Thursday, 14 January 2021
Thursday, 24 October 2019
My Curriculum Vite ..
CURRICULUM VITAE
NAME Rahat Saeed Khan
Yusufi
ADDRESS ‘Ashramshala’.
Panhale. Lanja,
Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. 416 701.
NATIONALITY Indian
CELL-PHONE 9960305867
E-MAIL
rahat.yusufi@gmail.com
BIRTH November 18,
1946, Lucknow, UP, India
CRAFT Film Making
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
B.Sc. University of Allahabad
M.A Aligarh Muslim University
DC (D) Film Institute, Pune
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
I have been an independent film maker since 1987, making films and
videos under the banner of Saramedia Consultants, Bangalore. I have
made approximately fifty documentary and short features. Most of the
more recent work has been rooted in progressive sociological insight
which is in the process of constant renewal. These films have been
done on live locations with non-professionals chosen from the field.
They have been produced in several Indian languages in various parts
of this Country. Having lived worked and travelled extensively in
various socio-linguistic & eco-regions have left me with a sort
of a mercenary feeling. I am, therefore, staying as Artist in
residence here, in a remote village in a school for tribal &
nomadic children, who are first generation schooled. During the past
five years or so of my stay here, I have received in-depth
perceptions of community coherence and produced over fifteen films in
DV format, that I can show to people of Konkan as a mirror unto their
own ‘human condition’.
RESPONSIBILITIES
To research, write scripts and proposals, visualise and direct
shootings, supervise editing and other studio and laboratory based
work. Nowadays I shoot with a good DV camera and edit on PC at my
rooms, in Panhale. Generate, sift and validate fresh ideas. Solicit
support and funding for a specific kind of work and look after
productions in all aspects till completion; then distribute DV copies
and exhibit from place to place, in Konkan region, South Maharashtra.
ACHIEVEMENTS
My materials are being used by a number of Voluntary Groups in West
Bengal, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and more recently, in
Karnataka. I have participated in screening sessions and seen the
enjoyment with which my films have been received by communities
concerned. They have proved to be good catalyser of discussions and
/ or introspection. I have several National and International awards
for cinematic excellence to my credit, apart from the love and joy of
sharing my work with people among whom I make my films. I have been
actively involved in social, cultural, and ecological movements in
India and have successfully articulated their ideals, debates and
struggles in film form.
- I was appointed Professor and Head of Department of Film Direction and Screen writing at the film and TV institute at Pune from June 1982 until June 1987.
RESPONSIBILITIES: Teaching and working with students for a three
year specialisation course.
ACHIEVEMENTS: This course of studies was re-instituted at my
joining. I was able, therefore, to restructure and update the
curriculum with current knowledge to make it challenging and
meaningful to the next generation of film makers. I was able to make
teaching methodology participatory in nature. For the first time in
the history of Film and TV Institute, I was able to take out groups
of students to make demonstration films, thereby bridging classroom
theory and field experience in practice.
- In charge of media production at the Centre for Development of Instructional Technology (CENDIT) at New Delhi from March 1980 until June 1982.
RESPONSIBILITIES: CENDIT initiated the idea of using video for
community conscientization. I designed and implemented the program
in a cluster of ten villages in the adjoining state of UP.
ACHIEVEMENTS: I was able to make participatory, process oriented
video films with active support of the communities, show them and
include feed back into further work to create a link and a web of
communication in the project area. I was able also to de-mystify
media for illiterate / semi-literate men and women of the community
and receive tremendous response in our conscientization program.
- Director at the Films Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India, from March 1975 until 1980.
RESPONSIBILITIES: Researching, scripting and directing films for the
user ministries, mainly Defence and Agriculture. I also attempted
social subjects while in employment with the Government.
ACHIEVEMENTS: I was able to travel quite extensively throughout the
remote and distant parts of India. Camping and spending plenty of
time in different geo-political and eco-regions while on official
tours. I was able to create a stylistic difference in the set
pattern of documentary / training film of the Films Division. This
was recognised in the form of several international awards in
specialised film festivals.
- Collaboration with Mani Kaul on his feature film, ‘Uski Roti’ as assistant director.
RESPONSIBILITIES: To assist the director in all aspects of
conceptualising and operationalizing the experiment we were trying
out. Scripting and dialogue writing, improvising during shooting and
other post shooting work.
ACHIEVEMENTS: Though I cannot claim any individual achievement in
this case, I am proud to say that the film was a pioneering
experiment at the inception of the New Wave in India and the team
involved was making history
MISCELLANEOUS
- I am a founder member of the trust, Gokul Prakalpa Pratishthan (GPP), an NGO working in Konkan area of Southern Maharashtra. I have done several films with the folk forms of this region and on the efforts of our trust in conservation of local land and human resources.
- I have been a member of the Governing Council of Film and Television Institute, Pune.
- I have awards for cinematic excellence from Toronto, Karlovi Veri and Caracow. I also have two National Awards in 1991 for best film on environment. My films have been screened in the prestigious ‘Spectrum India’ section of MIFF, The Mumbai International Short Films Festival and equally prestigious ‘Indian Panorama’, during the International Film Festival of India 1997 at New Delhi and at the Beirut International Film Festival 1997.
- I have actively participated and conducted development workshops concerning media intervention, visual articulation and community media. I have written and presented papers and delivered lectures often with demonstrations, on Film aesthetics and use of Cinema as medium of communication for the alternative sector. I have helped create a new paradigm for development activism through the use of video among young filmmakers in India.
Friday, 27 September 2019
I Met Satyajit Ray & Ritwik Da'
When I met Ritwik Da and Satyajit Ray ..
