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The history of Tamil cinema takes root from the film 'Keesaga Vadham' made by Mr.Rangaswamy Nataraja Mudaliar, released in 1918. As Nataraja Mudhaliar started his firm in 1916, there is a notion that Tamil cinema's centenary year is 2016 (or 2018..!?).   In1927, the world's first talkie film, 'The Jazz Singer' was released. Four years later came the first Tamil talkie film, 'Kalidas' directed by Mr.H.M.Reddy. Wikipedia says that till date,more than 5000 films have been made after Kalidas. Many directors, cinematographers, actors, musicians, technical experts have risen and have contributed a lot of great movies. Cinema industry has produced innumerable leaders and crazy fanatics on an infinite scale. Tamil cinema have the charisma that can turn the fanatics into devotees. Although it possesses such an exceptional fandom, the striking truth is Tamil cinema owns no traces of it's historical record. 

The history of any particular field is depicted by the impact created by itself in the path, in which it travelled and the way it evolved. If so, what is the historical trace of Tamil cinema? From Keesaga Vadham to today's Kabali,all the movies are no doubt, the products of Tamil cinema and it is understood that these products some way have historical significance. If so, the next obvious question is 'where are those records?' On attempting to seek the answer, we clearly get to know that there is no such record.

In Tamil cinema there was never an attempt to preserve it, for the sake of inheriting it to the future generations.    Be it parallel films or commercial films,out of 5000, only some hundred movies have the adequacy to stand still for ages.Even those 100 movies are unavailable to us.If we get some,they will be of poor quality. Only some 10-20 films that have been converted into 'Telecine' formats suitable for televisions are available today. There are no files in HD,Blueray formats,because no such thing was made. Hence,the cult classics of Tamil cinema have neither been preserved nor been stored in any medium for future generations.

Eminent filmmaker Mr.Balumahendra repeatedly insisted to establish a Film Archive for Tamil cinema without any delay. 'The National Film Archieve of India' was started in 1964 at Pune that serves as a warehouse for the films that won National awards,participated in Foreign Film festivals, did well in the box office and good documentaries. Foreign countries maintain Film Archieves, whereby all movies have been converted into digital HD formats and stored.Almost, any movie of them can be found in the internet.

But here,Tamil film industry owns nothing. Not even Balu Mahendra's films are available in good quality,which he himself has quoted with sadness. The high quality copy of his National award winning venture 'Veedu' is unavailable to us, not only in celluloid but also in digital form. 'Devar magan' is another movie for which the high quality copy is still something that I have been searching for.

We have no proper understanding on this concept. That is why we have not even preserved 100 films. If we understand the significance of preserving them has to be done immediately or else it will become impossible forever. Storing film negatives is one method, whereas storing the release print is another. In the present day's technological progression, the film negatives or their release prints can be scanned and stored as 'Digital files', from which multiple copies can be made.

At the same time, the film negative or release print of many movies are almost extinct. Some movies can be stored only if we try a bit hard to do so,which has to be done immediately without any delay. The reason is, generally after the theatrical run, the negatives and release prints of any movie will be given to its production company. They will be kept in the film labs,in which they were processed. Every lab will have air-conditioned vaults, where the negatives and prints are stored on a rental basis paid by the production company. But this practise does not take place these days and the producers do not understand the importance of storing them. So the negatives stay unused in the labs with absolutely no concern. Those labs were also closed few years ago.

India's well-renowned 'Prasad Lab',which has done the post-production works of many Indian movies has been closed.I myself have seen the prints of many films there. 'Gemini Lab' has also stopped functioning and has been refurbished into digital processing centre.Hence,attention has to be given to the negatives and prints immediately or else they will get permanently damaged.

'Film Scanner' is the device used to convert the films made in celluloid into digital formats.Digital copies can be obtained from the film negatives and release prints by scanning them.Those digital files are then color corrected and copies are made for digital screening purpose.Those scanners have become useless these days.Just the way all labs were closed,due to the arrival of digital technology the scanners also lost their purpose.Equipments that cost many crores are kept unused as furniture in many places,which may soon be discarded as scrap. The problem now is,the classic celluloid films can be converted into digital format only by using these scanners.

I hope that you might have got a clear picture of how quick we must retain the negatives from the labs that have been closed and convert them into digital files. For that,initially we must select the best films, consult the respective producers and get to know about the current situation of those films. The negatives or release prints of those films must be collected and then film restoration has to be done to clean the dust and dirt from the celluloid print. A 3m coating will be given over it to cover the scratches and get high quality digital files. So this has to be done before the equipments in the labs get completely spoilt. The expenditure required for this can be acquired from the government or film personalities can raise funds within themselves. This process will not demand a huge amount, but only a few crores, Film associations or any individual from the film industry can take the initiative.

We have another important task to do. It is to interview our senior artists and technicians and record their wisdom and experience. Most foreign countries have uploaded such interviews on the internet. Those interviews do not focus on cheap, clichéd questions, but unravels the artistic and technical aspects of their movies. Many of our eminent filmmakers and artists are in their old age, so such interviews have to be made as soon as possible. Unfortunately,we lose some of our legendary senior artists every year. Recently it was Balu Mahendra, whose charisma and wisdom has not been documented properly. This must also be taken care by the film associations and film buff.

Be it any particular field or a country, the fundamental of it's progression lies in recording it's history and acquiring knowledge from it. In that case, Tamil cinema has to learn from it's predecessors. We must realize the fact that conserving the creations and the words of those creators will remain as the invaluable lessons.

Author:

Vijay Armstrong

Author/cinematographer