The ‘Malayalam Subtitle for Everyone’ movement that made world cinema accessible

Just like the Malayalam film industry, the film societies in the state did not really have a good time in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. Many societies stopped functioning with dwindling memberships. The growth of satellite television channels hastened the process. But the seeds of their revival were in the digital revolution that was just round the corner.

It might seem counterintuitive but the film society movement witnessed a revival in the mid-2000s, at a time when high-speed broadband Internet and torrent websites became ubiquitous, giving people access to almost any film from any corner of the world. But this easy access to film did kindle ideas in some for community viewing of world cinema and inculcating a taste for good cinema in the masses.

The Open Frame Film Society was one such society founded in Payyannur in Kannur district in 2005. Within a few years, it did something which would revolutionize and democratize film screenings at the grassroots level, creating Malayalam subtitles for world cinema. Years ago, Doordarshan had begun subtitling award-winning Indian films in regional languages, but classics from outside the country remained out of reach for many.

P. Premachandran, a school teacher who has been an active member of Open Frame...

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