I have never actually craved meeting big shots; even as a kid I have
never enjoyed collecting autographs of Actors, Cricketers but still I
have bumped into many, mostly per chance. It was just one of those
days at The Film Institute that having got up late, around lunch
time, I was escalating down the road from Boy’s Hostel toward the
Canteen for some Puri Bhaji & Chai that I noticed, none other
than Satyajit Ray, in person emerge out of the corner Mutari, cross
over toward Studio #1 and walk up the side staircase doubtless
towards the guest rooms upstairs. I think he was on the first landing
when I caught his sight and greeted him from ground level, looking
up. He looked down upon me hesitating and halting his step so I said
that I am a resident student of Film Direction and would like to meet
him with some of my class fellows. He refused to meet us, point
blank, in a clipped, Oxonian accent resuming his ascent to the guest
room. (period) End of meeting ! Later, I was told there was a
convocation and he’d come as chief guest to distribute Diplomas.
That, I believe, was his one & only visit to the FTII.
Another fine morning, in the Canteen, I was finishing my Puri Bhaji &
double Chai when someone said, “Look ! That’s Ritwik Ghatak !
Sitting under the Wisdom Tree !” I looked out the window and saw an
old man in Kurta Pajama was indeed sitting crouched, knees level with
his chin, facing the main gate, smoking .. and I noticed the black
frame of his glasses in profile. He was just sitting alone, there was
no one else under the wisdom tree just at that moment. I couldn’t
believe my eyes; I thought, ‘Ritwik Ghatak ! Is that him?’ ...
but I got up at once, carried my half finished glass of tea to the
door of the Canteen and then across the road, looking at and
approaching the Man. He just kept staring right ahead, blankly as
though he was expecting someone. Placing my glass on the plinth I
said, “Namaskar Dada” with joined hands and sat down next to him.
His vibe was so close & cool, he almost felt like an old relative
of mine ! Soon someone brought him some Chai, Old Kokje, the
projectionist emerged from Main Theatre and said projection was ready
and we all drifted in. Dada still smoking and carrying his cup of tea
went straight down the isle to the middle seat in the front row, (my
seat!) and we looked at what he was watching, say reel #3 of
“Viridiana” ...
Later, we went to the Book Library at the rear of Studio # 1,
opposite the Sound Dept. He pulled out some twenty or thirty volumes
from many shelves and asked Madam to send them to his Guest Room. In
the evening when we went to see him there was a record player &
Western Classical music, many open, half read books scattered upon
the carpet and table, a bottle of wine from which he swigged without
offering a drop to anyone else ... and HE TALKED ! He rambled, he
kicked anyone who asked a stupid question and we sat upon the floor,
transfixed, just imbibing I know not what all that he spoke about
between swigs from his bottle of wine.
This went on till late, very late in the night. The next morning
getting up late as usual, when I twaddled down toward the canteen for
Puri Bhaji he was up there on the balcony ! A bottle of wine clutched
in one hand and a bidi stuck between his middle & fourth finger,
nearer the cleft. He was loudly showering his blessings upon passers
by. And then more films, marathon sessions; none of the films will
he watch completely; “THAKO !” He will shout over the projector
noise and sound track and we will all repeat the command till Kokje
will stop the projector. He will then demand to watch reel# so &
so from so & so movie !! While Kokje and the assistant from The
Archive, search and thread the new order, he will talk, talk like a
good Bengali, he will speak in English, standing facing us with his
bottle in his hand and his bum resting on the edge of the stage, the
screen behind his tall figure. He was a man with long limbs, like
Siddhartha, The Gautama Buddha.
This went on, day & night for a timeless period of time and one
fine morning there was no Dada upon the balcony, smoking &
drinking & cursing and blessing us all, those who were passing by
down below upon the central sloping street of the then Film
Institute.
Tuesday, 16 July 2019
OPIUM OF THE MASSES
ALTERNATIVE MEDIA FOR PEOPLE CENTERED DEVELOPMENT
Caption: Opium of the Masses.
Speaker: Rahat YusufiNov.01.1999 ISI Bangalore
These are just ‘talking points’ for something akin to a workshop or a brain-storm; we must all contribute to illuminate the darkness of our time! To set the ball rolling, therefore, and since our theme allows, let us look at some theory first. Perhaps a brief sketch of history of use of media and then we come to present day situation, look upon shape of things to come, or how we can shape future with the use of media.
This last point requires some preparation on vision as well as possibilities offered by chosen medium, or combination used, what is called mixed-media or multi-media.
So we take some primary ‘key-words’ such as:
1/ What is a ‘medium’?
Money, the witch, roadways, railways, air & water ways; Print, Radio, Video, Telephony, pager, cell-phone, posters & hoardings, LCD / neon signs, net and the world wide web. We can make this list longer if we try. In a way, all these are instrumentalities, some one-way others two-way substances or vehicles through which an effect is transmitted / transported. The ‘medium’ is usually understood to be inert (like a truck, wheel barrow or a bullock-cart!). The active ingredient, usually language, images or coded effects or messages can be contained, stored, transported between those who ‘make’ & those who ‘receive’ / ‘access’ them. In this transaction, ‘meaning’ is said to be made, or it is supposed to emerge. We shall address the idea of meaning & meaning making a little later.
2/ What is communication?
These are just ‘talking points’ for something akin to a workshop or a brain-storm; we must all contribute to illuminate the darkness of our time! To set the ball rolling, therefore, and since our theme allows, let us look at some theory first. Perhaps a brief sketch of history of use of media and then we come to present day situation, look upon shape of things to come, or how we can shape future with the use of media.
This last point requires some preparation on vision as well as possibilities offered by chosen medium, or combination used, what is called mixed-media or multi-media.
