Past Continuous

Only two of its four reels are now available with the National Film Archives of India,and even the authenticity of those is in question. Pune-based private collector Subhash Chedda claims that “those are the prints of a 1917-remake”.

But all is not lost. Some stills from the original film,photographs retrieved from negatives and those of Dadasaheb Phalke at work,which are part of 3,000 pieces of memorabilia,were carefully locked up in the old-fashioned cupboards in noted film historian and documentary filmmaker Bhagwan Das Garga’s sea-facing house in Goa. Along with them were other equally important historical photographs,slides of some short films,books on world cinema,magazines,handbills and a series of posters.

The Pandora’s box is now open. A project,initiated by the Delhi-based Indira Gandhi National Centre for Archives (IGNCA),aims to preserve and digitise this collection over the next few months and make it available for research and display. IGNCA has bought it from Donabelle Garga,the historian’s wife.

“Given the environment,there was a constant fear of damage. However,the meticulous man that Garga was,he had carefully stacked everything in cardboard boxes and done all he could do to take care of these,be it the material from Indian cinema or world cinema,” says Basharat Ahmed,Controller,IGNCA,pointing at a 1952 edition of a rare book on Charlie Chaplin. Ahmed assisted the committee that went to Goa to value the collection. A sum of Rs 2 crore has been paid to Garga’s wife for it.

Garga,who assisted V Shantaram on a series of projects,made over 50 documentaries and worked with various film units in Europe in the 1950s. He also served as the member of the Indian Film Advisory Board. His efforts to screen the second part of Russian film,Ivan the Terrible,are still considered admirable,as the film was banned by Stalin.

This meticulous collection was also sought by the Museum of Modern Art,New York,and a host of other museums abroad. “This collection is 60 years of work put together. It was used as a reference point for his writing and filmmaking. I know it was wanted by many museums abroad but my husband wanted the collection to stay in the country,” says Donabelle,who has also donated 10 cartons full of photos and other memorabilia to the Satyajit Ray Archive. The latter was housed at Nandan in Kolkata,and has now been moved to the Centenary Building there.

The restoration work is at the cataloguing stage right now. Before display,some footage from the collection,will go through physical and chemical cleaning to get rid of the dust on the film.

“We will be responsible for the preservation of the collection once the restoration is done,” says Ahmed,who is also excited about the possible surprises that the cataloguing process could throw up. “There might be some unseen photos,books and magazines,” he says.