Museum of Indian Cinema to open this year

The National Museum of Indian Cinema (MNIC), a first-ofits-kind in India, is set to open this year, ending a long wait of two decades.

The authorities will invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the museum that comprises 12 galleries and two theatres in two buildings on the campus of Films Division in Mumbai. “Finishing touches are being applied and the museum should be ready in three to four weeks. We’ll then submit a formal letter to the PMO seeking a date from the prime minister,” said Anil Kumar N, films division’s nodal officer for NMIC.

The buildings include the historic Gulshan Mahal and a newbuilt one. Kolkata-based National Council of Science Museums was entrusted with designing the museum and the galleries.

The museum was conceived in 1997. The restoration of Gulshan Mahal, where films division was born in 1948, started in 1998, along with building a collection of exhibits. However, various complications kept on impeding the process. The plan was revived in 2012, the year Indian cinema turned 100. The museum, including a new building, was to come up by 2014 but a series of changes in planning led to the delay.

“We are almost done and will hand over the museum to Films Division authorities very soon,” said NCSM’s Indranil Sanyal, who is heading the curation. “It’s a story telling museum. Here artifacts have been used to supplement the story,” Sanyal said.

Several vintage equipment used to produce some of India’s earliest documentaries, will be exhibited along with costumes the stars wore in iconic Bollywood scenes.

In Gulshan Mahal, the 19th century heritage bungalow, a sequential narration of the history of Indian cinema will be told through eight galleries.

The new building will house four large galleries. They are themed on cinema across India, technology and creativity in Indian cinema, children’ film studio and one on Gandhi in cinema.

The museum got several of its exhibits through donations, while they had to acquire some. The exhibits include early era camera, light, sound and editing equipment, costumes, posters, matchboxes containing photos of film stars, booklets and memorabilia. The museum is not collecting old films but will screen them regularly from the collection of the National Film Archive of India.

THE MUSEUM WAS CONCEIVED IN 1997. BUT COMPLICATIONS KEPT ON IMPEDING THE PROCESS. THE PLAN WAS AGAIN REVIVED IN 2012, THE YEAR INDIAN CINEMA TURNED 100

retired scientist with the Indian Agricultural Research Institute at Pusa in Delhi was found dead at his house on Thursday. The body had been infested with maggots suggesting he died several days ago but his two siblings, who lived in the same house, did not raise any alarm.

The death finally became known when a neighbour alerted the Pusa authorities about a stench coming from the house. When a police team entered the house after much resistance from his siblings, they found the 64-year-old scientist’s highly decomposed body on a broken folding cot. Police said his brother and a sister, both in their 60s, were allegedly mentally ill.

The scientist, Dr Yashvir Sood, died a natural death and may have been dead for at least four days, said Vijay Kumar, DCP (west). However, neighbours said they had been getting a foul smell for almost a week, but thought it was from the surrounding due to the rain. “It seems like the scientist had been dead for at least a week going by the stench and the extent of decomposition,” said Govind, a neighbour who works on the campus.

Sood retired as a principal scientist from the institute in March 2015. After he was asked to vacate the government quarters after his retirement, Sood began living in an abandoned quarter on the institute premises.

The three siblings had been living together for decades, said locals. The police said none of them was married. The family belonged to Himachal Pradesh.

DCP said Sood appeared to have died of malnutrition. His brother and sister too were in bad physical and mental shape and have been admitted at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Sciences, said the DCP.

“The three siblings had nothing to do with the outside world and preferred to live only in each other’s company. It is possible that the scientist’s siblings were not even aware of his death,” said the DCP.