Aruna Vasudev A Diminutive Colossus, A Great Giver (1 November 1936 – 5 September 2024)
Widely ... more Aruna Vasudev A Diminutive Colossus, A Great Giver (1 November 1936 – 5 September 2024)
Widely regarded as the mother of Asian Cinema, Aruna Vasudev was a renowned Indian film scholar, critic, curator, and painter who significantly promoted Asian films globally. She founded Cinemaya: The Asian Film Quarterly in 1988 and Cinefan: The Festival of Asian Cinema in 1999. A teacher and a mentor to many a young cineaste, she chose to depart on a Teachers’ Day in India, i.e. on 5th September 2024 in New Delhi. Vasudev’s commitment to the Asian Cinema (without any compromise on aesthetics and excellence) was unshaken. She didn’t stop at founding NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) in 1991 to forward the cause of Asian cinema but also co-edited a massive tome Being & Becoming: The Cinemas of Asia, covering over 30 Asian countries, including India.
The film, Taking the Horse to Eat Jalebis, directed by Anamika Haksar, serves as a living archive... more The film, Taking the Horse to Eat Jalebis, directed by Anamika Haksar, serves as a living archive, capturing the essence of the once-sovereign city of Shahajahanabad as it observes the unfolding spectacle. The narrative delves into the anatomy of autobiographies, preserving the robust human hopes that have sustained over time within the historical context of the city.Chala
Shahani' s feature film Tarang, in Cinemascope, in its elliptical form, if viewed from the end to... more Shahani' s feature film Tarang, in Cinemascope, in its elliptical form, if viewed from the end towards the beginning could carry Rigvedic resonances but if viewed from the beginning towards the end, it, to my mind, has Marxian elucidation of Surplus Value, which is explicit in its English title, Wages and Profits. While thinking of Taran of Maya Darpan (1972) and the title Tarang (1984), a thought also travels across the twelve-yearslong forest of organic unity-of a thought, of a stream of consciousness. Taran of Maya
What Viola promises to us is a possibility of integrating new technologies into a new vision. He ... more What Viola promises to us is a possibility of integrating new technologies into a new vision. He makes us aware of their immense philosophical potential. “The new technologies of image-making are by necessity bringing us back to fundamental questions, whether we want to face them or not. The development of schemes for the creation of images with computers is an investigation into the structure and fabric of the world we observe and participate in.” Questions of form, visual appearance, and the ‘how’ of image-making drop away once an artist is faced with the content of the direct images and sounds of life in his daily practice, he says.
“Spend time with a video camera and you will confront some of the primary images: What is this fleeting image called life? Why are we here sharing the living moment, a moment that is past yet present? And why are the essential elements of life change, movement, and transformation, but not stability, immobility, and constancy?” Perhaps we need to imbue new technologies this philosophical dimension so that their ruthless commercial teeth don’t chew us up completely. And maybe we need to blend why and how into a new ‘scientific’ vision that our time-in-transition requires. A new cocktail. Maybe, with the Newtonian apple’s juice added in. Viola’s work is an effort to unify perception and ontology.
Sanjukta Wagh’s choreography comprehends multiple layers within the cinematographic narrative. Th... more Sanjukta Wagh’s choreography comprehends multiple layers within the cinematographic narrative. There are several versions of the Brahma-Saraswati myth, one of which mentions that after the creation of the cosmic universe by Lord Brahma, a great pandemonium reigned supreme in the cosmos. But Brahma felt bewildered for he realized that his cosmic universe was bereft of order, conception and configuration. He created the embodiment of wisdom and art. Goddess Saraswati emerged from his mouth. This myth also connects us with Pushkar in Rajasthan. Yes, dear readers, we are still watching the film without any narrative disruption, into the nights, black and white, dark and bright, dreamy and nightmarish, past and present, the film takes us through without resorting to the conventional flashbacks and flashforwards, using only 50mm normal and sparsely 80mm telephoto lenses – all block lenses and no zooming. This aspect is significant to understand its aesthetics. Temporal and spatial movements take us from Dostoevsky’s Saint Petersburg to Majaaz’s Lucknow, ‘Majaaz, the Keats of Urdu poetry’ as Gulmohar describes it to Gomti in the nocturnal city surrounded by a leaping water fountain and neon-lights. Gomti navigates the city’s narrow streets every night, she is followed by Gulmohar in the beginning and then awaited restlessly. Eventually both come closer and keep unfolding the secrets of their personal lives bit by bit, night by night
Cinema of Prayōga is a conceptual framework that locates the history of experimental film in Indi... more Cinema of Prayōga is a conceptual framework that locates the history of experimental film in India within an ancient pre-modern tradition of innovation, of prayōga. Cinema of Prayōga is a theory of filmic practice, which challenges the dominant forms of filmic expression in contemporary India, including the all-pervading contemporary Bollywood or the social realism of Indian New Wave. Cinema of Prayōga celebrates a cinematographic idiom that is deeply located in the polyphony of Indian philosophy and cultural imagination. It attempts to reconfigure the generally accepted notion of the experimental and the avant-garde in Indian cinema by conjuring the term ‘Prayōga’ from Indian philosophical thought. Etymologically, the term prayōga in Sanskrit refers to a theory of practice that emphasizes the potential of any form of contemplation – ritualistic, poetic, mystic, aesthetic, magical, mythical, physical or alchemical. In cinema, it is a practice of filmic interrogation that is devised as a quest toward a continuing process in time and space. This is a cinema that in contrast to mainstream formulations anywhere else in the world, employs Indian music, poetry, mythology and performance to examine the relationship between their status as filmic texts and the ‘fictions-in-progress’ of their subjects.
