that the film will be dealing with
or
The relevance of the film/USP
The Mode/Treatment of the Movie:
Combination of three different stories into one film is not a new idea. Mohsen Makhmalbaf Iranian Movie Dastforoush (Paddler) is an all-time favorite movie of mine, where three different stories are being depicted. Satyajit Ray’s Teen Kanya also contains three different stories from Rabindranath Tagore. Ram Gopal Verma’s Darna Mana Hain and Darna zaroori Hain could be remembered in this context. Similarly, Dus Kahaniyan and Mumbai Cutting are two other Bollywood Hindi Movies that contain multiple short movies within one. We can also remember Dibakar Benarjee’s recent experimental take in LSD, Love Sex & Dhokha.
The three stories I have picked up has some subtle nature in their innate story-telling. They only can be short-duration movies; otherwise they would lose their subtlety. On the other hand, they are multifaceted in thematic. In that way they also lose the characteristics of a coherent short film. They have multiple characters, multiple perspectives and also contain several sub-stories. Under these considerations I took a decision to make a feature film compiling these three stories instead of making three different short films.
They are realistic in nature, depicting a particular story of a particular time-and-space. All of them are centered on some little ‘heroes’, but I don’t want to tag this movie as a children’s film. In this regard I would like to remember Majid Majidi’s Iranian Film The Children of Heaven.
Almost for one decade time span I have been living a life outside Assam in the name of higher studies and working in multidisciplinary areas. My friends, well-wishers and collaborators are mostly from outside Assam. So, despite of being Assamese my mother tongue, initially I planned to make a movie in English. But later I realized, that would harm the project in doing justice to the theme. By the time I came across to a movie named The Shadows of Time (German: Schatten der Zeit). The entire movie is in Bengali but the production house is German. The German production house decided to make the movie in Bengali only to contain the authenticity of the narrative. So I realized, it would be falsity to adopt a different language only for the sake of a larger audience. These stories contain some universal appeal within themselves and thus language is no bar.
Mention worthy is that, the history of Assamese cinema has some serious artistic engagement from its very beginning. It is well said that, where as the so called ‘Indian’ cinema was sprouted with some religious and popular themes, only the Assamese cinema started its journey with some other practice with cinematic realism. Jyotiprasad Agarwala, after coming back from Germany made the first Assamese film Joymoti in 1935 with a historical theme and in a more realistic treatment. It had a few resemblances with what was happening with the ‘Indian’ films but more with the contemporary German cinematic devices. It was realistic and experimental at a time out of the religious or popular stereotypes. So, I would be happy to make this movie as a part of that journey.
ACTOR: Children of Heaven
The story was published in the special Autumn Issue of Dainik Asam, September 2009, titled as Krishna Gosain (Lord Krishna)
This one is a multifaceted narrative. It documents a traditional theatrical form and the organic relationship of art and life in a rural environment. At the same time it is a story on belief, how the image of the God is being created in common people’s imagination, and how the religious imagery operates in a private and public life. Partially this story refers to an event took place at Baroda, regarding an issue of portraying religious icons in an obscene manner and thus hurting the religious sentiments. This is a conscious insertion as a sub-plot to the central story. The story also reflects the economic stagnancy of a sub-urban place in Assam where the younger generation is getting frustrated day by day without having an economic outlet. Above all, the story touches the issue of caste system in Indian society which normally remains invisible in ordinary everyday lives but takes a form at a certain juncture.
Documenting a Performance Tradition:
Recently I, the presenter of this proposal, have been collecting various perspectives and socio-political issues around documenting a performance tradition. I am working on the Barechahariya Bhaona, (working Title: Spectators in Barechahariya Bhaona: reframing a Performance Tradition in the light of contemporary cultural practice and criticism), which includes documentation and some methodological queries. I submitted the MVA Dissertation paper to the Department of Art History and Aesthetics, M S University of Baroda on: Residing in the Shifting Spaces: an Attempt to Conceptualize the ‘Spectator’, (Examining the performer-spectator power relationship under three diversified circumstances: grandiose professional theatre in the metropolitan city, amateurish “one act” in the suburbia to performative circumstances in multicultural academic spheres).
