Zoom In To Movie, Pan To TV

“Television has integrated with our lives alongside the bed, the dressing table, the refrigerator and other such utility furniture”, said poet and movie expert Partha Raha as he expressed his hopes about the future of movies, at a seminar on television being the ultimate destination of movies, organized by the Post-graduate Diploma in Media Studies: Film and Television wing of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Calcutta (CU). Referring to the inherently ‘Fascistic’ nature of movie-watching in cinemas, where the viewer has little scope to exercise freedom of choice, he highlighted the modern trend towards packaged entertainment in multiplexes that also serve movies. Observing that “18 out of 24 hours of programmes beamed by a television channel per day are based on movies”, he hailed television as entangled in the “worldwide trap of globalization” in criminalizing formative minds by instilling violence into them. He praised telefilms for experimentations and innovations, but reminded that many of them are influenced by movies screened at film festivals.

Dismissing the need to deliberate on the topic, Rupkala Kendra director and Jadavpur University Film Studies professor, Sanjay Mukhopadhyay highlighted the interruptive distractions associated with television viewing and hailed multiplexes as “televisions one can walk into for widow shopping”. Denouncing the modern trend to outsource thinking and decision-making and delivery of judgement, he urged the audience to decide as to whether they would go in for television or opt for movies.

Emphasizing movie and television as two distinct mass communication media, Nandan CEO Nilanjan Chattopadhyay regarded the two as complementary to each other. Defending the present popularity of movies, he noted, “Young movielovers are willing to sit on floor at Nandan to watch classics”. People’s current loyalty to television, as against the closure of a number of the city cinemas, is not indicative of the declining appeal of movies, he added.

The session was conducted by Dr. Soumendra Nath Bera, Co-ordinator, P.G. Diploma: Film and Television, and Head, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Calcutta, with CU mass communication student Avirup Mukherjee delivering the vote of thanks.