Indian Express: National: Monday, July 02, 2018.
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| National Film Archive of India (NFAI) on Law College Road, Pune |
A report by a
filmmaker and a senior bureaucrat, who conducted a surprise inspection of the
film storage vaults at the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) in April, has
pulled up authorities of the Archive over several issues.
It was after
perusing this report that then Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti
Irani had decided to set up a five-member committee to probe the various issues
plaguing the NFAI, said sources in the ministry.
The three-page
preliminary report prepared by filmmaker Shaji N Karun and Joint Secretary, Ministry
of Information and Broadcasting, Ashok Kumar Parmar and accessed by The Indian
Express via the Right To Information (RTI) Act mentioned several shortcomings
in the upkeep of storage vaults, as well as in the functioning of the National
Film Heritage Mission (NFHM), a film preservation and restoration project by
the Centre. The report also recommended a detailed inquiry and proposed that
the utilisation of funds under the NFHM should be probed by a separate
committee to ascertain if the expenditure on the mission was productive.
The first
paragraph of the report, signed by Karun and Parmar, stated, “From the physical
assessment of the film storage vaults, it was felt that the maintenance of
vaults is not being done properly. Vaults no. 8, 10 and 11 were found to be
unclean and dusty. Even heritage films were found to be canned in rusty tins.
An early assessment is required to see how many of the films are affected by
the chemical deterioration through unacceptable archival conditions. The top
administration clearly lacked on this heritage mission, therefore the delay in
understanding the valued responsibility”.
The report
also pointed out the prevalence of ‘vinegar syndrome’ the decomposition of film
prints due to failure to maintain the ideal temperature and humidity in a
couple of vaults, and termed it a “complete failure on the NFAI’s part”.
“Vaults no. 8
and 11 suffer from acetate syndrome, which must not happen in any film archive
and displays a complete failure on the National Film Archive of India’s part.
The foul smell in the vaults is too strong and unbearable due to the vinegar
syndrome. It also means that other films kept in the same vault under ideal
conditions are being affected. It’s a serious question to probe this issue
immediately to know why this has happened at NFAI, an organisation responsible
for preserving films in ideal conditions. It needs intense action so that it
doesn’t happen again, and also to identify people who are responsible for this
irreversible loss,” stated the report.
The
preliminary report further pointed out issues such as lack of maintenance of
log books at the storage facility to record movement of film prints. “No log
books are maintained at the vaults, hence it’s not known if some decomposed
films are stored or removed form the vaults,” it stated.
The report
also criticised NFAI Director Prakash Magdum for “failing” to convene meetings
of the high-level committee on NFHM.
“The failure
of this has resulted in getting the advice… of the experts in right time. It
was the duty of the NFAI and its current director to undertake the
accountability of this high vision and its realisation, without the loss of the
time, as film is perishable material… The expert members’ views expressed at
the (HLC) meetings are very important since they are… only professional source
for NFAI, since its current director and OSD for this mission have no technical
qualification on the preservation of films,” stated the report.
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