Interview with Nimmal Vellani,
Indian Moviegoer
Q: Describe your earliest experience of going to the cinema.
Vellani: Well I must have been about five or six years old, if my memory serves me right...There was a, sort of a...rectangle...we called them Kinottes, they're actually cloth pieces which are joined together to enclose a certain space. So this was a rectangular thing under the tent at the back, and there was a screen in the front. And we had to sit in those tents. And ah, this was the first experience of my seeing a film. I think it was silent, as far as I remember.
Q: Now within that tent where were the women seated?
Vellani: ...It is known as purdah. And purdah is where women are kept apart from the men. Even the family men, you know, the elders and their in-laws, and people like that. So, and this was specially in a backward state. And ah, the Maharaja of Petyalla was a very lecherous man. He had about 360 women in his harem, in any case. So all the middle class families, or the officers' families -- my grandfather used to be a chief justice of that state -- and so we were all kept in purdah, to keep his gaze away from us. So even when we went for a walk in the evening, it was always after dark. Never during daytime because he had his sleuths, you know, any pretty woman or pretty girl he would just have her kidnapped and taken away. And then she was never heard of again. So that's why we had to ride in these enclosed cars. The cars had purdahs. The blinds drawn, and then we had to go to the cinema.... And so we sat in this enclosed space. And we were always kept away from the, the men who sat on the sides, and in this little tent, the women sat -- the few women that went.
Q: If you could start off by talking about Charlie Chaplin...
Vellani: Well the Charlie Chaplin films we loved -- all of them we loved, actually. And especially The Gold Rush. Because it's really beautiful -- that scene, and where he eats those boots of his. [He] opens those laces and, and thinks it's spaghetti or something. It was really lovely.
Q: Among the films that you've seen, you must have seen Indian films as well as Western films. Was that ever a kind of confusion for you to see these two different cultures like that on the screen?
Vellani: Ah no, not really. Because we went to English schools...and we learned and read about English literature, or English books as children. And so we really didn't have a jerk between the two -- Indian or English...
Q: What type of Indian film was your favorite?
Vellani: We saw a lot of mythologicals, to begin with, which we were allowed to see. Because they were part of our legend and our culture. And then we came to the modern films. The modern films actually were more of a jerk than, than the mythologicals that we saw. Because that was not part of our life. The kind of modern films that were being shown, like The Hunter Valley -- ...those [were] very exciting for us. But they were not part of what we knew -- the legends we knew.
Q: ...Why are Indians so fascinated with movies?
Vellani: Because they have no other form of entertainment -- that's why Indians are fascinated by movies. Cheap entertainment. The ticket was very low, and we didn't have much to pay. And the whole family went to the cinema. And it was like a great big outing for them. They would eat...dress up and go out.
Q: Did going to the cinema change your life in any way?
Vellani: If I had not seen the cinema -- those films -- or gone to the cinema so often as I was allowed, I don't think I would have had romance in my life. I would have just been married off like an ordinary girl to the man of my grandfather's choice, and that would be it.
Q: What is the importance of art cinema?
Vellani: Well it improves the quality of your own life, for one thing. That you see those movies. And why not art cinema? Why not? Why always violence? Why always rape? Why always all those things? Because they are not really a part of your life. Part of your life is problems of yours, or your neighbors, or your immediate neighborhood. Or some child's illness. Or some care for your elders, or of the aged ones, or some such thing. Or some themes of even romance. Those are dear to you, not those hugely mounted films which spare no expense, but they only show all horror. And terrible, well, poverty is a, is a fact of life in India -- why not show it? Why not? Why hide it? You can't hide it, anyway. So you have to show it. If you're going to be real. Or if you're going to have real cinema. And I think that is art. Not these big mounted films. They are terrible. Terrible.
Note: Red text is available in RealAudio.
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