Reel life in the dark room of Emergency

It didn't take even three decades for the sovereign democratic Republic of India to face a nation-wide internal Emergency (June 25, 1975-March 21, 1977), which in practice meant democratic despotism and electoral autocracy.

- Amrit Gangar

Both paradoxical and contradictory in terms, when film producers, directors and artistes saw how their freedom was clipped while the censorial scissors became extra-constitutionally sharper in the hands of an elected despot.

After the Emergency got over, the newly elected Janata Party government at the Centre published a White Paper on Misuse of Mass Media During the Internal Emergency in August 1977, that listed all branches of mass media (including cinema) and examined how their rights were violated through the reckless abuse of power.

My story begins with two instances from Southern India that the White Paper did not mention. Incidentally, on the very day of the clamping of the draconian Emergency, i.e., June 25, 1975, a Kannada film was winding up its shooting while a Malayalam film project was being launched in Bengaluru; the Malayalam film crew was in the Karnataka capital because at that time the State government was offering a subsidy of ₹50,000 to producers who made films in that state. The Malayalam film was Kabani Nadi Chuvannappol (When the Kabani River Turned Red, 1975). The director of the film, P.A. Backer, and its producer, Pavi-

thran, are no more, but I spoke with TV Chandran, who debuted as an actor in