Celebrating a centenary of a letter or letters by any filmmaker/s written to a production company... more Celebrating a centenary of a letter or letters by any filmmaker/s written to a production company / studio or producer produces a fascinating curatorial curiosity and engagement as they reveal the background processes behind how certain films were made. Once their authenticity and provenance are ascertained, they provide first-hand information and knowledge. Generally, in India, we don’t think of undertaking such engagements though opportunities and instances are not inadequate.
We can find some common resonances through the letters written by Carl Theodor Dreyer and Ritwik Ghatak to the bosses of film companies / studios where they were employed. The letters provide us certain insights into the ‘rules of the game’ at play and the ‘idealism’ walking a tight rope walks.
In his writings, Ritwik Ghatak often refers to Fellini, ‘La dolce vita’ (1960) and 'Patricia' mus... more In his writings, Ritwik Ghatak often refers to Fellini, ‘La dolce vita’ (1960) and 'Patricia' music which he had 'quoted' in his film ‘Subarnarekha’ (1962) in a bar scene. He brings together both 'Patricia' music and 'Sanskrit' scripture very piercingly and’poignantly as inebriated Haraprasad indulges in the Upanishadic story of the dialogue between Yama and Nachiketas.
With reference to his film Uski Roti, its director Mani Kaul talks about the three states of bein... more With reference to his film Uski Roti, its director Mani Kaul talks about the three states of being or avasthā: jagrit (waking), suhsupt (sleeping or deep sleep) and swapna (dreaming), which we find in the inner and outer being of Balo, wife of the bus driver Sucha Singh for whom she prepares roti (for lunch) and walks two miles from her house to a bus-stand at noon, waiting for him to arrive and pick up the roti wrapped in cloth. It is in this anticipatory time in space (her mind) that the three avastha linger on, perceptively touching us, the viewers, as the film itself moves through its image (volumes of interior-exterior landscape, and light created by lenses and sources), sound textures and the choreographies of eyes (gazes) and hands (filled or unfilled, inert or active). As a work of cinematography, Uski Roti, respects and upholds the autonomy of the short story, a work of literary art. Kaul would evolve a relationship with an art form (literature, music or painting) without distorting the actual.
In retrospect and for me yet more fascinating story is about Gulammohammed Sheikh’s six Gujarati ... more In retrospect and for me yet more fascinating story is about Gulammohammed Sheikh’s six Gujarati poems set to Western music by Bhatia, this was an unprecedented confluence of the two arts. Sheikh had ‘composed’ his six Jaisalmer poems in Gujarati after he visited this magical desert town in Rajasthan sixty years ago along with another eminent painter-writer Bhupen Khakhar, also from Baroda. Way back then, they were not so well-known but were definitely moving towards their global fame and recognition, they did, over the years, scaling great creative heights.
At 94, Bhatia was busy with his operatic thoughts, at 87; Sheikh is still producing a massive output of prose and poetry both in Gujarati and English, along with his paintings. It would be interesting to see how the painter-poet and the music composer first met and how the poems were composed. Here is a dialogic exploration. - AG
FD Zone Films Division, 2013
100 Years of Experimentation 1913-2013: From Phalke to Prayoga
Disco... more FD Zone Films Division, 2013 100 Years of Experimentation 1913-2013: From Phalke to Prayoga DiscourseLocatios FormSELF-REFLECTIVE INERSECTIONIndian RootsINADEQUACYTension CONVERSATION IDIOSYNCRATIC PrayogINTERVENTION
A Memory. A Reference. A History.
A three-day (FD Zone, 28-29-30 June 2013) retrospective program curated by the film practitioners Ashish Avikunthak and Pankaj Rishi Kumar.
The eight-page brochure presented herewith provides the details along with the introductory Curatorial Concept Note.
This retrospective was held at the Films Division, RR Theatre, 10th floor, Mumbai.
It is the way Ghatak situates the physical volumes of his characters’ presences in the spatial ex... more It is the way Ghatak situates the physical volumes of his characters’ presences in the spatial expanse of the frame, which is significant; eminence of which, to my mind, is unprecedented in the history of Indian cinema. It, in a way, defies the arrogance of the human-centric world, creating a different spatial gravity. Ghatak was aware of the properties of the lens and hence his employment of the wide angle remains extraordinary. He was a lensing philosopher, i would like to call him; perhaps, another was his disciple, Mani Kaul.
However, looking at and feeling the ākāsa / space in Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s films, i increasingly feel there is an affinity to Ritwik Ghatak’s cinematographic conscience, in its recurrence and resuscitation. For Ghatak, ākāsa was abhed, uncloven and undivided and that evoked his dream of a unified Bengal. In Dasgupta’s cinematography, ākāsa too seem to be unifying joys and sorrows into a new poetic spatial expanse, a pastoral landscape!
The akhārā of Mekan near the serene Haba hills of surrounding the village of Dhrang in Gujarat’s ... more The akhārā of Mekan near the serene Haba hills of surrounding the village of Dhrang in Gujarat’s Kutch district is an interesting place. This is where the maverick saint, Mekan lived and worked 270 years ago, accompanied by his two trusted and understanding companions – Lalio, the donkey and Motio, the dog.
