3 - Popular Melodrama as a Site of Resistance and Collaboration: Building Solidarities at the Afro-Asian Film Festival (1958–1964)

The spirit of the Bandung Conference in 1955 invigorated a rich tapestry of political, social and economic imperatives. Cultural forms like the cinema were part of the project to build solidarities.  In this paper, I explore the contribution of South Asian filmmakers to the Afro-Asian Film Festivals (AAFF) in Tashkent (1958), Cairo (1960) and Jakarta (1964). By analyzing the films submitted by South Asian filmmakers at AAFF from 1958- 1964, I seek to examine the postcolonial entanglements of commercial film industry with forms of radicalism, resistance and progressive collaboration. While international film festivals were crucial to boost the popularity of filmmakers in India and beyond, it is worth interrogating how and why popular genres like the social melodramas dominated as festival submissions. Filmmakers labelled as 'progressive’ or New Wave such as Satyajit Ray found favour with international festivals at Cannes and Venice, eyeing the west as a source of legitimacy and approbation. In contrast, the AAFF attracted films like Bhabhi (Sister-in Law by S. Panju and R. Krishnan) and Gruhdevta in Marathi (Family Deity by Madhav Shinde) alongside Tamil anticolonial action epic Veerapandiya Kattabomman (by B. R. Panthulu, 1959) and the Urdu film Baaghi (by Ashfaq Malik, 1956) submitted by Pakistan or the Sinhalese melodrama Vanaliya (by B.A.W. Jayamanne, 1958). By reading these films alongside archival materials like festival reports, brochures and film reviews, the paper aims to review the statist visions of South Asian popular culture where melodrama plays a key role in fostering broader non-aligned south-south solidarities.