So we take some primary ‘key-words’ such as:
1/ What is a ‘medium’?
Money, the witch, roadways, railways, air & water ways; Print, Radio, Video, Telephony, pager, cell-phone, posters & hoardings, LCD / neon signs, net and the world wide web. We can make this list longer if we try. In a way, all these are instrumentalities, some one-way others two-way substances or vehicles through which an effect is transmitted / transported. The ‘medium’ is usually understood to be inert (like a truck, wheel barrow or a bullock-cart!). The active ingredient, usually language, images or coded effects or messages can be contained, stored, transported between those who ‘make’ & those who ‘receive’ / ‘access’ them. In this transaction, ‘meaning’ is said to be made, or it is supposed to emerge. We shall address the idea of meaning & meaning making a little later.
2/ What is communication?
Associations that a word like this throws up are manifold. Let us put down some allied and root-words and look at their meaning; what follows is straight out of my dictionary:
* Commune` (as noun) in France means co-operation. A small territory with some form of self governance.
* Commune (as noun) in Communist Countries means an agricultural community; or a group of people living with common ownership.
* Commune (as verb) to feel as one with, be in close touch with, to share, give or receive.
* Communicate to have means of passage. To succeed in conveying one’s meaning to the other.
* Communism to hold all things in common.
* Community Common enjoyment of rights, beliefs, language etc.
* Com-mutual reciprocal
* Communication the process of achieving all this.
3/ Communication, by the looks of the meanings that we have gleaned from preceding exercise seems like it could and would flow freely, any which way in the community. With the advent of www & so on, notions of territoriality associated with communities are also fading. It would appear that there is potentially an endless, seamless, free-flow of ideas, images, dreams, opinions, stories, information, even myths & legends constantly sliding and forming, fading, emerging and shifting around in an ebb & flow which seems like a lot of fun, very robust, very invigorating and empowering indeed.
BUT, implicit in this schematic word image, even at this sage, we detect that there is an assumption of use & knowledge of English language, for instance, let us say as a unifying factor. What happens immediately is that all the rest of cultural and linguistic nuances are set aside, to be able to ‘get on with the net’ as they say.
THEN, there are service “providers” and a separate set of “consumers”. And why /& what ought the providers provide and what makes the consumers consume and pay for it?
SO, between the idea (conception) and the practice (execution), there is a major block (shadow) called the ‘interest”. In whose interest is it to practice the idea of communication?
4/ Let us examine cutting and building a new road. It will facilitate communication, they say, the builders. Now, first of all, whose interest or need activated the idea of the said road? Who decided which are the points and places that the road is connecting? The villages and people where the road will take up land will be compensated, but did they actually need the road, & do they really want compensation money? Do they want to go where the road is leading them?
To be sure, then, communication channels / net-works are designed, built and put in place for & by vested interests in society. This can be seen as ringing true even in case of making / receiving a phone-call. The ‘you-call-me / I call you’ scenario is all too familiar. The pager, for instance, has been always a top down one way tool & now passé. Now every body carries a cell-phone but the under-dog will always give you a missed-call!
5/ The media shell, therefore, may be value neutral by definition but its use is not so; is indeed manipulating opinion & manufacturing consent. The ‘form’ of a particular medium and ‘content’ it can communicate often contain a menu-driven, built-in, semblance of choice, which is not a real choice at all. It is virtual. It is possible, however, to use form & content of any medium either to achieve clarity or obscurity. It can be manipulated to mystify / de-mystify.
If they do it, it is propaganda
If we do it, it is education!
6/ Since we have come so far, I don’t see why we ought to go back into history of media, specially Film medium, because history of film is the history of its magnitudes and powers of manipulation. How documentary cinema altered the mind-set of an entire generation. How big, the ‘Big Grossers’ really were. The Imax. Dominant politics and profiteering economics, greed for power and mind management, history tells us, have been prime movers of media.
NOW, can we reverse or alter this trend? Do we want to? If yes, then how can ‘we’? First of all, do we wish to quantify ‘alternative media’ by the same measures the main-stream has? Can we present a viable choice to ‘end users’? (For the moment let us call them that).
At this point I have to take a side and count myself among “makers” of media’ I can now begin to shift the emphasis of this exercise from an objective perspective to a subjective one. That is that of a Film-maker.
7/ So, if I were a young woman, or man, fired by a passion for social change, revival, resurgence, revolution; and if I wanted to use the media; first of all I would have to choose one. If I wanted to be autonomous, I would choose the film medium. The ‘authorship school’ of film-making would suit me perfectly. I would imagine I was like Ruskin Bond, living and writing from Missouri and becoming famous all over the English speaking world.
BUT, am I ready for my social intervention? To create a rough & ready paradigm, I may choose to find ‘functionality’ by situating my attitude orthogonal to main-stream. My indicators, as to what I should do, would then spring from a series of observed characteristics of the main-stream media. Cinema, for example, would show up as:
8/ Some characteristics of main-stream cinema.
# powerful sensational dramatic
# mass media
# professional actors
# dialogue driven
# commentary based
# box-office oriented
* Commune` (as noun) in France means co-operation. A small territory with some form of self governance.
* Commune (as noun) in Communist Countries means an agricultural community; or a group of people living with common ownership.
* Commune (as verb) to feel as one with, be in close touch with, to share, give or receive.
* Communicate to have means of passage. To succeed in conveying one’s meaning to the other.
* Communism to hold all things in common.
* Community Common enjoyment of rights, beliefs, language etc.
* Com-mutual reciprocal
* Communication the process of achieving all this.