Lalio and Motio were much more than a mere subaltern Sancho Panza-Rocinante combination. The two sensitive and intelligent ‘animals’ were Mekan’s life-long friends. He was very proud of them, and once said, “The virtuous Lako and Motio are like my brothers; even the most perfect of men cannot match those two animals.”
Interview with Amrit Gangar, a Mumbai-based independent writer, film theorist, curator and histor... more Interview with Amrit Gangar, a Mumbai-based independent writer, film theorist, curator and historian.
Aruna Vasudev A Diminutive Colossus, A Great Giver (1 November 1936 – 5 September 2024)
Widely ... more Aruna Vasudev A Diminutive Colossus, A Great Giver (1 November 1936 – 5 September 2024)
Widely regarded as the mother of Asian Cinema, Aruna Vasudev was a renowned Indian film scholar, critic, curator, and painter who significantly promoted Asian films globally. She founded Cinemaya: The Asian Film Quarterly in 1988 and Cinefan: The Festival of Asian Cinema in 1999. A teacher and a mentor to many a young cineaste, she chose to depart on a Teachers’ Day in India, i.e. on 5th September 2024 in New Delhi. Vasudev’s commitment to the Asian Cinema (without any compromise on aesthetics and excellence) was unshaken. She didn’t stop at founding NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) in 1991 to forward the cause of Asian cinema but also co-edited a massive tome Being & Becoming: The Cinemas of Asia, covering over 30 Asian countries, including India.
The film, Taking the Horse to Eat Jalebis, directed by Anamika Haksar, serves as a living archive... more The film, Taking the Horse to Eat Jalebis, directed by Anamika Haksar, serves as a living archive, capturing the essence of the once-sovereign city of Shahajahanabad as it observes the unfolding spectacle. The narrative delves into the anatomy of autobiographies, preserving the robust human hopes that have sustained over time within the historical context of the city.Chala
Shahani' s feature film Tarang, in Cinemascope, in its elliptical form, if viewed from the end to... more Shahani' s feature film Tarang, in Cinemascope, in its elliptical form, if viewed from the end towards the beginning could carry Rigvedic resonances but if viewed from the beginning towards the end, it, to my mind, has Marxian elucidation of Surplus Value, which is explicit in its English title, Wages and Profits. While thinking of Taran of Maya Darpan (1972) and the title Tarang (1984), a thought also travels across the twelve-yearslong forest of organic unity-of a thought, of a stream of consciousness. Taran of Maya
What Viola promises to us is a possibility of integrating new technologies into a new vision. He ... more What Viola promises to us is a possibility of integrating new technologies into a new vision. He makes us aware of their immense philosophical potential. “The new technologies of image-making are by necessity bringing us back to fundamental questions, whether we want to face them or not. The development of schemes for the creation of images with computers is an investigation into the structure and fabric of the world we observe and participate in.” Questions of form, visual appearance, and the ‘how’ of image-making drop away once an artist is faced with the content of the direct images and sounds of life in his daily practice, he says.
“Spend time with a video camera and you will confront some of the primary images: What is this fleeting image called life? Why are we here sharing the living moment, a moment that is past yet present? And why are the essential elements of life change, movement, and transformation, but not stability, immobility, and constancy?” Perhaps we need to imbue new technologies this philosophical dimension so that their ruthless commercial teeth don’t chew us up completely. And maybe we need to blend why and how into a new ‘scientific’ vision that our time-in-transition requires. A new cocktail. Maybe, with the Newtonian apple’s juice added in. Viola’s work is an effort to unify perception and ontology.
Sanjukta Wagh’s choreography comprehends multiple layers within the cinematographic narrative. Th... more Sanjukta Wagh’s choreography comprehends multiple layers within the cinematographic narrative. There are several versions of the Brahma-Saraswati myth, one of which mentions that after the creation of the cosmic universe by Lord Brahma, a great pandemonium reigned supreme in the cosmos. But Brahma felt bewildered for he realized that his cosmic universe was bereft of order, conception and configuration. He created the embodiment of wisdom and art. Goddess Saraswati emerged from his mouth. This myth also connects us with Pushkar in Rajasthan. Yes, dear readers, we are still watching the film without any narrative disruption, into the nights, black and white, dark and bright, dreamy and nightmarish, past and present, the film takes us through without resorting to the conventional flashbacks and flashforwards, using only 50mm normal and sparsely 80mm telephoto lenses – all block lenses and no zooming. This aspect is significant to understand its aesthetics. Temporal and spatial movements take us from Dostoevsky’s Saint Petersburg to Majaaz’s Lucknow, ‘Majaaz, the Keats of Urdu poetry’ as Gulmohar describes it to Gomti in the nocturnal city surrounded by a leaping water fountain and neon-lights. Gomti navigates the city’s narrow streets every night, she is followed by Gulmohar in the beginning and then awaited restlessly. Eventually both come closer and keep unfolding the secrets of their personal lives bit by bit, night by night
Cinema of Prayōga is a conceptual framework that locates the history of experimental film in Indi... more Cinema of Prayōga is a conceptual framework that locates the history of experimental film in India within an ancient pre-modern tradition of innovation, of prayōga. Cinema of Prayōga is a theory of filmic practice, which challenges the dominant forms of filmic expression in contemporary India, including the all-pervading contemporary Bollywood or the social realism of Indian New Wave. Cinema of Prayōga celebrates a cinematographic idiom that is deeply located in the polyphony of Indian philosophy and cultural imagination. It attempts to reconfigure the generally accepted notion of the experimental and the avant-garde in Indian cinema by conjuring the term ‘Prayōga’ from Indian philosophical thought. Etymologically, the term prayōga in Sanskrit refers to a theory of practice that emphasizes the potential of any form of contemplation – ritualistic, poetic, mystic, aesthetic, magical, mythical, physical or alchemical. In cinema, it is a practice of filmic interrogation that is devised as a quest toward a continuing process in time and space. This is a cinema that in contrast to mainstream formulations anywhere else in the world, employs Indian music, poetry, mythology and performance to examine the relationship between their status as filmic texts and the ‘fictions-in-progress’ of their subjects.
