Aashay film club turns 25

PUNE: One of the oldest film clubs in the city, Aashay film club enters its silver jubilee year on August 1. According to co-founder Satish Jakatdar, the film society/club scenehas changed in the city over the last three decades. With a growing number ofcinema lovers, there is a greater need to cater to their artistic tastes bygoing beyond mere film screenings.It all started with half a dozen cinema-crazy people like Satish Jakatdar, Prasannakumar Aklujkar, Pradeep Apte, Vandana Bhale, Deepak Deodhar, Prabhakar Wadekar and Mukund Sangoram, who needed no occasion to discuss the wonders of celluloid. Thus began Aashay Film Club on August 1, 1985. "We were a bunch of college friends, who gotaddicted to cinema. In depth discussion on French film noir, European classicsand Satyajit Ray, were routine. Later this addiction turned to passion and itbecame a mission for us. That's when we set up Aashay with barely 15 membersfrom all over the city," says co-founder Jakatdar.The very nextyear, the late Pu La Deshpande and his wife, Sunitabai became the club's lifemembers and brought along many more members into the fold, with the membershiprising to 400. Screening equipment like 16 mm and 35 mm film projectors werehired to screen films at venues like Kale Hall at Gokhale Institute of Politicsand Economics, the amphitheatre at Fergusson College, Lady Ramabai Hall and themain theatre at the Film and Television Institute of India."Aashay was able to create curiosity about world cinema among Pune's cinema lovers. We would get generous prints of world cinema from all over the world, through the embassies and consulates. We constantly held screenings for students at the University of Pune, S P College, Fergusson College and MES Garware College. Not to forget, week-long festivals held every year, each of which was dedicated to legendary filmmakers like Akira Kurasawa, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock and the like," says Jakatdar.Aashay survived due to interactiveprogrammes, says founder-chairman, Prasannakumar Aklujkar. "We held programmescombining cinema and other art forms like music, theatre, literature and dance,thus bringing together people to understand the linkage between the art forms.For instance, 'Granthbol,' a festival of Marathi comedy films, supported bylectures and a book exhibition, was held in the late 1980s. The club survivedbecause we showcased both parallel and world cinema, instead of focusing only onone aspect. Through generous donations from Pu La and Sharad Pawar in the 1990s,we were also able to buy our own 35 mm projectors," saysAklujkar.The club also held its first-ever course on film critiquingfor UoP's journalism students in 1995. "Through the late 1980s and early 1990s,we got good donations. But these days, it's not very easy to even get asponsorship for screening films," laments Jakatdar.With the onset ofglobalisation in the early 1990s, satellite network, cable TV and CDs arrived."This dealt a slight blow to our club activities as films began to be easilyavailable. Today, people can easily download films or watch them on DVDs andeven cell phones," says Jakatdar.But the Asian Film Festival thatAashay introduced in the city in 2004, began to receive positive response. "Itwent on till 2008, attended by over 3,000 delegates. This year, we are planningto organise it in December," he says.On the occasion of its 25thyear, the 1,800-odd members of Aashay have other programmes to look forward to.For instance, a festival on films adapted from the works of Nobel laureate,Rabindranath Tagore, and screenings of other Europeanclassics.