:: IFFK 2008 ::

One of the most remarkable facets of cinema is that it is an introspective medium. Films don’t shy away from scrutinizing the social impact of the audio-visual medium. The television as an extension of cinema is not spared either. At the International Film festival in Kerala two competition films evaluate this modern invention from opposite perspectives.

In The Yellow House by Amor Hakkar, the television brings to a family a recorded message from a son who is now dead. A chance to see and hear from him is able to comfort them and reconcile them to their loss. On the other hand, Gulabi Talkies by Girish Kasaravalli speculates that the advent of television into the lives of a fishing community could be connected with a rise in communal tensions.

In The Yellow House, the television is a mechanism of positive change for the community. The fact that electricity is essential to view it drives them to ensure electrification of their home. So the television resolves not just its immediate purpose, but also signals a change for a better life. It unites the family as they sit in front of their set.

On the other hand, the television causes a breakdown in community life in Gulabi Talkies. It captivates the protagonist, Gulabi, who is so enchanted by her television that she neglects her duties and turns up late for work. For one of the characters, Netru, the represented reality of the television is so life-like she attempts to imitate it in her own, with tragic consequences. Initially, it is able to forge new bonds between the Hindu and Muslim communities, but over a period of time it escalates existing prejudices and suspicions.

It is interesting that for both these films the television is not a metaphor for modernity. They are not criticizing or celebrating modernity by implication. The central characters are well versed with that other symbol that defined the 20th century – the automobile. These films are commenting specifically on the television as an audio-visual medium.

Both films comment on the dependence of the device on electricity. In The Yellow House, the family has no access to electricity and so cannot immediately watch it. In Gulabi Talkies, immediately after the television is installed, a power failure prevents Gulabi from watching it. But this dependence has a different meaning in each film. While it means one more obstacle that a family would unite against and overcome in one, it becomes a metaphor for the enslaving potential of the idiot box in the other.

It is interesting to note that both the directors have chosen to film and frame the television in similar ways. In The Yellow House we watch a reflection of the family gathered around the set which cannot work because it is not connected to an electrical socket. This is before the television has worked its magic. Gulabi Talkies closes with two old women staring at the blank screen of a television that they don’t know how to operate. This scene occurs after the television has done all the damage it could.

At this festival Gulabi Talkies and The Yellow House are competing for a title, but on another level they are contesting how the television is to be perceived. Whether it has brought into our home images that are so moving that they help us grow emotionally or whether its seductive charms will bring all life to a standstill is a debate yet to be resolved.