52. Dr. Arunlal K

Abstract 52

Dr. Arunlal. K

Cinema for the People, by the People:
Odessa Movies and the Possibility of Outmoding Capitalist Cinema

Abstract

The idea of Cinema, for the people of the Subcontinent, almost automatically dishes out a range of capitalistic metaphors, like industry, production, distribution, marketing, or advertising. Whether it be an art house cinema or the commercial/ popular variety, the huge investment that needs to be made in the making of a film is now considered, at worst, a necessary evil. Because of this, though there are government auxiliaries (like KSFDC) that encourage film making, the art form has virtually become a full-fledged business viz. a profit-oriented enterprise.

It is against this scenario that the proposed paper places the history of dissent put up by Odessa Movies, a people’s cinema production and distribution house (est. 1984) that stood its ground in Kerala for the past three decades, during which time the Sub-continental cinema took a major capitalistic drift. The founder director of Odessa Movies, John Abraham, blazed a remarkable trail as his cult movies (Amma Ariyan, or Agraharathil Kazhuthai for instance) refused to resort to any ‘funding’ other than willing contributions from the people. His team announced the pre-production of each movie across villages and requested cooperation and financial contributions from the grassroots. Odessa ensured that the gimmicks of capitalistic film – stardom, satellite rates, song records, and an intricate subculture created and circulated by film magazines and TV channels etc. – did not corrupt the intentions of their movies. As is famous, after the making, the film-rolls were carried around by the Odessa team through villages and small towns in Kerala, arranging open-air evening shows.

After the untimely death of John Abraham, the movie house hibernated for some years, till John’s close-ally and long-time friend CP Sathyan decided to take forward the task of non-capitalistic film making, in the mid-nineties. However, he soon perceived that mid-nineties offered a completely changed world of art production ad reception for the Indian subcontinent in general and Kerala in particular. The rise of pro-liberalization policies and Structural Adjustment Program had reconfigured the apparatus of cultural industry in favour of the capitalistic production houses. Distribution and Viewing had also ceased to be open to socialist artistic experiments. The comfortable lie of the capital had totally effaced the nascent idealism of early 80’s where Odessa was born. CP Sathyan (better known as Odessa Sathyan) however was not to be put down. The belief that films could still be made from and shown to a responsible commune of citizens that willingly patronizes good and truthful art, devoid of compulsions or compromises needed in commercial film making and distribution, took him towards making six scathing documentaries over a span of eleven years. The paper attempts to narrate this history of dissent in/against ‘Cinema industry’ as it analyses the subject concerns, the making, the distribution and the reception of the films that have come out of the post John Abraham Odessa.