Celebrating a centenary of a letter or letters by any filmmaker/s written to a production company... more Celebrating a centenary of a letter or letters by any filmmaker/s written to a production company / studio or producer produces a fascinating curatorial curiosity and engagement as they reveal the background processes behind how certain films were made. Once their authenticity and provenance are ascertained, they provide first-hand information and knowledge. Generally, in India, we don’t think of undertaking such engagements though opportunities and instances are not inadequate.
We can find some common resonances through the letters written by Carl Theodor Dreyer and Ritwik Ghatak to the bosses of film companies / studios where they were employed. The letters provide us certain insights into the ‘rules of the game’ at play and the ‘idealism’ walking a tight rope walks.
In his writings, Ritwik Ghatak often refers to Fellini, ‘La dolce vita’ (1960) and 'Patricia' mus... more In his writings, Ritwik Ghatak often refers to Fellini, ‘La dolce vita’ (1960) and 'Patricia' music which he had 'quoted' in his film ‘Subarnarekha’ (1962) in a bar scene. He brings together both 'Patricia' music and 'Sanskrit' scripture very piercingly and’poignantly as inebriated Haraprasad indulges in the Upanishadic story of the dialogue between Yama and Nachiketas.
With reference to his film Uski Roti, its director Mani Kaul talks about the three states of bein... more With reference to his film Uski Roti, its director Mani Kaul talks about the three states of being or avasthā: jagrit (waking), suhsupt (sleeping or deep sleep) and swapna (dreaming), which we find in the inner and outer being of Balo, wife of the bus driver Sucha Singh for whom she prepares roti (for lunch) and walks two miles from her house to a bus-stand at noon, waiting for him to arrive and pick up the roti wrapped in cloth. It is in this anticipatory time in space (her mind) that the three avastha linger on, perceptively touching us, the viewers, as the film itself moves through its image (volumes of interior-exterior landscape, and light created by lenses and sources), sound textures and the choreographies of eyes (gazes) and hands (filled or unfilled, inert or active). As a work of cinematography, Uski Roti, respects and upholds the autonomy of the short story, a work of literary art. Kaul would evolve a relationship with an art form (literature, music or painting) without distorting the actual.
In retrospect and for me yet more fascinating story is about Gulammohammed Sheikh’s six Gujarati ... more In retrospect and for me yet more fascinating story is about Gulammohammed Sheikh’s six Gujarati poems set to Western music by Bhatia, this was an unprecedented confluence of the two arts. Sheikh had ‘composed’ his six Jaisalmer poems in Gujarati after he visited this magical desert town in Rajasthan sixty years ago along with another eminent painter-writer Bhupen Khakhar, also from Baroda. Way back then, they were not so well-known but were definitely moving towards their global fame and recognition, they did, over the years, scaling great creative heights.
At 94, Bhatia was busy with his operatic thoughts, at 87; Sheikh is still producing a massive output of prose and poetry both in Gujarati and English, along with his paintings. It would be interesting to see how the painter-poet and the music composer first met and how the poems were composed. Here is a dialogic exploration. - AG
FD Zone Films Division, 2013
100 Years of Experimentation 1913-2013: From Phalke to Prayoga
Disco... more FD Zone Films Division, 2013 100 Years of Experimentation 1913-2013: From Phalke to Prayoga DiscourseLocatios FormSELF-REFLECTIVE INERSECTIONIndian RootsINADEQUACYTension CONVERSATION IDIOSYNCRATIC PrayogINTERVENTION
A Memory. A Reference. A History.
A three-day (FD Zone, 28-29-30 June 2013) retrospective program curated by the film practitioners Ashish Avikunthak and Pankaj Rishi Kumar.
The eight-page brochure presented herewith provides the details along with the introductory Curatorial Concept Note.
This retrospective was held at the Films Division, RR Theatre, 10th floor, Mumbai.
It is the way Ghatak situates the physical volumes of his characters’ presences in the spatial ex... more It is the way Ghatak situates the physical volumes of his characters’ presences in the spatial expanse of the frame, which is significant; eminence of which, to my mind, is unprecedented in the history of Indian cinema. It, in a way, defies the arrogance of the human-centric world, creating a different spatial gravity. Ghatak was aware of the properties of the lens and hence his employment of the wide angle remains extraordinary. He was a lensing philosopher, i would like to call him; perhaps, another was his disciple, Mani Kaul.
However, looking at and feeling the ākāsa / space in Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s films, i increasingly feel there is an affinity to Ritwik Ghatak’s cinematographic conscience, in its recurrence and resuscitation. For Ghatak, ākāsa was abhed, uncloven and undivided and that evoked his dream of a unified Bengal. In Dasgupta’s cinematography, ākāsa too seem to be unifying joys and sorrows into a new poetic spatial expanse, a pastoral landscape!
