Written by: JBR
What is this about true artistes?
The advancement in information technology has turned the world into a hyper reality. The way, people who don't have any connection with production, play with stock market prices, similarly, both the visual media and the print media are hyping the reality.
Instead of reporting about the reality, they seem to be creating a new reality as said or referred to by the sociologist. This transforms a mischief done by a few somewhere, into something done by everyone in a country. An issue concerning a few people could be projected as affecting an entire nation and success achieved.
Have you forgotten Tamil films?
This can also be seen in the art field. Celebrities are necessary to keep up interest in whatever causes a stir. Even a small move by them is magnified to catch the attention of the viewer. The news of Aishwarya Rai-Abhishek Bachchan marriage was telecast on TV channels more than a 100 times in a day. Those who did not turn on the TV that day were living in a different world, while the TV channels were projecting an entirely different world.
The coverage given to clothes worn by actresses was more than the coverage given to award winning directors at the Cannes Film festival. People who have been celebrated at Cannes are in the limelight owing to their feeding the publicity hungry media. True artistes do not get the due recognition in reality. So there is a danger of listing real artistes along with the wrong people in this list. So, we need to specially qualify who the real artistes are.
True artistes do not make films for others. They make films to satisfy themselves. They do not plan their scenes with what a viewer likes, what would make him happy, or what would make him stand up and applaud. They project only what pertains to the kern of their thoughts. True artistes do not say that they make films so the producer can make profits. They do not have theatre owners in mind. Cinema is not a business for them. Nor are they in it for fame. Cinema is their dream, their life, their passion. It is also their madness!
This part introduces a true artist. Like the series on world cinema, you will now meet a list of true artists from now on.
The first on our list of true artists is Abbas Kiorastami, an important director of contemporary Iranian cinema. He was born in 1940 in Teheran. In 1997, his film 'Taste of Cherry' won the Cannes festival award. Akira Kurosawa has himself declared that his films are comparable to that of Satyajit Ray.
Censorship is very tough in Iran. It is on three levels. This is what Abbas Kiorastami has to say about it.
"From a young age, we have been opposing censorship in Iran. This is not the problem of a director alone. I will avoid making a film centred around a husband and wife. I can bring a husband, a wife and child from different places and make them look like a family. But it won't be real through my view finder. It is natural for a child to see its mother's hair or a husband to see his wife's hair. My wife and sister do not wear veil to bed, but we can't show it on film. (It is forbidden to show a woman's hair in Iranian cinema).
So, I am unable to show a real family on film.
My dad would have seen my mother's hair. A child would have seen its grandmother's hair. This is the life I know. I do not know the life imposed on us by censorship. I do not touch something I am not familiar with. So I am avoiding show real families and going to villages for my films.
Usually the second question people ask me is about censorship in Iran. Every Iranian citizen encounters censorship from a very young age. At a young age, our parents decide on what is good or bad for us. It gets worse in school. There's censorship in syllabus too. Not only film directors, but people from all fields have to deal with censorship. They have also learnt how to deal with it.
If anyone approaches my architect friend, he always shows one of the worst buildings he has built. So they ask him to try and design something new. That's how he has learnt to feed his creativity. I do not talk about censorship outside Iran, not because I am afraid of some problems cropping up or because I want to be on the good side of the govt. There is censorship in everyone's life in Iran, that's why."
American films have been banned in Iran because it is believed Hollywood will spoil Iran's culture. Abbas Kiorastami approaches it in a different way.
"Iran is a land steeped in culture. One cannot wear jeans and go to school. But the same child can watch MTV on TV. They have banned cinema but allowed television. I want o cut this connection to television and lock it away in a cupboard. If I am vociferous about this, I will be locked away in a cupboard instead."
The films of Abbas Kiorastami will help in realizing the fact that all arts aim to reach the formless one. In his films, all the scenes, dialogues and silences are all realistic. At the same time, they are symbolic making us see and hear what cannot be seen or heard.
For instance, in Kiorastami's 'Taste of Cherry,' a middle aged man approaches some people for help. In a mountainous region, he has dug a hole. He plans to take sleeping pills and lie down in that hole that night. All he wants is for someone to come next day to that hole and call his name twice and wake him. If he does not wake up, the person should cover him with mud and bury him. He is willing to pay a generous sum for that.
He asks this help of a young man serving in the army. One has come from Afghanistan for a seminar. Everyone is in need of money, but no one helps the middle aged man to commit suicide. When the young soldier hears of the middle aged man's request, he runs in fright. The seminar youth points to the Koran and tells the middle aged man that suicide is not the way out of a problem and every problem has a solution. He is joined in this by an elderly teacher, who tells him he will definitely be alive the next day.
Without background music, it is more or less like a documentary. Like other Kiorastami films, there is no great story line either. It is just a day in a man's life and what he experiences that day. But with sensitive scenes, Abbas Kiorastami has the viewer deeply touched by his film.
The young soldier is from Kurdistan. War and murder is common there. Because of his army training, this young man also would soon be killing others in the course of his job. The seminar young man has come to Iran because he cannot study in war torn Afghanistan. He works whenever he is free to support himself.
For both of them, war and killing is a part of everyday life. Both of them come from war zones and both are very much in need of money. But both of them refuse to be party to a man's attempt to commit suicide, even if it meant that would get them a good sum of money. This is how they are in real life, so what or who makes them kill in the name of war?
Be it the words of wisdom from the elderly teacher or depiction of life's ironies, the film makes a deep impact on the viewer. Thus, apart from the scenes or dialogues, Abbas Kiorastami's films are imbued with this extraordinary aspect.
What does he like in films? And what does he not like?
'Whatever is in my film is what I like. What is not there is something I do not like. I don't like to tell stories in my films. That's why there will be no story in my films. I also do not like to create emotion upheavals in my viewers."
Till now, we have been thinking that his films have good story and he has moved audiences to tears many a time. But Kiorastami seems to have a different view point.
How do we figure this out? Maybe it would help if we hear about what he thinks is a good film.
"A good film should have the capacity to absorb all of a viewer's strength. He should recover his strength only when he exits the theatre.
There are many boring films, but they are still to be respected. Some films are so terrible that one cannot sit through them and many have chased me out of the theatre. But these films wake me up in the middle of the night and think. I like such films.
Some films have us glued to our seats. But after seeing these films, one has the impression of feeling cheated. These films imprison viewers to sitting through in the theatres. I do not care for such films."
Some say seeing certain films, gives an energy boost. In the midst of such people, Kiorastami says a good film should sap a viewer's energy totally.
This is a major difference between media artists and true artistes.
Sujatha, the dialogue writer of 'Sivaji' says, "It is enough to ensure that a viewer should have no questions in the 2 ½ hours that he is watching a film. Let him speak about logic after the film ends. These questions should not crop up when watching the film. Shankar is well aware of such mind play." He seems to praise the quality of cheating the viewer.
One person says it is cheating to make a prisoner of viewers to watch a 2 ½ hour film. Another says go ahead and cheat the viewer but it does not matter if he realizes that he has been cheated after watching the film (after the coffers have been filled).
That is the difference between media made super films and super actors and the true artistes in this make believe world.
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-28.06.2007
