Past Forward

Mid-November, Garm Hava, a classic Indian film, will be re-released in the PVR cinemas in Pune, New Delhi, Mumbai and a few other cities. Directed by MS Sathyu, it is a poignant tale of a Muslim family who decides to stay back in India post partition.

While cinema-goers are delighted of this opportunity to see film that was first released in 1974, the importance of this re-release goes much beyond. It is also an indication that India is not only gradually realising the need to preserve the country’s audiovisual heritage but that private players are also taking an interest in the preservation effort.

Under the aegis of Indikino Edutainment, Garm Hava has been digitally restored through a three-year long project and at a cost of more than rupees one crore. A little over a year ago, another popular film, Chashme Buddoor (first released in 1981), directed by Sai Paranjpye, was similarly restored by Reliance MediaWorks and re-released.

Cut back to 1992, the year the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (Academy) decided to honour veteran Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray with the Lifetime Achievement Award (the Oscar). Filmmaker and critic Richard Schickel was asked to put together a montage of Ray’s films.

A search of the material available revealed that hardly any copy of Ray’s films were available in the US and those that were available were in extremely poor condition. Later, in October 1992, at the behest of the Academy, when Professor Dilip Basu of University of California, Santa Cruz, and David Shepard, Director of Film Preservation Associates and a member of the Academy, began an assessment of Ray’s films, they were in for a rude shock; the original negatives of 18 of Ray’s films were in critical condition.

In 1993, the original negatives of six classic films – the Apu trilogy, Jalsaghar, Teen Kanya and Devi were destroyed when the London-based lab storing them caught fire. Subsequently, several efforts have been made to restore and preserve Ray’s films and other film-related memorabilia but already much had been lost. Reportedly, there is no surviving copy of India’s first talkie, Alam Ara (directed by Ardeshir Irani, 1913), and only two reels exist of the country’s first feature film, Raja Harishchandra (Dadasaheb Phalke, 1913).

Interestingly, it was in 1992, that UNESCO established the Memory of the World Programme ‘to protect and promote the world’s documentary heritage through improved strategies for preservation and access’.  With much of the documentary heritage (print and audiovisual) at risk from natural calamities, war and other social upheavals, paucity of funds for preservation in ambient conditions, etc., the project aims to sensitize governments, international organisations and foundations and to foster partnerships to implement projects.

With audio-video material now an integral part of our daily lives, its archival importance often escapes us. In the 70s, possessing a tape recorder was a style statement. Not only we played taped cassettes but many recorded family members’ voices; the introduction of pocket recorders was a boon for the roving reporters. But as technology evolved, tape recorders faded away and many junked the tape cassettes; may be lost forever was the 80-year old grandmother’s voice narrating how she was received at her in-law’s home when she arrived as a 13 year old bride.

In 2005, UNESCO concluded that ‘much of the world's audiovisual heritage has already been irrevocably lost through neglect, destruction, decay and the lack of resources, skills, and structures, thus impoverishing the memory of mankind. Much more will be lost if stronger and concerted international action is not taken.’

Hence, the General Conference in 2005 approved the commemoration of a World Day for Audiovisual Heritage ‘to raise general awareness of the need for urgent measures to be taken and to acknowledge the importance of audiovisual documents as an integral part of national identity’; October 27 was earmarked for the annual commemoration. It was decided that UNESCO, together with the Co-ordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations (CCAAA) and other institutions, will ‘focus global attention on the fragility of this heritage’.

Musician Moloy Ghosh is a foot soldier of such preservation efforts. He says he receives quizzical looks from acquaintances when they realise that he has taken up digital restoration of old audio material as a profession.

“Awareness of the importance of digitization of our heritage is very low,” says Ghosh,  adding that “a premium music institute in Delhi, which had thousands of 78RPM records lying in the audio library, told me that it is planning to dump these records in the local kabadi market.” 

“Even though compact discs (CDs) of old recordings are slowly becoming available in the market,  music companies are only interested in releasing CDs of old recordings that cater to the masses; hence, quite naturally, classical music is the worst sufferer. This is why extra initiative needs to be taken to preserve our old classical recordings,” says Ghosh.