3/ Communication, by the looks of the meanings that we have gleaned from preceding exercise seems like it could and would flow freely, any which way in the community. With the advent of www & so on, notions of territoriality associated with communities are also fading. It would appear that there is potentially an endless, seamless, free-flow of ideas, images, dreams, opinions, stories, information, even myths & legends constantly sliding and forming, fading, emerging and shifting around in an ebb & flow which seems like a lot of fun, very robust, very invigorating and empowering indeed.
BUT, implicit in this schematic word image, even at this sage, we detect that there is an assumption of use & knowledge of English language, for instance, let us say as a unifying factor. What happens immediately is that all the rest of cultural and linguistic nuances are set aside, to be able to ‘get on with the net’ as they say.
THEN, there are service “providers” and a separate set of “consumers”. And why /& what ought the providers provide and what makes the consumers consume and pay for it?
SO, between the idea (conception) and the practice (execution), there is a major block (shadow) called the ‘interest”. In whose interest is it to practice the idea of communication?
4/ Let us examine cutting and building a new road. It will facilitate communication, they say, the builders. Now, first of all, whose interest or need activated the idea of the said road? Who decided which are the points and places that the road is connecting? The villages and people where the road will take up land will be compensated, but did they actually need the road, & do they really want compensation money? Do they want to go where the road is leading them?
To be sure, then, communication channels / net-works are designed, built and put in place for & by vested interests in society. This can be seen as ringing true even in case of making / receiving a phone-call. The ‘you-call-me / I call you’ scenario is all too familiar. The pager, for instance, has been always a top down one way tool & now passé. Now every body carries a cell-phone but the under-dog will always give you a missed-call!
5/ The media shell, therefore, may be value neutral by definition but its use is not so; is indeed manipulating opinion & manufacturing consent. The ‘form’ of a particular medium and ‘content’ it can communicate often contain a menu-driven, built-in, semblance of choice, which is not a real choice at all. It is virtual. It is possible, however, to use form & content of any medium either to achieve clarity or obscurity. It can be manipulated to mystify / de-mystify.
If they do it, it is propaganda
If we do it, it is education!
6/ Since we have come so far, I don’t see why we ought to go back into history of media, specially Film medium, because history of film is the history of its magnitudes and powers of manipulation. How documentary cinema altered the mind-set of an entire generation. How big, the ‘Big Grossers’ really were. The Imax. Dominant politics and profiteering economics, greed for power and mind management, history tells us, have been prime movers of media.
NOW, can we reverse or alter this trend? Do we want to? If yes, then how can ‘we’? First of all, do we wish to quantify ‘alternative media’ by the same measures the main-stream has? Can we present a viable choice to ‘end users’? (For the moment let us call them that).
At this point I have to take a side and count myself among “makers” of media’ I can now begin to shift the emphasis of this exercise from an objective perspective to a subjective one. That is that of a Film-maker.
7/ So, if I were a young woman, or man, fired by a passion for social change, revival, resurgence, revolution; and if I wanted to use the media; first of all I would have to choose one. If I wanted to be autonomous, I would choose the film medium. The ‘authorship school’ of film-making would suit me perfectly. I would imagine I was like Ruskin Bond, living and writing from Missouri and becoming famous all over the English speaking world.
BUT, am I ready for my social intervention? To create a rough & ready paradigm, I may choose to find ‘functionality’ by situating my attitude orthogonal to main-stream. My indicators, as to what I should do, would then spring from a series of observed characteristics of the main-stream media. Cinema, for example, would show up as:
8/ Some characteristics of main-stream cinema.
# powerful sensational dramatic
# mass media
# professional actors
# dialogue driven
# commentary based
# box-office oriented
# monolithic conception of ‘audience’
# riddled with obscene innuendos & overt violence. (we can increase the list)
9/ My antithetical schematic paradigm would then look somewhat like:
Mainstream
Magnitude 35mm. 70mm. Imax Surround Sound
Broadcast
Sensational
Dramatic
# riddled with obscene innuendos & overt violence. (we can increase the list)
9/ My antithetical schematic paradigm would then look somewhat like:
Mainstream
Magnitude 35mm. 70mm. Imax Surround Sound
Broadcast
Sensational
Dramatic
Escapist
Powerful (in itself)
Generalized as mass-medium
Dialogue driven &/or illustrating commentary text
Use professional actors and deep bass voices
Box-office return
Territorial audiences
Anybody paying is welcome
Alternative
DV. 16mm
Narrow-cast
Powerful (in itself)
Generalized as mass-medium
Dialogue driven &/or illustrating commentary text
Use professional actors and deep bass voices
Box-office return
Territorial audiences
Anybody paying is welcome
Alternative
DV. 16mm
Narrow-cast
Sensitive
Analytic
Confrontational
Empowering (the viewer)
Culture and Language specific
Visually oriented, resonating with sounds
Work with non-professionals & use location sync sound
Value for money
Viewers, select audience
I choose my viewers
Sub-Textual Values:
Mainstream: Morbid, violent, macho, full of song & dance signifying nothing, time-pass. Anaesthetizing.
Alternative: Educational, healthy, concerning quality of life. Transparent, democratic, secular, nurturing, peaceful, justiciable, significant, anesthetizing.
09/ Some of the properties of film medium, however, I shall not be able to escape while I develop my antithetical model of Alternative film-making. Those, such as, the quality of my craftsmanship, clarity of my conception, composition, structure, dynamics of Editing and use of Sound. My eye for the light, either available or artificial. Timing, perspective, magnification, control & use of color & contrast and of course, the quality of my observation. These I have to share, whether I like it or not. There is no alternative there, no choice. One can not avoid the climate and context in which one’s work would eventually be placed and received. Socially embodied norms and cliches. Attention spans. Stereotypical structures, stories, issues, acting and gender related attitudes. Our work will have to eventually co-exist with all this and more. Quantitatively, it is always going to be minimal, vernacular, inward looking.
