The Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata recently screened the diploma films of the first batch of students who have passed out from the institute on May 24 at the Tata Theatre, NCPA in Mumbai.

The package of 7 films (An eighth film, Y2K, was not screened as it had faced censorship problems but surely the SRFTI could have shown it as an institute showing its body of work without worrying about censorship restrictions) made for interesting and varied viewing. Considering the enormous teething problems this institute has faced since its inception in 1996, it is to the SRFTI's credit that in its very first lot of diploma films, its films picked up three National Awards in the Non-Feature category.

The films screened ranged from the good to the ununderstandable to the disappointing. The two films that really stood out were the two National Award winners Bhor and Meena Jha, both of which made for extremely stimulating viewing while The Egotic Day in spite of some evocative imagery sailed way, way over one's head.

Bhor, directed by Rituparna Chudgar, look at a brother and sister living in the unfriendly city suffering from abject poverty. Poor and unhappy, they recall the days when they were happy and content. This takes them to the old house they once lived in, in the suburbs. As they reach there they find the house deserted with only an old man living there. The old man allows them to spend a night there. The pair who have come to find happiness in their memories find instead the past has something else in store for them... Bhor won the National Award for The Best Short Fiction Film and according to its director Rituparna, it works because somewhere it is a story of very real people - it could be you and me, she says.

Meena Jha, directed by Anjalika Sharma, is about two teenagers who study in a convent school in Kolkata.The girls are thrown together even though their dreams, realities and social set up are totally different from each other. Ayesha is easily bored and is always on the lookout for constant stimulation. In Meena she finds a listener, one who believes all her tales blindly, one who dreams and lives through her stories. The film which is warm, insightful and perceptive is a collage of shared expereiences, memories, dreams and realities held by what the director calls an 'unpredictable non-linear structure.'And herein lies the problem found in most of the films. As film students ae exposed to all kinds of film they always experiment with form and narrative structures. Not that it's anything negative, in fact its extremely healthy as they try to create their own brand of cinema, but on seeing films like Meena Jha one feels that it could have worked beautifully as a simple narrative film but its breaking of narrative flow and cutting to dream sequences and visual metaphors (student films all over the world are full of them!) seems too deliberate and contrived. However Meena Jha still engages you with its evocative camerawork by Amal Neerad C.R. and the inspired performances of the two girls playing Ayesha and Meena. The film won two National Awards - The Best Debut Film of a Director and a Special Mention for Cinematography.

Apart from Mumbai, The SRFTI films are going to be screened at the Kerala International Film Festival and plans are also afoot for these films to be screened at other major Indian cities. This is extremely heartening for the students to not only have their work seen by varied audiences but also to gauge the reaction to their work which is equally important to see if the film communicates with its audiences or not as it is meant to. The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune too used to screen their diploma films in the distant past but over the last many years this practice has unfortunately been stopped. Regular screenings like this certainly help in young film students getting exposure to their work and help in their growth as filmmakers and should definitely be encouraged and regularised.