“Indians, I haven’t understood you,” wrote French filmmaker Louis Malle in all honesty, after criss-crossing India in the 1960s and making Calcutta and nine other films, grouped together as Phantom India. Malle was the most prolific of foreign filmmakers on India. There were many others as well who, from the early days of cinema, came to India to see and shoot a real or imagined territory. What did India mean to them? What is the meaning of their cinema? What legacy have they left behind?
No one is better placed to take up this epic enquiry than veteran film activist Vijaya Mulay. But Akka, as she is fondly called, was more than an activist. An education officer in the ministry of education, a pioneer in the Film Society movement, member of the Censor Board, on the staff of Unicef for the SITE project, head of the Centre for Educational Technology and of UGC’s countrywide classroom project, Akka has been an indefatigable teacher, communicator, writer, filmmaker and organiser.
Full report here Asian Age
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