10/ Media do not pro-actively do ‘development’. It merely helps to create a climate conducive to change. It can alter the ecology of mind; catalyze certain trends, attitudes and values among people affected by that climate. We live in a climate saturated with media; much of it might actually be canceling each other before hitting us; nevertheless, both as makers as well as users of media we have to be discreet, we have to know that it can merely indicate, it can not actually take aim, shoot to kill.
11/ Creativity, Quantification, Satisfaction:
Most media, I should imagine all media could be de-constructed in this way and open ended, informed choices can be made both by the ‘users’ and the ‘makers’. Life projects can be chalked out and often, this is how these vocations work best; even the commercial world is full of dedicated artists and craft-persons.
Creativity sets in, if we regard the process as, as important if not more precious & alive than the product; and again, merely because one is playing with the medium, as is not the real thing. It only looks like real but it is a re-presentation; it looks authentic but it is not a fact, it is like a dream. The experience of watching a movie, in a movie-hall, is like a dream. It is a catalyst. It exists in our imagination, our consciousness.
No box-office gross figure, no critical acclaim column length can match the satisfaction of watching the film you made, with the folk you made it with.
For our ‘model’ to be complete and be truly viable an ‘alternative’; Alternative Media must have, acquire or develop its own distribution & exhibition infrastructure. In time, it must aim to create a niche of viewer ship and must attract support from each socio-lingual and ecological region in the Country, wherever it is being received. Like other channels it must invite viewer’s participation. This alone would complete the ‘Cycle of Communication’... and create vital ‘feed-back-loops’ to nourish and enrich it. This is a lot of work, nearly three quarters of the entire enterprise; and how all that is to be accomplished; that is another story.
Caca1864.readings
Analytic
Confrontational
Empowering (the viewer)
Culture and Language specific
Visually oriented, resonating with sounds
Work with non-professionals & use location sync sound
Value for money
Viewers, select audience
I choose my viewers
Sub-Textual Values:
Mainstream: Morbid, violent, macho, full of song & dance signifying nothing, time-pass. Anaesthetizing.
Alternative: Educational, healthy, concerning quality of life. Transparent, democratic, secular, nurturing, peaceful, justiciable, significant, anesthetizing.
09/ Some of the properties of film medium, however, I shall not be able to escape while I develop my antithetical model of Alternative film-making. Those, such as, the quality of my craftsmanship, clarity of my conception, composition, structure, dynamics of Editing and use of Sound. My eye for the light, either available or artificial. Timing, perspective, magnification, control & use of color & contrast and of course, the quality of my observation. These I have to share, whether I like it or not. There is no alternative there, no choice. One can not avoid the climate and context in which one’s work would eventually be placed and received. Socially embodied norms and cliches. Attention spans. Stereotypical structures, stories, issues, acting and gender related attitudes. Our work will have to eventually co-exist with all this and more. Quantitatively, it is always going to be minimal, vernacular, inward looking.
10/ Media do not pro-actively do ‘development’. It merely helps to create a climate conducive to change. It can alter the ecology of mind; catalyze certain trends, attitudes and values among people affected by that climate. We live in a climate saturated with media; much of it might actually be canceling each other before hitting us; nevertheless, both as makers as well as users of media we have to be discreet, we have to know that it can merely indicate, it can not actually take aim, shoot to kill.
11/ Creativity, Quantification, Satisfaction:
Most media, I should imagine all media could be de-constructed in this way and open ended, informed choices can be made both by the ‘users’ and the ‘makers’. Life projects can be chalked out and often, this is how these vocations work best; even the commercial world is full of dedicated artists and craft-persons.
Creativity sets in, if we regard the process as, as important if not more precious & alive than the product; and again, merely because one is playing with the medium, as is not the real thing. It only looks like real but it is a re-presentation; it looks authentic but it is not a fact, it is like a dream. The experience of watching a movie, in a movie-hall, is like a dream. It is a catalyst. It exists in our imagination, our consciousness.
No box-office gross figure, no critical acclaim column length can match the satisfaction of watching the film you made, with the folk you made it with.
For our ‘model’ to be complete and be truly viable an ‘alternative’; Alternative Media must have, acquire or develop its own distribution & exhibition infrastructure. In time, it must aim to create a niche of viewer ship and must attract support from each socio-lingual and ecological region in the Country, wherever it is being received. Like other channels it must invite viewer’s participation. This alone would complete the ‘Cycle of Communication’... and create vital ‘feed-back-loops’ to nourish and enrich it. This is a lot of work, nearly three quarters of the entire enterprise; and how all that is to be accomplished; that is another story.
Caca1864.readings
Saturday, 17 March 2018
A Complete Artist
LEAVE IT FOR IMAGINATION....some excerpts.
To my mind the rural ideal in art, philosophy & life, so deeply embedded in Chinese consciousness must be responsible for national and racial health today. Creators of Chinese pattern of life did more wisely than they knew in maintaining a balance between civilization and primitive habits of living. A sound instinct guided them to choose agricultural civilization, to hate mechanical ingenuity and love the simple ways of life; to invent comforts of life without being enslaved to them; and to preach from generation to generation in their poetry, painting & literature, ‘the return to the farm’. For, to be close to nature is to have physical & moral health. Man, in the country does not degenerate, only man in the city does. This aspect subtly but profoundly accounts for the long survival of Chinese civilization.