The akhārā of Mekan near the serene Haba hills of surrounding the village of Dhrang in Gujarat’s ... more The akhārā of Mekan near the serene Haba hills of surrounding the village of Dhrang in Gujarat’s Kutch district is an interesting place. This is where the maverick saint, Mekan lived and worked 270 years ago, accompanied by his two trusted and understanding companions – Lalio, the donkey and Motio, the dog.
Lalio and Motio were much more than a mere subaltern Sancho Panza-Rocinante combination. The two sensitive and intelligent ‘animals’ were Mekan’s life-long friends. He was very proud of them, and once said, “The virtuous Lako and Motio are like my brothers; even the most perfect of men cannot match those two animals.”
Interview with Amrit Gangar, a Mumbai-based independent writer, film theorist, curator and histor... more Interview with Amrit Gangar, a Mumbai-based independent writer, film theorist, curator and historian.
Dominique Dubosc is an eminent French filmmaker who has been making films since the historic year... more Dominique Dubosc is an eminent French filmmaker who has been making films since the historic year of 1968. As an active witness, he has a fascinating reservoir of memories of that volatile period of civil unrest in France during May 1968. To be talking to him in 2018 in the city of Mumbai that he loves is celebrating a golden jubilee of his journey since then, as a film maker, as a thinker. He also has a great interest in Palestine and its history, which could be found in his extensive Filmography spanning half a century.
I had the privilege and the honour in comprehending, curating and presenting a retrospective of some of his key documentary films for the 15th Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short & Animation Films (MIFF), 2018.
This conversation with Dominique Dubosc explores several areas concerning poetics of cinematography in general and Dubosc’s insights into his own filmmaking praxis including his shift from the film to video. This conversation in many a sense is in continuation of my paper Documentary Dilemma published here earlier.
The apple of our times’ eye is nothing but an apple – the seventeenth century apple that Isaac Ne... more The apple of our times’ eye is nothing but an apple – the seventeenth century apple that Isaac Newton had found falling and questioning himself how had the ‘phenomenon’ occurred. Eventually, the answer was found in his path-breaking theory of gravitation. From Aristotle to Galileo to Newton, the journey of human scientific or materialist thought had been a momentous one. No matter, the science of physics has taken a ‘quantum’ jump since then.
How would questioning ‘why’ questions help us? They will lead us into the subjective personal domain of emotions and feelings. And the ‘how’ questions? They speak of mechanisms and structures, Viola believes. Leading American video artist-philosopher Bill Viola had been raising this point for quite some time. Viola places the ‘why’ aspect very centrally to life itself. And therefore, death, too. According to him, questions of ‘how’ at the close of the twentieth century, are not enough to carry us forward through the millennium.
Amit Dutta’s cinema is the cinema of quest. And Agyāt Shilpi (The Unknown Craftsman, 2017) the fi... more Amit Dutta’s cinema is the cinema of quest. And Agyāt Shilpi (The Unknown Craftsman, 2017) the film, through its gait and gati, through its play of prakāsh (light) and serenity, through its majesty of the mountains and the whispers of the forest, it deeply reverberates this quest. And in the process it turns into a pastoral prosody, the chhanda (metrical verse) as if on a temporal scale. In movement - as it keeps expanding through subtle rustles and rumination, the contemplation.
His cinema is the cinema of contemplation and Agyāt Shilpi takes it further into its depth and height like the shikhara of a temple. It creates its own architectonics, evoking the Vastuveda. The seeker pilgrim’s movement expands into the movements and twirls of twigs, of branches of plants, of water streams, of dry and green leaves, of another pilgrim disappearing into the unknown, the abheda ākāsa, the uncloven sky! All with and within the subtle sounds of serenity of garbhākāsa, the spatial womb – of the unknown shilpa! And the seeker-pilgrim: “Lead me as you lead the seer and the herd.” Movement in a grand soliloquy…
Darshana is a key word in Indian philosophical discourse. It is used colloquially to mean optical... more Darshana is a key word in Indian philosophical discourse. It is used colloquially to mean optical vision, the sense of sight. But the sage-poets use the same word to imply the higher sight that is made possible by the inner eye, the cognitive process 'spiritual realization'. Thus the sages, poets or yogis who have had an imperturbable and clear realization of such supersensuous things as the soul or the Supreme Soul are called drastr or seers. The prominent Jaina scholar, the late Pandit Sukhlalji-who was visually challenged, and so honoured as a prajnachaksu, "one who sees with the eye of wisdom"-conducted a very interesting investigation into the complex cluster of meanings associated with the word darshana. According to Pandit Sukhlalji, the sciences called tattvavidya, adhyatmavidya or paravidya-high learning-is called darshana. "In Indian languages terms such as darshana, darshanika sahitya, darshanika vidvan are current and they all directly have to do with the science of spiritual realization," he wrote (the translation from the original Gujarati language is by Dr. K.K. Dixit). "But here the question is that the current and etymological meaning for the word darshana is visual cognition-the word, in fact, being derived from the verbal root drs standing for visual cognition-and so that understanding was responsible for it to be employed in the sense of super sensuous spiritual cognition." Obviously the philosophical speculation around the idea of darshana would lead us to explore the cognitive functions and abilities of sensitive functions and abilities of sense-organs other than the eye. The Upanishads maintain that "the eye truly is truth" (chaksur vai