SILCHAR, Aug 25 - A seminar-cum-film screening on the cinema of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, one of the doyens of Indian Cinema, was organised by the Film Club of the Department of English, Assam University on August 22.
The programme was aimed at celebrating the cinematic achievements of Gopalakrishnan, who played a seminal role in bringing Indian Cinema into the world stage for the last many decades and provide exposure to the students and cinephiles of the university to his unique style. Parthajit Baruah, a scholar on Adoor Gopalakrishnan�s work and an award winning documentary filmmaker himself, was the chief resource person for the programme.
On the other hand, Baruah�s recent book on Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Face-to-Face: The Cinema of Adoor Gopalakrishnan published by Harper Collins this year was also inaugurated on the occasion in the presence of Prof DK Pandya, the Vice-Chancellor in-charge, Prof A Rasak, Dean, SKC School of English and Foreign Language Studies and Prof Dipendu Das, Head, Department of English.
Known for his award winning documentaries like Laxmi Orang: Rising from the Grave and The Dhemaji Tragedy, Baruah seemed quite at home in the sphere of academics.
He delivered a lecture before the students and cinephiles on Adoor�s use of metaphors and symbols in his films. Besides, he also screened a few clips from the opening sequences of Adoor�s films like Swayamvaram (One�s Own Choice), Vidheyan (The Servile) and Kodiyettam (The Ascent) to demonstrate how in good cinema the image itself, rather than dialogues, becomes a means of communication loaded with meaning. Baruah shared his understanding of the great filmmaker�s art with the students.
Prof A Rasak, who hails from Adoor Gopalakrishnan�s home State, said that a programme celebrating Gopalakrishnan�s films being held in Barak Valley with an Assamese resource person far away from Kerala itself bears testimony to the lasting influence of the filmmaker in Indian as well as world cinema.
Prof DK Pandya, the Vice-Chancellor in-charge encouraged the efforts of the Film Club towards building a culture of film appreciation in the valley through such a programme.