However, Ghosh believes people are realising, albeit very slowly, the need to preserve old material; so he has built a set up at home where he digitises old records, for a fee.

At the institutional level, various bodies are trying to restore, digitise and preserve archival material.  The National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) has undertaken a project to restore a large number of classic Indian films produced by it.  It has already launched a few of the classic films in DVD format, including a six-DVD pack of ‘Tagore Stories on Film’.

On the private front, Reliance MediaWorks and Pixion, both Mumbai-based, have set up globally acclaimed studios for restoration and digitisation of old films.

The All India Radio (AIR) launched a special project, in 2001, to digitize the archival recording preserved in its Central Archives; by2005, approximately 15,900 hours of programme was transferred into digital medium. “AIR Kolkata has started the work of digitization of its rich archival material 2008 onwards by transferring the audio material from analogue to digital format,” informed Soumyendra Kumar Basu, Assistant Director-Programmes.

The material is being stored in a secure server and there are plans to link up the servers of various AIR stations so that the archived material can be drawn upon from any corner of the country.

According to Mr K A Dhiwar, film preservation officer at the Pune-based National Film Archive of India (NFAI), “we are always in search of archival material. But it is not always easy to come across them”.  The institute has digitised films by Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy, Mrinal Sen, and others. 

“The film format has changed over the years,” says Dhiwar, adding, “and playing the old reels sometimes becomes difficult.”

Professor Amlan Das Gupta, Director of  The School of  Cultural Texts and Records of Jadavpur University, also echoes Dhiwar’s concern. “There has historically been relatively less emphasis on preservation of endangered audio and audiovisual material in India (and probably in South and South East Asia generally) than in Europe… but the real problem, in my opinion, is, and will increasingly be, the non-availability of playback equipment for existing analogue material.”

“Record players, spool recorders, even cassette players are getting more and more difficult to find. We are in danger of ending up with vast amounts of dead media,” he says.

The School of Cultural Texts and Records, established in 2003, works primarily (almost exclusively) with audio material. “Our music archive specializes in recordings in North Indian Classical Music, though we also have significant holdings in other genres as well,” informs Professor Das Gupta.

“Ours is a digital archive, and we have digitized something like 6500 hours of music. These are sourced from music collectors all over the country - and abroad. We have currently some 50 collections all of which are available for onsite access. They are stored under the name of the contributing collector. We have recorded from analogue material dating from the 1900s - shellac records, reel tape (from the 1940s), vinyl (from the 1950s) and most importantly, cassette tape.”

Founded by author and musician, Vikram Sampath and patronised by Mr. T. V. Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education and a former member of Infosys’ Board of Directors, the Bengaluru-based Archive of Indian Music (AIM) is also working ‘to conserve the gramophone recordings and bring them back into circulation’. To spread public awareness, AIM’s website offers a chance to listen to rare audio clips and also read about the archived artists.

The Kolkata-based Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts, in 2013, presented ‘Voices of India’, the first ever audio exhibition in Kolkata, at the ICCR - in collaboration with AIM (Bengaluru) - where visitors could hear rare recordings and voices of great leaders, classical music, and music from the world of films and theatre between 1900 and 1950.

Encouraged by the people’s response to the ‘Voices Of India’ (2013) and Saare Jahan Se Achha Hindustan Hamara (2014) exhibitions,  it has taken up an initiative involving digitizing, archiving and  dissemination of the digitized music and the recorded sounds for the last one and a quarter century in India.

According to Ms Darshan Mekani, founder-trustee, “our goal is to disseminate the content among all music lovers through innovative ways like audio exhibitions, listening kiosks and portals, guided listening sessions etc., and by taking it to the youth in schools and colleges, museums and libraries and giving them a new perspective of looking at Indian history—through sound and visuals. At the Gallery Space at our Centre for the Arts, we have installed digitizing equipment and also a permanent listening facility to enjoy the digitized sound.”

Images:  1. Delhi-based Moloy Ghosh is known for his painstaking effort to digitize old records 
2. Old records in possession of Ghosh
3. Images from Weavers Studio show Voices of India