satyam) and that "the eye is truly the root-principle" (chaksur vai pratishtha). Here, visual cognition is accorded a higher status in comparison to the other sense-born cognitive faculties. However, in the context of the 'science of spiritual realization', there are certain other issues which should also merit consideration. The vision of super sensuous things, Pandit Sukhlalji believed, "is not had by everyone and all of a sudden, for there is a progressive order reaching up to that stage." In order to achieve darshana proper, "a three-stage progression is needed." First is relation to the principle whose darshana is being sought after, knowledge has to be gathered at the feet of experienced persons. This constitutes the first stage, that of 'listening' (sravana). Then what has been heard and what has been understood must be pondered over, grasped on the basis of argumentation, logic and reasoning. This constitutes the second stage, that of meditation (manana). After that, with a sense of concentration and with a mind rid of all afflictions, the seeker must try to enter into the heart of the matter concerned. This constitutes the third stage, that of determined effort (nididhyasana). The stage of darshana or direct realization can never be reached unless these three stages have been properly worked out. Someone might occupy the first stage, another the second, while a
It is quite intriguing to think that Sairandhree (also spelt as Sairandhri), one of the most fasc... more It is quite intriguing to think that Sairandhree (also spelt as Sairandhri), one of the most fascinating characters of the Indian epic Mahabharata has ever entered the Gujarati literary, cinematographic, theatrical or artistic conscience. It is only recently (2018) through the eminent poet Vinod Joshi’s book of long prabandha kavya (a metrical compositions largely drawn from Jaina literary traditions) spread over seven sarga or cantos, Sairandhree enters Gujarat and that is, I think, a significant happening. But still the questions as to why had Gujarat shied away from her all this time over centuries looms large. Sairandhree, as imagined by Joshi, becomes a milestone on the Gujarati literary highway.
“PANJ TIRATH” or the Five (Panj in Punjabi, Sindhi or Kachhi would mean five) Pilgrimages are the... more “PANJ TIRATH” or the Five (Panj in Punjabi, Sindhi or Kachhi would mean five) Pilgrimages are the five places in close proximity to the city of Surat in South Gujarat, and not far away from Mumbai.
Along with Mumbai, Surat was a great port and commercial centre. Wadias, the shipbuilders hailed from Surat and contributed to development of Bombay / Mumbai. Mughals, Portuguese, Dutch, British ruled Surat and the city also played a significant role in India’s independence movement.
In fact, I found the villages surrounding Surat extremely fascinating in terms of Gandhian influences and activities, they went on to shape India’s ideological movement too! We see the presence and footprints of Gandhiji in the five places that I call “Panj Tirath”, they include Haripura, Bardoli, Dandi, Dharasana and Vedchhi. In July 2019, a group of young architects from Surat and others from Mumbai and Ahmedabad joined me and my senior local architect friends to explore this five-fold pilgrimage.
Interestingly, Porbandar-born Gandhiji found this region fertile to sow the seeds of his non-violent passive resistance, including the Dandi Salt March. This article forms a sort of travelogue, as if Gandhi on Feet.
Did you know that even in India of 2020, you can casually buy a whole Adivasi family—couple, chil... more Did you know that even in India of 2020, you can casually buy a whole Adivasi family—couple, children, others—for merely Rs. 50,000, as slaves working at your farm and house, for a whole year?
This and many other revelations, and rich learnings, have emerged from Amrit Gangar’s new e-book, Migrant Workers Discourse (MWD), provoked by the horrific exodus of millions of migrants within India, a humanitarian crisis following the government’s appalling lame response to the outbreak of the Covid19 virus in India. It is probably unprecedented that posts on facebook have turned into an e-book. However, this is an exciting development where, contrary to the expectations of knee-jerk comments and emojis, the e-book has turned out to be a rich multimedia resource, with links and hyperlinks that marry hard core issues like migrant labour, with cultural resources—film, music, song, literature and more, greatly enhancing our understanding of these issues and how people experience them. This facebook-inspired e-book is also significant, given that youth constitute about one third of India’s population, and millions of them are active on social media.
The lock down unlocked the mass misery for the whole world to see. This is what this incredible b... more The lock down unlocked the mass misery for the whole world to see. This is what this incredible book explores, moving into cinema, folk and oral traditions, and forgotten landmarks and signposts of our history. Not every day such labour of love and tragedy is enacted or etched either in the print, visual or social media.
This book indeed is a documentation of several Shambus and Kanhaiyas of Bimal Roy’s 'Do Bigha Zameen'. It is the gateway into the heart of darkness of a society and a regime in Delhi which has turned its back on the freedom movement and its ideals.
Amit Sengupta in 'Chalachitra Sameeksha', September 2020
DARK FEAR, EERIE CITIES: New Hindi Cinema in Neoliberal India by Šarūnas Paunksnis, OUP, 2019, pp... more DARK FEAR, EERIE CITIES: New Hindi Cinema in Neoliberal India by Šarūnas Paunksnis, OUP, 2019, pp xi – xx + 172, INR 895
Review by Amrit Gangar
As the author says, “The political alliance between Hindu nationalism and neo-liberal forces reshaped the perceptions of social life, and this shift in points of reference and transformations of sensibilities is visible in the popular Hindi cinema of the 1990s,” reaffirming the Hindu patriarchic order. This was also the cinema of euphoria embedding dominant ‘chronotopes’ such as youth, luxury, global spaces, as well as submission to a patriarthic authority.
