Members of Jharkhand Cine Society in Ranchi on Friday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, May 13: Film buffs in Ranchi can look forward to soak up a regular dose of the best of cinema.

After a lull of over two decades, the capital can now boast of a film club, the Jharkhand Cine Society, which was formally launched today. The first movie screening for the members and guests of the society will be held on May 28.

Debashis Chakraborty, the general secretary of the society, said: “We will screen a film of an eminent filmmaker of the country on May 28, during which the audience will get a chance to interact with him.”

The name of the director would be announced “once we get a confirmation”, he added.

Ajay Malkani, a theatre personality and a founder member of the society, said they would aim to engage students by screening meaningful cinema, including the works of auteurs, and hold workshops and seminars on related disciplines such as theatre, dance and visual art.

Meghnath, a documentary filmmaker, said the society would be able to make its presence felt, despite the easy access people have to TV channels, multiplexes and the Internet. “Despite different media, we don’t get to see good films, let alone regional films or those from countries such as Brazil or Turkey,” he added.

Shriprakash, a Ranchi-based filmmaker and a National Award winner, said he was ready to back a film club “if it cares for local people who are struggling hard to make films in regional languages”.

Chakraborty felt the society would not be found wanting in terms of patronage. “We already have over 150 members, many of whom belong to different disciplines of art and culture,” he said.

The Jharkhand Cine Society becomes the third film society in Ranchi in nearly half a century.

After the film society movement gained momentum following the formation of Calcutta Film Society in 1947 by Satyajit Ray and his friends such as Chidananda Dasgupta and Harisadhan Dasgupta, similar clubs were founded across India for promoting socially relevant films that were not screened in the commercial circuit.

The Ranchi Film Society was formed in this backdrop in the Sixties but it lasted only for a couple of years. Another organisation, the Cine Society, which was active for nearly five years in the early Eighties, is now defunct.

It only left film lovers craving for more, having screened the works of masters such as Eisenstein, Fellini, Truffaut, Kurosawa and Godard.

The International Library and Cultural Centre also planned to start a film wing and has been screening films over the last two years.