Chinese culture is one of the truly indigenous cultures of the World. Culture is a product of leisure and Chinese have had immense leisure of over three thousand years to cultivate it. In these three thousand un-interrupted years they have had plenty of time to drink tea and look at life quietly over their tea cups; and from gossip over tea cups they have boiled life down to its essence. And from this gossip & pondering came a great meaning. It came to be spoken of as ‘the Mirror’ which reflects human experience for the benefit of the present; which is like a gathering stream, un-interrupted, continuous. In this they crossed the threshold of all arts and entered the hall of the Art of Life itself; and Art & Life became one. They achieved that crown of culture, the art of living, which is the end of all human wisdom.
Calm & harmony distinguish Chinese Art. The Chinese Artist is a man who is at peace with Nature, who is free from shackles of society & from temptations of gold. Above all, his breast must brood no ill passion for a good artist must be a good man. He ‘chastens his heart’ and ‘broadens his spirit’ chiefly by travel & contemplation. The Chinese artist does not learn painting by going into a room and stripping a woman naked. It is strange that spiritual evolution goes with physical elevation upon this planet & life always looks different from an altitude of five thousand feet. Thus, from the god-like heights the artist surveys the world with a calm expansion of spirit and this Spirit goes into his painting. Like ‘the fool on the hill’ who sees ‘the world going by’.
It is this spirit of calm & harmony, this flavor of mountain air, always tinged with recluse’s passion for leisure & solitude which is seen in all forms of Chinese Art. It is not supremacy over nature but harmony with her that Calligraphy, Painting, Poetry & architecture all have in common with a way of life. And through it all pervades The Spirit of Man, happy with himself and his Universe; poor in possessions but rich in sentiments, discriminating in taste, experienced and full of worldly wisdom; and yet simple hearted, contented & wisely idle. In China, man knows a great deal about the Art of all arts, The Art of Living. A younger civilization may be keen on making progress, but an old civilization must have a different standard of values for it alone knows ‘the durable pleasures of life’ which are merely matters of senses; food, drink, house, garden, women & friendship. That is what life comes to in the end, in essence. Any Nation, therefore, that does not know how to eat and enjoy living is uncouth and un-civilized.
rahatavalokit
cacareadings#3102
To my mind the rural ideal in art, philosophy & life, so deeply embedded in Chinese consciousness must be responsible for national and racial health today. Creators of Chinese pattern of life did more wisely than they knew in maintaining a balance between civilization and primitive habits of living. A sound instinct guided them to choose agricultural civilization, to hate mechanical ingenuity and love the simple ways of life; to invent comforts of life without being enslaved to them; and to preach from generation to generation in their poetry, painting & literature, ‘the return to the farm’. For, to be close to nature is to have physical & moral health. Man, in the country does not degenerate, only man in the city does. This aspect subtly but profoundly accounts for the long survival of Chinese civilization.
Chinese culture is one of the truly indigenous cultures of the World. Culture is a product of leisure and Chinese have had immense leisure of over three thousand years to cultivate it. In these three thousand un-interrupted years they have had plenty of time to drink tea and look at life quietly over their tea cups; and from gossip over tea cups they have boiled life down to its essence. And from this gossip & pondering came a great meaning. It came to be spoken of as ‘the Mirror’ which reflects human experience for the benefit of the present; which is like a gathering stream, un-interrupted, continuous. In this they crossed the threshold of all arts and entered the hall of the Art of Life itself; and Art & Life became one. They achieved that crown of culture, the art of living, which is the end of all human wisdom.
Calm & harmony distinguish Chinese Art. The Chinese Artist is a man who is at peace with Nature, who is free from shackles of society & from temptations of gold. Above all, his breast must brood no ill passion for a good artist must be a good man. He ‘chastens his heart’ and ‘broadens his spirit’ chiefly by travel & contemplation. The Chinese artist does not learn painting by going into a room and stripping a woman naked. It is strange that spiritual evolution goes with physical elevation upon this planet & life always looks different from an altitude of five thousand feet. Thus, from the god-like heights the artist surveys the world with a calm expansion of spirit and this Spirit goes into his painting. Like ‘the fool on the hill’ who sees ‘the world going by’.
It is this spirit of calm & harmony, this flavor of mountain air, always tinged with recluse’s passion for leisure & solitude which is seen in all forms of Chinese Art. It is not supremacy over nature but harmony with her that Calligraphy, Painting, Poetry & architecture all have in common with a way of life. And through it all pervades The Spirit of Man, happy with himself and his Universe; poor in possessions but rich in sentiments, discriminating in taste, experienced and full of worldly wisdom; and yet simple hearted, contented & wisely idle. In China, man knows a great deal about the Art of all arts, The Art of Living. A younger civilization may be keen on making progress, but an old civilization must have a different standard of values for it alone knows ‘the durable pleasures of life’ which are merely matters of senses; food, drink, house, garden, women & friendship. That is what life comes to in the end, in essence. Any Nation, therefore, that does not know how to eat and enjoy living is uncouth and un-civilized.
rahatavalokit
cacareadings#3102
Friday, 16 March 2018
Elegy to the Chocolate Cream Soldiers of Cinema.
DESPAIR NOT, SET ASIDE REMORSE … WE SHALL MAKE OUR CAVEAT AND REJOICE
Some of us, faint-hearted chocolate-cream soldiers of Cinema, feel that, yes, there was a time when one could discern aromas & bouquets of a maturing wine that was Cinema …film form has soured up, they say, with Rate Of Acceleration Of Change, Digital Tsunami plus of course, mercantile interest of maximizing profit. Do you also feel like that? Dear reader? I’m sure not, because if you did you won’t be reading this.