The Lithuanian scholar of Hindi cinema, who teaches media philosophy at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Kaunas University of Technology is comprehending Indian cinemas taking into cognizance the developments in Indian politics and political economy. In its comprehension, the book examines the processes that began in the 1980s, becoming the watershed moment leading to economic liberalization.
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Papers by Amrit Gangar
Widely regarded as the mother of Asian Cinema, Aruna Vasudev was a renowned Indian film scholar, critic, curator, and painter who significantly promoted Asian films globally. She founded Cinemaya: The Asian Film Quarterly in 1988 and Cinefan: The Festival of Asian Cinema in 1999. A teacher and a mentor to many a young cineaste, she chose to depart on a Teachers’ Day in India, i.e. on 5th September 2024 in New Delhi. Vasudev’s commitment to the Asian Cinema (without any compromise on aesthetics and excellence) was unshaken. She didn’t stop at founding NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) in 1991 to forward the cause of Asian cinema but also co-edited a massive tome Being & Becoming: The Cinemas of Asia, covering over 30 Asian countries, including India.
“Spend time with a video camera and you will confront some of the primary images: What is this fleeting image called life? Why are we here sharing the living moment, a moment that is past yet present? And why are the essential elements of life change, movement, and transformation, but not stability, immobility, and constancy?” Perhaps we need to imbue new technologies this philosophical dimension so that their ruthless commercial teeth don’t chew us up completely. And maybe we need to blend why and how into a new ‘scientific’ vision that our time-in-transition requires. A new cocktail. Maybe, with the Newtonian apple’s juice added in. Viola’s work is an effort to unify perception and ontology.
We can find some common resonances through the letters written by Carl Theodor Dreyer and Ritwik Ghatak to the bosses of film companies / studios where they were employed. The letters provide us certain insights into the ‘rules of the game’ at play and the ‘idealism’ walking a tight rope walks.
At 94, Bhatia was busy with his operatic thoughts, at 87; Sheikh is still producing a massive output of prose and poetry both in Gujarati and English, along with his paintings. It would be interesting to see how the painter-poet and the music composer first met and how the poems were composed. Here is a dialogic exploration. - AG
100 Years of Experimentation 1913-2013: From Phalke to Prayoga
DiscourseLocatios
FormSELF-REFLECTIVE
INERSECTIONIndian
RootsINADEQUACYTension
CONVERSATION
IDIOSYNCRATIC
PrayogINTERVENTION
A Memory. A Reference. A History.
A three-day (FD Zone, 28-29-30 June 2013) retrospective program curated by the film practitioners Ashish Avikunthak and Pankaj Rishi Kumar.
The eight-page brochure presented herewith provides the details along with the introductory Curatorial Concept Note.
This retrospective was held at the Films Division, RR Theatre, 10th floor, Mumbai.
However, looking at and feeling the ākāsa / space in Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s films, i increasingly feel there is an affinity to Ritwik Ghatak’s cinematographic conscience, in its recurrence and resuscitation. For Ghatak, ākāsa was abhed, uncloven and undivided and that evoked his dream of a unified Bengal. In Dasgupta’s cinematography, ākāsa too seem to be unifying joys and sorrows into a new poetic spatial expanse, a pastoral landscape!
Lalio and Motio were much more than a mere subaltern Sancho Panza-Rocinante combination. The two sensitive and intelligent ‘animals’ were Mekan’s life-long friends. He was very proud of them, and once said, “The virtuous Lako and Motio are like my brothers; even the most perfect of men cannot match those two animals.”
Widely regarded as the mother of Asian Cinema, Aruna Vasudev was a renowned Indian film scholar, critic, curator, and painter who significantly promoted Asian films globally. She founded Cinemaya: The Asian Film Quarterly in 1988 and Cinefan: The Festival of Asian Cinema in 1999. A teacher and a mentor to many a young cineaste, she chose to depart on a Teachers’ Day in India, i.e. on 5th September 2024 in New Delhi. Vasudev’s commitment to the Asian Cinema (without any compromise on aesthetics and excellence) was unshaken. She didn’t stop at founding NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) in 1991 to forward the cause of Asian cinema but also co-edited a massive tome Being & Becoming: The Cinemas of Asia, covering over 30 Asian countries, including India.
“Spend time with a video camera and you will confront some of the primary images: What is this fleeting image called life? Why are we here sharing the living moment, a moment that is past yet present? And why are the essential elements of life change, movement, and transformation, but not stability, immobility, and constancy?” Perhaps we need to imbue new technologies this philosophical dimension so that their ruthless commercial teeth don’t chew us up completely. And maybe we need to blend why and how into a new ‘scientific’ vision that our time-in-transition requires. A new cocktail. Maybe, with the Newtonian apple’s juice added in. Viola’s work is an effort to unify perception and ontology.
We can find some common resonances through the letters written by Carl Theodor Dreyer and Ritwik Ghatak to the bosses of film companies / studios where they were employed. The letters provide us certain insights into the ‘rules of the game’ at play and the ‘idealism’ walking a tight rope walks.
At 94, Bhatia was busy with his operatic thoughts, at 87; Sheikh is still producing a massive output of prose and poetry both in Gujarati and English, along with his paintings. It would be interesting to see how the painter-poet and the music composer first met and how the poems were composed. Here is a dialogic exploration. - AG
100 Years of Experimentation 1913-2013: From Phalke to Prayoga
DiscourseLocatios
FormSELF-REFLECTIVE
INERSECTIONIndian
RootsINADEQUACYTension
CONVERSATION
IDIOSYNCRATIC
PrayogINTERVENTION
A Memory. A Reference. A History.
