[Reader-list] No sex please, we're Maipuris: 3rd IF posting

[Ranjan Yumnam]

Manipuri films are often close imitations of the Bollywood flicks in
form, if not the content. Song, music and dance are one of the most
important ingredients in a Manipuri film. Like some of the Mumbai's
potboilers, Manipuri heroes woo their love-interests in the sky,
mountains, snow and the oceans. Hero-laden helicopters fly into a song
sequence out of nowhere, even if the hero is an unemployed chap in the
film. Shoots are done in foreign locations like Singapore as a trick
to draw audience. Actors change their clothes many times in a span of
five minutes. Even the music scores are adapted from the South
Indians. Almost all the usual 'aesthetics of attractions' of Mumbai
cinema are employed to gain eyeballs as Manipuri filmmakers struggle
to recover their production cost in a highly competitive market that
is confined to the Imphal valley.

 So you might ask what is Manipuri about Manipuri films. Despite the
cosmetic similarities with other regional cinemas, Manipuri cinema has
begun to come on its own. This is largely a result of self-regulation
of the Manipuri film industry and in part because of a sort of
cultural regimentation imposed on the filmmakers by the underground
organisations.

Take for example, the song and dance sequence. Manipuri songs are done
very tastefully without any display of tits and bums and that makes it
eminently fit to be watched together in a family of three generations
without any awkwardness and embarrassments. Elements of sexual
titillation are completely absent from the Manipuri cinema, that
compared to it, a typical item number of Mallika Sherawat would look
like a soft porn stuff. No rain-soaked blouses for the Manipuris.

The Manipuris are a very conservative people. It's an article of faith
among the Manipuris that women should not drink wine, not reveal too
much cleavage, not go out late in the night, not laugh too loud, not
have food before their husbands do and so on.

These values get reflected in the Manipuri cinema.

The Imphalwood filmmakers are aware of the consequences if they cross
the line of decency and fantasy. The community has a powerful impact
on what one can do in Manipur—not only in the films but also in other
walks of life. If a filmmaker ignores the sensitivities of the
Manipuri populace, she is in for a sure trouble. That trouble can also
come from the insurgents who considers Manipuri cinema to be a
nationalistic product and a cultural ambassador. This notion has led
to some actors being prohibited from working together in films because
of their too 'inappropriate' on-screen and off-screen chemistry. In an
extreme case, a female actor was shot at her legs because she acted in
an erotic scene. Some of her male colleagues have paid a direr price:
they have been executed while others fled to neighbouring states. This
happened about a decade ago.

Many rounds of parleys have taken place between the Film Forum,
Manipuri, the apex body of the Imphalwood and the underground
organisations on censorship issues. While the Film Forum, Manipur has
been zealous about guarding its artistic freedom, the UGs have been
insisting on enforcing a code of conventions that purport to uphold
the dignity of the Manipuri culture and society. A middle ground has
been struck which seeks to satisfy both the filmmakers and the UGs.

This mutually agreed code is enforced by the preview committee of the
Film Forum, Manipur. From now on, a director must submit his print and
screen it before the said committee for clearance. The committee
approves the film on the basis of some criteria, most of which to
determine whether the film transgresses the line of decency,
misrepresents the culture of the Manipuris or imitates too profusely
from Bollywood. The members of this committee are known to show their
utmost displeasure at the sight of sarees, sindur, mangal sutra, heavy
make-up, exposed ribs and 'vulgar scenes'. A director has to comply if
cuts are recommended in any portion of the film. Only then can it be
submitted formally to the Central Board of Film Censorship at Guwahati
for censorship certificate.

Such a system does generate lots of bad feelings between the committee
and the filmmakers. It also doesn't help that most Manipuri filmmakers
have grown up on a diet of Bollywood movies—their filmmaking
approaches and techniques are uncannily similar to those of the
Mumbai's films. It appears to be quite a temptation for a Manipuri
director to make use of alien cultural symbols, often subconsciously,
like a mangal sutra, a North Indian usage which does not exist in the
Manipuri society. The preview committee acts as a filter to sift
through such kind of disconnect between the reality and the cinematic
representations.

Film activists mindful of the anomalies in the Manipuri films exhort
the filmmakers to look elsewhere for inspiration if Manipuri film has
to carve out its own destiny. Korean films are being promoted as
alternative films that Manipuris can emulate. The realist feel of the
Korean films with their simplicity, brevity of emotions and subtlety
are a model for a new breed of young filmmakers. The vice like grip of
Bollywood is slowly but surely loosening as Korean and Latin American
movies make their foray into Manipur, via the international market at
Moreh, a border town straddling Manipur and Myanmar.

There are merits and demerits of extra-institutional/official
censorship. On the brighter side, Manipuri films are becoming more
realistic and distinct from the homogenous commodity of Bollywood.
Liberals are however worried that it is a form of cultural
regimentation that restricts freedom of artistic expression and
experimentation. The line between vulgarity and art is a thin line and
it is a difficult task differentiating between the two. In Manipur, it
is the insurgents and the like-minded members in the Film Forum,
Manipur that is shouldering this tricky task.








-- 
Regards,
Ranjan Yumnam