SIGHT & SOUND
Need to keep records
Amita Malik

WHAT a sad week it has been, first Sunil Dutt and then Ismail Merchant. Both sudden and unexpected ends to two valued and greatly loved and respected lives. If Dutt proved that politicians can be gentlemen and fathers can still protect their errant sons, Ismail Merchant proved that Indians can make it big even in the highly competitive world of cinema in America and Europe. And do it with drive as well as charm.

Ismail, however, remained a bachelor but married off his six sisters, like a good Indian brother. Ever since he passed away, as in the case of Dutt, all sorts of unlikely people are telling me how he helped them in their lives or careers.

There is only one really good side to the coverage of their deaths on TV. Unlike Doordarshan, which has lost or erased precious and irreplaceable tapes by greats like Satyajit Ray and Kurosawa, Marlon Brando, Siddheshwari Devi and Rasoolan Bai, the private channels have preserved a splendid array of programmes on both Sunil Dutt and Ismail Merchant. Long interviews, short, charming excerpts from shorter programmes. I liked particularly a two-instalment replay of Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai with Sunil Dutt, where his family, film friends like Dilip Kumar and little-known people, came on the programme and reminisced with Dutt. All these programmes are valuable archive material and should be preserved in the National Archives as well as the National Film Archives in Pune to serve as future reference material to the many universities which have film departments as well as some of the best institutions which teach films and media.

India badly needs archives of important people as well as their work. Nandan in Kolkata has done a fairly good job on Satyajit Ray. It is time that other similar institutions in India follow suit. It is too much to expect DD, which showed little archive material as compared to the private channels, to catch up with this important aspect of preserving the records of people such as Dutt and Merchant. Government has shown little imagination as far as the Information and Broadcasting Ministry is concerned. It is up to the private sector, whether the media, educational institutions or such specialised institutions as the Nehru Memorial library at Teen Murti Bhavan to do something about it for research scbolars in particular.

However, there were smiles in the middle of all this gloom because life, or perhaps one should say the show, must go on.

It was perhaps a crazy idea, and obviously subtle publicity for a film release, but Babli and Bunty, Rani Mukherji and Abhishek Bachchan to you and me, entered into the spirit of the game and did a really amusing job as newscasters for NDTV’s Sunday evening bulletin in Hindi. They went through the drill of rehearsals, and make-up amidst friendly banter, they fluffed their lines and from Prannoy Roy and Dibang the entire NDTV staff pitched in and it was truly great fun, because it was so informal and spontaneous. Abhishek did a splendid job of newscasting, considering his father,Amitabh, was rejected for the job of newscaster by All India Radio before he became a film actor. Rani took her job less seriously but also kept everyone in splits. I am sure, considering the viewer response which was carried almost immediately after, that the film got a good fillip through this ploy, which was brilliant in concept and beautifully executed.

I also liked the last episode of Koffee with Karan which started without Karan as anchor, as Shah Rukh Khan took over the job of interviewing Amitabh Bachchan, both the Big B and Shah Rukh being the chief guests of the evening, later joined by Karan, of course and Jaya Bachchan. There was a goodish hint of hagiography in the exchanges, but it was gracious, informative and the best bit came at the end when viewers, literally picked off the streets, were asked to give their opinon on both Bachchan and Shah Rukh. These were genuine, ordinary people.

One old lady complimented Shah Rukh on sticking to his wife even after becoming famous. Obviously, filmgoers also have critical opinions and stars are watched closely. Filmstars, beware.