A poster from Marg’s latest issue

The last time Marg magazine brought out an issue devoted to cinema was 50 years ago. That issue was on documentary films. The latest Marg issue exclusively on cinema, titled Being Here, Now: Some Insights into Indian Cinema was launched on Friday evening by Buddhadeb Dasgupta along with Dhritiman Chaterji. The volume is weighty (the paper used is rich and thick) but is too slim to even pretend to be comprehensive. It never does so, and Dasgupta’s complaint about the absence of enough material on the cinema of Bengal and Kerala, notwithstanding, it is a volume worth preserving.

Chaterji regretted the death of debate where cinema was concerned and lack of proper guidance for ordinary viewers. Moinak Biswas, who is one of the contributors, demanded a new reading of Satyajit Ray’s films like Pratidwandi and Ashani Sanket, which had once faced a barrage of criticism for not being political enough. He stressed that in the past it was not possible to do this, but now it was time for taking a fresh look at them.

Chaterji concluded the programme with a wicked story of how the DVD of a film, whose ravishing black and white cinematography everybody, including the director, was admiring, turned out to be a colour film, when played on new equipment. The earlier one was faulty.