Tell me what happens to the idea of “Cinematic Object” if you are using Mitchell BNC, an Arriflex SR, or a digi-palm-corder with a chip that is better than fine grain, pre-fogged Ectachrome? I’d say nothing happens to it; and in terms of construction we have yet to arrive at Poetry, Dance and Symphonic Musical Orchestrations. Now consider for a moment as to how long would it have taken for say Iambic Pentameter, Bharat Nattyam or Stradivarius violin, an Oboe and a Bassoon fuge to cause visions of musical forms in side the head of a J.S.Bach? not generations and eons; dance , music & painting have probably been with Human Beings for the better part of our entire Evolutionary period.
Cinema, like Automobile is gifted to us by mechanical / industrial era, not much older than steam engine; internal combustion engine, gears, pulleys, fluid heads, chemistry & optics are but three hundred years old. Digital technology has already made all that obsolete. We shall soon have cars running on Water, emitting Oxygen as waste, but the Film Frame, like a stable marriage shall continue to stay. We shall have to discover aesthetic resolutions and accommodate ease of operation without diluting essentials of what we have built thus far, our understanding and praxis in the field of Cinema Art Practice.
The next point is that cheap imitation and plagiarism will die a natural death. It will just not do to physically lift dance, drama, songs, music and the rest of it and hope that if a producer puts in lots of “Desi Ghee” and “Mughal Masalas” she will have a hit…!! It is simply ridiculous to hope in Bolly, Tolly or even Whistling Woods. Some one is sure to blow a whistle on all of them sooner or later.
Cinema art practitioners will have to imbibe, internalize the many aesthetics and creativities like training of an Artist used to require in Schools of Chinese Art. So you create an “Artist” at the end of training; who would then go live a life, may cook soups & steep tea, meditate, paint, write haikus or make pottery, make films may be but his entire, evolved aesthetic consciousness shall be present active and energizing his creative act, his shoots will not require special dance directors, fight composers and Music Directors, Actors, story writers, script & dialogue writers; he will not need lighting cameramen; he will just look at light and say yes…yes…nor will his sounds be echoing, base heavy phony, pressure selling lies & falsehoods. No…that shall not do…all that shall fall away like scabs somewhere along the way of Cinematic enlightenment, during evolution of Film Form, through Cinema Art Practice done by you & me, that done by our ancestors, mentors and teachers and Grand Masters whom we have not met but have seen and studied.
We shall thank digital cameras and advent of instant special effects as well as pain free digital editing procedures for they make our work so much free and un-encumbered. We no longer have to carry a whole cross section of society with us when we decide to go out filming. We can pay greater attention to what we want to do. And I think, you & I know, “What Is It That Want To Do…”
Rahatavalokit
Cacareadings#1174
Some of us, faint-hearted chocolate-cream soldiers of Cinema, feel that, yes, there was a time when one could discern aromas & bouquets of a maturing wine that was Cinema …film form has soured up, they say, with Rate Of Acceleration Of Change, Digital Tsunami plus of course, mercantile interest of maximizing profit. Do you also feel like that? Dear reader? I’m sure not, because if you did you won’t be reading this.
Tell me what happens to the idea of “Cinematic Object” if you are using Mitchell BNC, an Arriflex SR, or a digi-palm-corder with a chip that is better than fine grain, pre-fogged Ectachrome? I’d say nothing happens to it; and in terms of construction we have yet to arrive at Poetry, Dance and Symphonic Musical Orchestrations. Now consider for a moment as to how long would it have taken for say Iambic Pentameter, Bharat Nattyam or Stradivarius violin, an Oboe and a Bassoon fuge to cause visions of musical forms in side the head of a J.S.Bach? not generations and eons; dance , music & painting have probably been with Human Beings for the better part of our entire Evolutionary period.
Cinema, like Automobile is gifted to us by mechanical / industrial era, not much older than steam engine; internal combustion engine, gears, pulleys, fluid heads, chemistry & optics are but three hundred years old. Digital technology has already made all that obsolete. We shall soon have cars running on Water, emitting Oxygen as waste, but the Film Frame, like a stable marriage shall continue to stay. We shall have to discover aesthetic resolutions and accommodate ease of operation without diluting essentials of what we have built thus far, our understanding and praxis in the field of Cinema Art Practice.
The next point is that cheap imitation and plagiarism will die a natural death. It will just not do to physically lift dance, drama, songs, music and the rest of it and hope that if a producer puts in lots of “Desi Ghee” and “Mughal Masalas” she will have a hit…!! It is simply ridiculous to hope in Bolly, Tolly or even Whistling Woods. Some one is sure to blow a whistle on all of them sooner or later.
Cinema art practitioners will have to imbibe, internalize the many aesthetics and creativities like training of an Artist used to require in Schools of Chinese Art. So you create an “Artist” at the end of training; who would then go live a life, may cook soups & steep tea, meditate, paint, write haikus or make pottery, make films may be but his entire, evolved aesthetic consciousness shall be present active and energizing his creative act, his shoots will not require special dance directors, fight composers and Music Directors, Actors, story writers, script & dialogue writers; he will not need lighting cameramen; he will just look at light and say yes…yes…nor will his sounds be echoing, base heavy phony, pressure selling lies & falsehoods. No…that shall not do…all that shall fall away like scabs somewhere along the way of Cinematic enlightenment, during evolution of Film Form, through Cinema Art Practice done by you & me, that done by our ancestors, mentors and teachers and Grand Masters whom we have not met but have seen and studied.
We shall thank digital cameras and advent of instant special effects as well as pain free digital editing procedures for they make our work so much free and un-encumbered. We no longer have to carry a whole cross section of society with us when we decide to go out filming. We can pay greater attention to what we want to do. And I think, you & I know, “What Is It That Want To Do…”
Rahatavalokit
Cacareadings#1174
Tuesday, 13 February 2018
Cinema As A Way Of Life.