Recently I have attended the Warwick and JNU Colloquium on “Research and Documentation in Theatre and Performance Studies: Strategic Locations, Disciplinary Challenges, and Critical Dialogue” held in Jawaharlal Nehru University (31.03.10 – 02.04.10). In a paper presented in the Visual Culture Conference on “The See-Saw Context of Spectatorship”, held in the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, 25th – 27th February 2010, I have presented a paper “Six Spectators” where I addressed the matters related to miss-location of the performers and the spectators. There also I mentioned about the Bhaona Performances and the interrelationship of the performers and spectators. Similarly in two other international seminars organized by Indian Federation for Theatre Research (ISTR) in New Delhi and on Tourist Audience in Kathmandu, Nepal, I stated about the shifting locations of spectatorship regarding a traditional performative form. In the national level seminar on “Religion and the Visual Arts: Representations and Contestations”, 2nd and 3rd March, 2008, Kalabhavana, organized by the Department of History of Art, Kalabhavan, Viswabharati, I presented a paper “City of God: The Performer in Exile, the Spectator in Exile” where the shifting location of spectatorship was a central theme. in the National Level Seminar on Cultural Practices and the Discourses on the “Minor”, held in the Department of Art History and Aesthetics, M S University of Baroda, Feb 2007, I presented a paper on “The Silent Majorities” where I critically examined the contemporary Assamese One Act Play traditions. So, the above mentioned evidences prove my continuous engagement with the performance forms and the issues around spectatorship.
Organic relationship of art and life in a rural environment:
The movie depicts a story of a village and villagers, their preparation for a cultural act and transformation of an ordinary boy to a most important actor. In throughout the process we see, the preparation, the performance and the imagery of the gods, goddesses, demons, kings, saints and others are an integral part of the pastoral lives of the villagers.
The imagery of God:
In a community of performers, the god forms a body within the ephemeral limit of the performance art. Thus, this story contains a criticism on the conservative religious notions. Inside a particular community behavior, we see, the imagery of the “God” is somehow different from what the mainstream Hinduism defines. Partially this story refers to an event took place at Baroda, regarding an issue of portraying religious icons in an obscene manner and thus hurting the religious sentiments. This is a conscious insertion as a sub-plot to the central story.
A Realistic portrayal of the Locality:
The story also reflects the economic stagnancy of a sub-urban place in Assam where the younger generation is getting frustrated day by day without having an economic outlet. The village of this story contains some symptom of inculcating sub-urban characteristics. It is a place remote from the political centre of the country (i.e. Delhi), and aloof from any commercial centers. The economic stagnancy causes immense impact in the lives of the individuals. These are going to be portrayed in throughout the narrative.
The Story of Becoming:
An ordinary boy turns to a ‘hero’ at a particular circumstantial juncture. The story represents a tension of the ordinary everyday and the extravagant or grandiose cultural phenomena.
AGONY: The persistence of becoming
The dream merchants:
This is a story of globalization, where the commercial agencies intrude into our everyday lives unknowingly, sometimes knowingly, and construct a different self within us. Here an advertising agency comes to life of a poor girl and offers ‘dreams’ of becoming a better one. She gets a dream of switching to a ‘grand’ ‘luxurious’ other, overnight but by the very morning she comes to the realize the falsity of it. The psychological aspects of the little girl has nothing to do with the advertizing agency’s concerns, neither they are aware of the dreams they convey within their ‘promises’.
Social Behavior:
When the production team comes to the little girl’s family they ask the girl to sing a song. She sings a Bhatiyali song very passionately. Immediately over her performance some debate occurs among the production members. They assume the poor family to be one of the illegal Bangladeshi migrants. This incident indicates the fear in common people around the Bangladeshi intruders and the hatred towards them.
Moments of Preparation:
When the little girl gets ready for the shooting, the preparation of coming out of her poor house is very much elaborated. Her mother is applying detergent to her dirty curly hair and she is dreaming of using shampoo. The process of preparation and the generated desires are forgrounded in the story.
A Story of a Gaze:
The little girl has a habit of staring at the roadside larger-than-life hoarding containing a beautifully smiling girl with silky-wavy-hairs. It is a story of onlookers, a story of gaze. She feels uncomfortable when the team members of the production unit stare at her. She witnesses some exotic gaze on their eyes. When she was an ordinary girl in dirty dresses, the look of the production manager was different. When she came out with a neat and clean get up in the next morning, the look was changed. She and a larger-than-life image on the hording keep staring at other. The mutual exchange of a look changes its character when she comes to realize that she would never be able to ‘become’ that beautiful ever in lifetime.
ECSTASY: The Pursuit of Performance
Desire: out to be there…
In some other places, I have accounted this sort of desires engraved in several literary and artistic practices, including: the Gopis moving ahead to Vrindavan with a desire to see the Lord Krishna, the Sufi Singers saying about a desire to move ahead to Mecca and Medina and so on. Thus, in my dissertation, I tried to deal with the matter theoretically how the act of performance produces immense desire in a spectator’s mind.
The Aesthetics of a Moving Crowd:
I’ll Fulfill Make You Meet Your Dreams…
Forgetfulness/ Repentance
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