A three-day (FD Zone, 28-29-30 June 2013) retrospective program curated by the film practitioners Ashish Avikunthak and Pankaj Rishi Kumar.
The eight-page brochure presented herewith provides the details along with the introductory Curatorial Concept Note.
This retrospective was held at the Films Division, RR Theatre, 10th floor, Mumbai.
However, looking at and feeling the ākāsa / space in Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s films, i increasingly feel there is an affinity to Ritwik Ghatak’s cinematographic conscience, in its recurrence and resuscitation. For Ghatak, ākāsa was abhed, uncloven and undivided and that evoked his dream of a unified Bengal. In Dasgupta’s cinematography, ākāsa too seem to be unifying joys and sorrows into a new poetic spatial expanse, a pastoral landscape!
Lalio and Motio were much more than a mere subaltern Sancho Panza-Rocinante combination. The two sensitive and intelligent ‘animals’ were Mekan’s life-long friends. He was very proud of them, and once said, “The virtuous Lako and Motio are like my brothers; even the most perfect of men cannot match those two animals.”
I had the privilege and the honour in comprehending, curating and presenting a retrospective of some of his key documentary films for the 15th Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short & Animation Films (MIFF), 2018.
This conversation with Dominique Dubosc explores several areas concerning poetics of cinematography in general and Dubosc’s insights into his own filmmaking praxis including his shift from the film to video. This conversation in many a sense is in continuation of my paper Documentary Dilemma published here earlier.
How would questioning ‘why’ questions help us? They will lead us into the subjective personal domain of emotions and feelings. And the ‘how’ questions? They speak of mechanisms and structures, Viola believes. Leading American video artist-philosopher Bill Viola had been raising this point for quite some time. Viola places the ‘why’ aspect very centrally to life itself. And therefore, death, too. According to him, questions of ‘how’ at the close of the twentieth century, are not enough to carry us forward through the millennium.
His cinema is the cinema of contemplation and Agyāt Shilpi takes it further into its depth and height like the shikhara of a temple. It creates its own architectonics, evoking the Vastuveda. The seeker pilgrim’s movement expands into the movements and twirls of twigs, of branches of plants, of water streams, of dry and green leaves, of another pilgrim disappearing into the unknown, the abheda ākāsa, the uncloven sky! All with and within the subtle sounds of serenity of garbhākāsa, the spatial womb – of the unknown shilpa! And the seeker-pilgrim: “Lead me as you lead the seer and the herd.” Movement in a grand soliloquy…
Along with Mumbai, Surat was a great port and commercial centre. Wadias, the shipbuilders hailed from Surat and contributed to development of Bombay / Mumbai. Mughals, Portuguese, Dutch, British ruled Surat and the city also played a significant role in India’s independence movement.
In fact, I found the villages surrounding Surat extremely fascinating in terms of Gandhian influences and activities, they went on to shape India’s ideological movement too! We see the presence and footprints of Gandhiji in the five places that I call “Panj Tirath”, they include Haripura, Bardoli, Dandi, Dharasana and Vedchhi. In July 2019, a group of young architects from Surat and others from Mumbai and Ahmedabad joined me and my senior local architect friends to explore this five-fold pilgrimage.
Interestingly, Porbandar-born Gandhiji found this region fertile to sow the seeds of his non-violent passive resistance, including the Dandi Salt March. This article forms a sort of travelogue, as if Gandhi on Feet.
This and many other revelations, and rich learnings, have emerged from Amrit Gangar’s new e-book, Migrant Workers Discourse (MWD), provoked by the horrific exodus of millions of migrants within India, a humanitarian crisis following the government’s appalling lame response to the outbreak of the Covid19 virus in India. It is probably unprecedented that posts on facebook have turned into an e-book. However, this is an exciting development where, contrary to the expectations of knee-jerk comments and emojis, the e-book has turned out to be a rich multimedia resource, with links and hyperlinks that marry hard core issues like migrant labour, with cultural resources—film, music, song, literature and more, greatly enhancing our understanding of these issues and how people experience them. This facebook-inspired e-book is also significant, given that youth constitute about one third of India’s population, and millions of them are active on social media.
This book indeed is a documentation of several Shambus and Kanhaiyas of Bimal Roy’s 'Do Bigha Zameen'. It is the gateway into the heart of darkness of a society and a regime in Delhi which has turned its back on the freedom movement and its ideals.
Amit Sengupta in 'Chalachitra Sameeksha', September 2020
Review by Amrit Gangar
As the author says, “The political alliance between Hindu nationalism and neo-liberal forces reshaped the perceptions of social life, and this shift in points of reference and transformations of sensibilities is visible in the popular Hindi cinema of the 1990s,” reaffirming the Hindu patriarchic order. This was also the cinema of euphoria embedding dominant ‘chronotopes’ such as youth, luxury, global spaces, as well as submission to a patriarthic authority.
The Lithuanian scholar of Hindi cinema, who teaches media philosophy at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Kaunas University of Technology is comprehending Indian cinemas taking into cognizance the developments in Indian politics and political economy. In its comprehension, the book examines the processes that began in the 1980s, becoming the watershed moment leading to economic liberalization.