Retrieving the Past

The turbulent years before Independence,of hectic political activity and slogan shouting,were rarely filmed on moving camera.

The turbulent years before Independence,of hectic political activity and slogan shouting,were rarely filmed on moving camera. One would imagine that the precious little footage available from those times,giving us a glimpse into Indias freedom struggle would be preserved with care.

However,original film of Pandit Nehru in Congress sessions,delivering spee-ches,in discussions with Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi and of his private functions at his home were,unfortunately,stacked together in more than 2250 cans,and stored in a dusty room at the Nehru Memorial Trust and Library at Teen Murti House,Delhi. Other equally important historical footage,dating from 1934 was similarly stored and has been damaged over the years. Now,in a project initiated by the Nehru Memorial and the National Films Archives of India (NFAI),Pune,the footage will be digitised and restored over the next three months. The entire consignment consists of sound negatives,release prints and undocumented footage in 8mm,16mm and 35mm of Pandit Nehru. The Ministry of Culture has allocated Rs 2.5 crore for the restoration process.

I was visiting the Nehru Memorial when the authorities told me about these reels lying around. I asked them to send it to us and the consignment reached us just this month, says Vijay Jadhav,director,NFAI who has outsourced the restoration work to Reliance Media Labs. There is a lot of restoration work required and Reliance has some excellent technology and software. The NFAI will play a monitoring role with a technical committee that will examine and determine the progress from time to time, he adds.

The material had been lying with us for a really long time but I discovered it about two-and a half years ago. It was stored in a dump. So we set up a committee,got funds allocated,sorted out the reels and classified them before sending it in an air-conditioned truck to NFAI, said Mridula Mukherjee,director,Nehru Memorial Trust and Library.

The restoration is at the cataloguing stage and will go through a process of physical and chemical cleaning after which there will be an ultrasonic process to further get rid of the dust thats settled on the film. Then it will be made available for research and showcase.

The reels are badly damaged and the composition structure is extremely tough. We will be responsible for the preservation of the films once the restoration is done, said Jadhav who is also excited about the possible surprises that the restoration could throw up.

There might be some unseen footage of people involved with Pandit Nehru in the freedom struggle he adds. Once restored,the master copy of the digitised reels will be preserved by NFAI. A second copy will be sent to Nehru Memorial Trust and Library which will then decide about making the film commercially available.

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