When I was younger, obviously less wise and rather dogmatic, I considered the two extreme poles of cinema from the beginning: the fantasies of George Méliès or the first documentaries of the brothers Lumière as very disparate opposites. Here the cinematic realization of an old dream of human civilization to create an image of our world and this another old dream to tell invented stories about invented fantastic worlds. As I am getting older I rather think these opposites are both equal important and inspiring and important aspects of cinema. The ability of the cinematic apparatus to record reality and the other ability to entertain us with stories of imagination. And both aspects base on the very simple fact of the inaction of the human eyes of which results the illusion of movement.
While watching Raja Chatterjee´s remarkable Manick Kakur Camera, the film reminds me that cinema is always very much at the same time, first a scientific industrial invention but in what it can evoke between a certain perception of reality but also this feeling of being mesmerized by images and storytelling. As Chatterjee´s film is a kind of cinematic essay for children among so much other things about the technique and history of cinema it also reminds me in a very basic almost mythic fascination which goes back to our very first encounter with the big screen. If we are not able to preserve this primal experience in us, our interest and fascination in cinema would have already disappeared decades ago.
The film introduces an aging cinephile, Uncle Manick played by the charismatic Sabyasachi Chakraborty, an actor well known for the Feluda films by Sandip Ray or among others as the abusive Anglo-Indian husband in Anjan Dutt´s Bow Barracks forever. He has a kind of friendly teacher-student relationship with three boys from the neighborhood, Pikoo, Phatik and Mukul. As he tries to distract the boys from playing only with their smartphones, he suggests them a collaboration for a magazine and finally encourages them to make a short film. In Uncle Manick´s house there are a lot of fully packed book boards especially with books on cinema, Manick´s magic study is in itself an image for diversity and immense richness of cinema itself, an own realn where is still a lot to explore. He often lectures the boy about the history of the technology of cinema, its first ancestors like flip books or the Magic Lantern, to the first experiments with photography and finally the first film camera, the first cinematograph and the first projectors. For the children Uncle Manick´s home is both, a haven of learning but as well an almost fairy tale like place of innumerable wonders.The boys are fascinated by this universe where stories are born. What we often call a plot is here only the initiating point of several stories which are born like new stars in the endless clouds of cosmic nebular. But Manick is not only one of the leading characters in this film but also a kind of Conférencier and not only part of the films narration but partly the narrator himself.
The Kolkata in this film is sometimes recognizable, datable and geographical located but sometimes only with a slight change of light it turns almost into an engrossed place of imagination. One recognizes that the film takes place in the present but there is still the archaic fascination of imagination and storytelling which accompanies our civilizations from the very beginning. The photography is like the different acting styles and the soundtrack like a Chameleon. permanently changing almost between all possibilities of cinema. Sometimes, especially the scenes about the every day life of Pikoo and his parents, have the poetry of the mundane masterpieces of Ozu and even the music reminds me in this special house music used very often in Ozu´s films. The soundtrack changes between this, than classical music, music how it was used for silent slapstick comedies and other sound effects, and songs. Sometimes the background sound appears as almost three dimensional realistic, sometimes it is full of playful sound effects like the very first films made with sound.
As simple as the synopsis appears, the film goes through too many metamorphoses as one could describe in in a few sentences. There are for example some simple but incredible beautiful moments when the boys are sitting on a boardwalk or on the stairs of a house entrance, discussing their film project. These beautiful moments which seems rather just happening than being arranged and staged, or what André Bazin would have called “made with God as a co-director”, represent the beauty of simplicity in the art of cinema. Other scenes are colorized and also elements of animation, drawings and graphical effects are used. There is a kind of reflection on the dynamics of cinema, between the pure recording and confidence in what happens in front of the camera but also what one can create with the camera and all other image,- and sound devices.
The story the boys will invent for their short film project changes the film´s style again, the border between their reality and imagination becomes blurred. One can always feel free in what to do with this film, and and how to appreciate its wonders and wisdom. One can be enthusiastic about this firework of ideas about the poetry and beauty of cinema or one can get curious again about the aspects which makes this magic working at all. Manick Kapur Camera reminds me in other great films about magical storytellings, George Miller´s Three thousand Years of Longing or Raam Reddy´s The Fable. What these films have in common in all its curiosity and enchantment they evoke in me, is the quality of a magical but no less deep film-philosophical quest. They evoke in me also this very Proust-like memory of my first experience of seeings films on the big screen. When I was a kid I often could not decide what was more fascinating, the images on the screen or this abstract cluster of light rays thrown from the projector room like a whole galaxy of innumerable stars.
The three boys are what they are, imbedded in their specific culture but the more the film captivates my mind, they also seem to be three archetypical versions of ourselves. How their invented mobster story about kidnapping more and more invades the film reminds me in this age when we tried to continue and process an experience with a story or a film into children plays which also includes already a confrontation with their own fears.
Inspired by an essay for children by Satyajit Ray, Raja Chatterjee´s film is a cinematic journey of learning and fascination but also a kind of kaleidoscope of the almost 130 years of of cinema. But in all its playfulness and as much as it is appropriate for children it is as well for all ages a great essay about the fascination of cinema, especially in a time where cinema is threatened to disappear like never before in history. Despite this firework of ideas and the many hints to film history, the film has nevertheless the gravitation of a composed music piece. It might be an excellent introduction for children into the mystery and fascination of cinema but the film is as well a reminder why we still love cinema. For refreshing this old love, Manick Kapur Camera is exactly the right film. Even though Uncle Manick and the film can be enjoyed as a lecture but the gesture of Uncle Manick (and the film itself) is less didactic than stimulating our imagination and curiosity. The film evokes this very special and innocent wonder of our very first encounters with cinema but it evokes as well the memory of this fascinating condition when learning, the encounter with the wonders of poetry and finally the first confrontation with our fears and longings belonged together.
Rüdiger Tomczak
Thank you for this review
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