues.  Paper presentations included topics on multiplexes, stereotyping, archiving, screenplay, censorship, digitization, to name a few. A befitting close to the two day deliberations came to an end with the screening of Printed Rainbow followed by a talk by Ms. Gitanjali Rao.

To say that the seminar has given us food for thought would underestimate the contributions made by our resource persons. In fact we were presented with a mise-en-scene of the 100 years of Indian Cinemas to now reflect upon.