Celluloid Man

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• 2012
• 2 hr 44 mins
• Documentary

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Celluloid Man is a tribute to India's pioneering film archivist - P.K. Nair. Mr. Nair's fascination with cinema began as a child. He would collect ticket stubs, lobby cards, even weighing machine tickets sporting pictures of the stars of the day - and finally film cans. He grew up to be a great collector of films - and so the National Film Archive of India was born. He built the Archive can by can in a country where the archiving of cinema is considered unimportant. Thanks to Mr. Nair, the Archive still has nine precious silent films of the estimated 1338 silent films made in India, and Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema, has a place in history today. His encyclopaedic memory for film was legendary - he could tell you exactly in which reel of a film to find a particular scene. He influenced generations of filmmakers especially the Indian New Wave filmmakers such as Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Adoor Gopalakrishnan and John Abraham. As Mr. Nair speaks, we see the history of Indian cinema unfold, but also the tragic loss of this film heritage. The fact that India has a cinematic heritage at all is the singlehanded achievement of this man.