Cultural Connect
The Goa State Cultural Awards on Sunday was full of surprises, and pleasant ones at that. Given that it is a State government event, the function went off seamlessly with no glitches, except a short power disruption, which, in any case was well beyond the purview of the Directorate of Art and Culture. The chief guest—actor Anupam Kher, in this case—arrived well on time, and the Minister Dayanand Mandrekar was seated and waiting much in advance of the 4.30 pm assigned for the start. State functions are usually tedious affairs, full of verbose speeches overloaded with clichéd hyperbole. Mercifully, not so on Sunday. No time was wasted between time assigned to each awardee on stage; everyone said his piece in as brief a manner possible, and even the lady compère was professional to the core. Credit for organising and conceptualising the programme we are told, is owed to the director of art and culture Prasad Lolayekar who, quite out of character with what one has come to expect of government agencies, has managed to put together a core team in his department that is assigned specific responsibilities which they see through quite diligently. The tenor and tone of the programme drew praise from Kher too, who said after all such events he’s attended the world over, this one stood out for its “quiet dignity”.
It is apparently no coincidence that good and honest management have earned the art and culture department the ISO certification in four different sectors last year, making it the first government department in the world to do so. The State too deserves praise for raising the award money that goes to a gamut of personalities from the arts, literary, theatre and music fields, from the meagre Rs 20,000 earlier, to the current Rs 50,000 apiece. The obvious question though is, why do other government departments in Goa not function half as well as art and culture? The semi autonomous Entertainment Society of Goa would make a fair comparison. The ESG which has just a single 11-day event to handle—the smaller festivals and film shows are hardly challenging—has been embroiled in controversy it has been unable to shake off, either under the Congress or BJP governments.
The huge swirl of funds, the porous system of accountability, and the notion that everyone on the ESG committees is welcome to hitch the free rides at public expense have been at the heart of the deliberate mismanagement of the state level film festival society. The 9th general body headed by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar last year scaled up the ESG’s budget to Rs 34.86 crore, taking it three times higher than the previous year. A statement presented in the State Legislative Assembly session earlier this year pegged the IFFI 2012 bill at Rs 7.06 cr. But the growing legion of ESG critics have pointed out that the final bill would be closer to Rs 15 cr, given that just the temporary hangar put up for the opening and closing ceremonies of the film festival cost the State Rs 2 cr. Another Rs 5 cr had been budgeted for the peripheral entertainment that has become the Goa film festival’s de rigeur road show, though a connection with cinema is hard to fathom.
Rather than splurge much needed public funds on turning Goa into an entertainment destination by sponsoring mindless mega events on the tourist coast, the Goa government would do well to help nurture the creative arts and support events like the Goa Arts and Literary Festival organised by the International Centre, Goa. One would rather see Goa on the international travel map for the D D Kosambi Festival of Ideas and the Monte Music Festival, than the noise defying beach grinds. The Goa University’s visiting research professors’ programme is a good start to opening Goan students and others to another level of ideas and creative thinking. One hopes this is just the beginning…