CINEMA AS A WAY OF LIFE
I won’t be very elaborate yet this topic is worth contemplation due to increasing mental & emotional space virtual reality is gaining in Post-modern, rather Post-now generation across the World. We must have differing versions of this phenomenon depending upon the sort of life we lead.
I make films independently, non-commercially, yet both these statements are paradoxical. I am completely beholden to ‘others’ as they have to act in my movies & making a movie certainly requires funding!! Yet I insist & do make non-commercial movies, in a linear fashion, one at a time. With no hope of merchandizing & maximizing profits upon investment. I claim an altered ‘value paradigm’. For me, therefore, process of Cinema Art practice has a ‘yin yang’ oscillation between ‘Active & Contemplative’ phases namely:
I live a daily life. With my sensorium I perceive and make meaning of the World that I bring Forth. This is active.
Then I sit, or sleep & dream, I contemplate & visualize in tranquility; picking up some pieces and leaving out a lot, to make my cinematic structures, my Scripts. Maybe I look for money & social support during the same period. Contemplative, I call it.
Then I go out to shoot, rather film, my film. This I can say is active phase. My metabolism responds to filming periods in unique ways. New places, new sounds, smells, possibilities, un-certainties & euphoria of catching a sequence in perfect light & timing; a hundred different pleasures & pains, all make up for this Active phase.
Then I sit on editing. This is club class contemplative period. The heart of my entire enterprise. This is where I make my film. This is what was in my imagination when I was collecting fragments, discontinuous bits of what I heard & what I saw; or what I include and what I exclude from my frame. Which specific sounds with what degree of clarity do I manage to record. Each time an intuition, to be realized as structured composite here, when editing, this I can call a Contemplative phase.
Once the movie is ready, I go out and show it to people, friends, at film societies, at film festivals and once again I am living my active day to day life. This cycle repeats over and over again in my life; it has done so, so many times that I have started trusting it as my way of life. Yet all this is linear, no multi-tasking.
CACA reading #003
rahatavalokit4
I won’t be very elaborate yet this topic is worth contemplation due to increasing mental & emotional space virtual reality is gaining in Post-modern, rather Post-now generation across the World. We must have differing versions of this phenomenon depending upon the sort of life we lead.
I make films independently, non-commercially, yet both these statements are paradoxical. I am completely beholden to ‘others’ as they have to act in my movies & making a movie certainly requires funding!! Yet I insist & do make non-commercial movies, in a linear fashion, one at a time. With no hope of merchandizing & maximizing profits upon investment. I claim an altered ‘value paradigm’. For me, therefore, process of Cinema Art practice has a ‘yin yang’ oscillation between ‘Active & Contemplative’ phases namely:
I live a daily life. With my sensorium I perceive and make meaning of the World that I bring Forth. This is active.
Then I sit, or sleep & dream, I contemplate & visualize in tranquility; picking up some pieces and leaving out a lot, to make my cinematic structures, my Scripts. Maybe I look for money & social support during the same period. Contemplative, I call it.
Then I go out to shoot, rather film, my film. This I can say is active phase. My metabolism responds to filming periods in unique ways. New places, new sounds, smells, possibilities, un-certainties & euphoria of catching a sequence in perfect light & timing; a hundred different pleasures & pains, all make up for this Active phase.
Then I sit on editing. This is club class contemplative period. The heart of my entire enterprise. This is where I make my film. This is what was in my imagination when I was collecting fragments, discontinuous bits of what I heard & what I saw; or what I include and what I exclude from my frame. Which specific sounds with what degree of clarity do I manage to record. Each time an intuition, to be realized as structured composite here, when editing, this I can call a Contemplative phase.
Once the movie is ready, I go out and show it to people, friends, at film societies, at film festivals and once again I am living my active day to day life. This cycle repeats over and over again in my life; it has done so, so many times that I have started trusting it as my way of life. Yet all this is linear, no multi-tasking.
CACA reading #003
rahatavalokit4
Friday, 26 January 2018
The Cinematic Object
The Cinematic Object.
Shall we say, in Cinema we are stuck with a ‘frame’ just as humans are stuck with marriage. If you wish to give form to content, you have to frame it. A frame is something Cinema shares with Painting and Photography. With the help of a frame, we can either include or exclude, depending upon whichever way one would like to look at the function. The ‘Motion Picture Frame’, however , can be differentiated by its fluidity. Not only does the frame move about freely in space, content within a frame can & does move. All this, in ‘Cinema’ doesn’t happen, it has to be organized; orchestrated with a number of other elements that constitute ‘Film Form’. We shall come to them while correlating Cinema with ‘Western Classical Music’ and that shall be last of all in this unfolding narrative; such is language that we are using here. Cinema, incidentally, shares this ‘linear unfolding’ in time with literature even if you go somersaulting into ‘flash-backs’ , ‘dreams’ or ‘streams of Consciousness’….for the duration it still unfolds forward & linear. The viewer, just as a reader of lingual texts, however, is free to jump backwards and forwards at will within unfolded narrative thus far. (…sub-text : a touch of Destiny?. Memory..? )
So what is ‘Cinematic Object’? Perhaps an idea shall emerge. Perhaps it is something that can only be indicated for it is inherent in Cinema Practice, it can not be articulated outside of it. Yet a very clear indication will be given as reward for patience, just as ‘mise-en-scene’ brings about ‘The Cinematic Icon’ for anybody to look, listen & experience. Here is something, this ‘iconicity’ I feel, Cinema shares with Sculpture as well as ‘Architecture’ where one can move around an ‘object’, live in it and even get lost.
Apart from this business of the ‘Iconic’ ; that it stands alone in time & three dimensional space; Cinematic Articulation shares structural affinities with Sculpture & