A glance at folk traditions

St Aloysius Degree College recently celebrated ‘Journalism Day’, where the students were given presentations about folk media — that is, traditional forms of communication like folk theatre and the like — and its implications in today’s society. This was followed by a centenary celebration of Indian cinema, which took the students on a journey through the 100 glorious years of film-making.

The event began with a talk on folk media and a dandiya performance. Contemporary media was compared to the traditional form of communicating and enriching open discussions with the students ensued.

“I felt that today’s programme added to my knowledge about journalism and folk media, in ways that are not covered in our curriculum. It was very enjoyable and educational,” shares Amal, a final-year student of St Aloysius Degree College.

Other than the host college, four other colleges of the City attended the event – Baldwin Women’s Methodist College, Sacred Heart College, Goodwill Christian College for Women and St Hopkins College.

A faculty member of the college gave the presentation on Indian cinema. She spoke about the various definitions of our cinema, its history and the days of black-and-white films, focussing mostly on the golden era between the 50s and 60s. The second half of the presentation revolved around the evolution of cinema from the yesteryears to what it is today. Mention was given to the fact that even the themes explored have moved from issues like caste and culture to more youth-centric topics. “It’s been an enlightening day.

It was nice that the focus was on Indian cinema because a century of films is worth understanding more about. I hope to attend more such informative programmes in the future,” says Neha Susan George, a student of Sacred Heart College.

The presentation also took the listeners for a walk through the different regional film industries that make up Indian cinema in its entirety — Bollywood (Hindi), Mollywood (Malayalam), Tollywood (Telugu) and Kollywood (Tamil) among others.

“Folk media today is losing its effect on people, especially the youngsters. Today has been an attempt to revive that tradition and create awareness among the students about it,” explains Maria Mark Alexander, the principal of the college.

“It also seemed an apt occasion to combine journalism day with a tribute to Marathi icon Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema, who gave India its first film,” he concludes.