..:: About Prabhat ::..

About Prabhat

Prabhat Chitra Mandal was inaugurated with the screening of inimitable Satyajit Ray’s Chiriyakhana on Jul 5, 1968. In spite of nearly seven other film societies then existing in the metropolis, Prabhat was launched to cater to cinegoers of North Mumbai. The shows were then organised in a 70-seater mini theatre.

It was an experiment to run film society in a mini theatre. There were doubts expressed about Prabhat’s financial viability. However, in the next decade, Prabhat proved that it could not only survive, but become financially viable as well.

The film society was named after Prabhat Film Company to preserve the legacy of the biggest film company in Maharashtra started by V.Shantaram & others in 1930s. Prabhat Chitra Mandal’s objectives were chiefly to introduce world cinema to Marathi-speaking class audience of Mumbai. Though these audiences regularly patronized the rich Marathi theatre & enjoyed cinema, the world cinema was still not reaching them.

Five film journalists under the leadership of V.P. Sathe formed Prabhat. The society encouraged seminars, discussions along with screenings to inculcate among its members the academic side of cinema.

Besides organising regular film society activities, Prabhat with a commitment to spread Film Culture among the general cinegoers, have organized some events beyond film society programming.

In 1970, Prabhat decided to celebrate the birth centenary of Dadasaheb Phalake, the father of Indian cinema. A centenary celebrations committee was formed under the leadership of filmmaker Gujanan Jagirdar. Sudhir was appointed as the secretary of the committee. The first task was to retrieve & preserve the first Indian feature film, Raja Harishchandra.

Phalake's two sons were then staying in Mumbai, & agreed, with much persuasion, to give the nitrate reels of the film. This four-reel film was retrieved & handed over to the National Film Archive of India.

The committee also decided to approach the Maharashtra Government & requested it to celebrate the centenary officially. Madhukar Chaudhary, the then Cultural Affairs Minister, welcomed the proposal & the state celebrations began on April 30, 1970 with the screening of the newly retrieved print of Raja Harishchandra. A bust of Phalke was installed & the road near Ranjit Studio, where Phalke made the first ever Indian film, was renamed after him.

The Phalake centenary celebration was the first activity of its kind in which the film industry participated. It was initiated by Prabhat, promoted by the Maharashtra government, & supported by the entire film industry.

During 1968 & 1975, Prabhat organised retrospectives of Indian films on its anniversary day. Films made by Prabhat Film Company, New Theatres, Raj Kapoor, Mrinal Sen were screened besides four monthly world cinema films.

In its 34 years of existence, Prabhat faced several ups & downs. One such jolt was when the then Mumbai police commissioner banned the film society screenings in mini theatres in 1973. The commissioner’s main objection was the use of a commercial theatre. So they reluctantly shifted the screening from North to South Mumbai, where non-commercial halls were available. It took Prabhat two years & a public interest petition in the Bombay High Court before the ban was lifted. In 1975, began screening films in North Mumbai again, but Prabhat suffered financial losses & membership dwindled.

In 1978, Prabhat celebrated its 10th anniversary. The then Information & Broadcasting Minister, LK Advani was the chief guest for the function. Prabhat screened a festival of world’s top ten films selected by British film magazine, Sight & Sound. The Seminar on Film censorship in India attracted several bigwigs from the industry, who joined the debate. The celebrations restored the financial health of Prabhat, & could then afford a full-time office.

Prabhat has organized film shows in eight villages in the tribal belt near Bombay. Many Adivasis saw the film for the first time in their lives.

Prabhat now embarked on another of its main objectives –spreading the film society movement in the interiors of Maharashtra. It should b e noted that compared to Kerala and West Bengal, Maharashtra lagged behind in spreading the movement in the state.

In l982, Prabhat organized the first film society conference, with a sponsorship from Maharashtra Times, Times Of India group newspaper. Marathi directors like Dr. Jabbar Patel, Amol Palekar among others attended the conference. The conference witnessed initiatives from various districts in the state to start a film society. Unfortunately, within two years of this conference, the colour television set its foot in India. The concept of home entertainment and the craze of colour television was so strong that it hit these newly born societies in other districts of Maharashtra. Even the mainstream cinema was hit by home entertainment, and the audience began dwindling. It also hit the membership drive of film societies.

The competition from TV led to a struggle for nearly five years. Prabhat had managed to survive during this period through new initiatives. Prabhat organized a brainstorming session to find solution to the problem. The discussion yielded the following guidelines.

1. Film societies should increasingly look for sponsorships to meet the funds shortage for its activities.

2. The objective of the film society movement was to spread film culture. The dissemination of a film culture cannot be in a foreign language and hence the Regional language should be used.

3. The movement should enter new areas, & approach people who continued to remain untouched by the film society movement.

4. Film appreciation course should be organized to create awareness about cinema.

To implement these guidelines, Prabhat changed its programming. They managed to get sponsorship & organized the Satyajit Ray film retrospective of 28 films to mark the Special Oscar given to him by the Academy awards. They started a women's wing to reach housewives, & a Youth Wing to reach college students. Special screenings were organized for housewives to fit their timings.

Prabhat also launched 'Vastav Roopwani', a newsletter cum magazine in Marathi. In the last eight years, it has reached all over the state. Prabhat now organizes film appreciation courses every year. Prabhat also began organizing a retrospective of an Indian filmmaker to mark its anniversary. They screened all films of Shyam Benegal, Girish kasarvalli to show the graph of a filmmaker's growth as a director.

By 1995, home entertainment had become a huge concept, offering over 100 satellite & terrestrial channels. But in this decade, the Hindi film industry metamorphosed itself. Indian films became technically superior, cinema halls were renovated to include Dolby Sound etc to enhance film experience. All these steps ensured that the audiences returned to the mainstream cinema. As a corollary, the audiences returned to the film societies too. Prabhat membership swelled to 800 & is expected to cross 1000 soon.

Prabhat went a step further & initiated the International Film Festival-Mumbai. The Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image was formed to organize the festival. Prabhat has played a key role in the smooth running of the festival over the last four years.

After running a film society, one feels that the movement is not redundant at all. With globalization, the movement will break new grounds, & cinegoers will increasingly look beyond the formula films & the glitter of glamour. It is necessary for these curious cinegoers to watch international films, which only Film Societies can offer them throughout the year.