Duration: 00:59:59; Aspect Ratio: 1.778:1; Hue: 52.994; Saturation: 0.029; Lightness: 0.337; Cuts per Minute: 1.684
Summary: NVR footage from CCTV Landscape from Moulali Entally
The word ‘kamra’ and camera have the same root. A camera is like a room with a peephole in it. Tiny people inside this ‘kamra’ can see images of expansive outdoors, without themselves being seen. This experience -- of watching without being watched -- and at the same time partaking in shared curiosities and desires, is at the very heart of cinema.
Once a prime theatre of central Calcutta, the now defunct and hollowed out Gem Cinema lies at the crossroad of Entally Market and the arterial AJC Bose Road named after the polymath physicist, archeologist, botanist and writer of science fiction. 200 years ago it was a ditch, guarding the town from invaders; then filled up to become Lower Circular Road, bringing with it urbanity, modernity and migrants. Mosques, churches, art ‘akademis’, schools; the Missionaries of Charity, offices and bhavans of the CPI and CPIM and the Left brigade, the Moula-ali Dargah and later, the youth centre, memorial of Begum Rokeya and tomb of St. Teresa – public institutions of a certain time -- populate the landscape, on whose perpendicular trajectory lies the Hoogly to the west, and the Wetlands to the east. Down below the density of life of Moulali-Entally engulfs us, and on rooftops, people steal time in public-private spaces.
A single camera mounted on the roof of Gem Cinema brings us multifarious stories: factoids and fabulations, imagery and documentary, things that will and will not be seen. A traversal of distances, through many spaces and multiple timelines. Maybe the true destiny of ‘CCTV’ is to make us secretly intimate with each other, and our surroundings.
Basant Panchami
Chitrabani
Eden Garden
Howrah Bridge
Kites facing off, their flyers
invisible on the roofs of Taltola buildings, all gunning for the high flying one with the ruffled tail. Sunset on Basant Panchami in 2018. Foregrounding and rising above New Howrah Bridge (Vidya Sagar Setu) is the spire of Prabhu Jishu Girja, the church that housed
Chitrabani founded by father Gaston Roberge - who wrote "another cinema for another society". Colours like you havent seen before. To the right are the iconic stadium lights of Eden Garden. When we return, we see a minar and dome of the Jame Masjid Ahle Hadees.
For instance, hidden behind that thick foliage – until we arrive here, at GEM – are
a range of single theatres like Roxy, Regal, Elite, Crown, as well as eating joints
like Nizam and Aminia; the area is dotted with markets, colleges, schools,
churches, mosques, located between Jan Bazaar, Taltola, and Maula Ali Dargah.
[mist image continues, old house area followed by image of kite flying,
children playing, etc]
Between this road and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road, where we spotted Prabhu Jishu
Girja, the day before, is the Taltola area, where muslim labourers from Bihar
gradually settled over the years. centuries actually, and this continues until now.
The erstwhile Wellesley Street, which is now Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road was
designated as a “thoroughfare’ -- between Dharmatala and Park St. The Brown
town and White.
The adjacent building of Prabhu Jishu Girja, which was the quarters of the
Priests, eventually started the Center for Media and Social communications in
1973, christened as Chitrabani it was built under the supervision of Father
Gaston Roberge. Chitrabani, housed a large archive of photographs of the city,
shot over thirty years, between 1960s-90s. Moreover, Father Roberge, who was
also my senior colleague when I taught at St. Xavier’s College, is a pioneering
figure of FS in Bengal, invoking ‘another cinema for another society’ Roberge
introduced some basic concepts of doing Film Studies and brought mass
3
communication into practice. His community radio project in fact, was an
unique attempt. Where that Church is located, that road itself bears the
densities of such transformative histories and engagements.
The larger Taltola area which was supposed to be the backyard of the city --
since villagers from the Esplanade section were rehabilitated there. Muslims
workers from Bengal villages and suburbs – described as ‘lok / laskars’ -- and
later labourers from Bihar have settled here since 19 th Century.
So have many revolutionaries, including Doctor Durga Charan Banerjee, father
of S N Banerjee who himself is popularly known as the father of Indian National
Congress. Doctor Durga Charan Lane is just down the corner. On our Right. And
Alimuddin Street is on our Left, of course! So first the migrants and labourers
arrived, them came the revolutionaries, followed by the communists, and the
missionaries; including St. Teresa, whose tomb is at the heart of Missionary of
Charity.
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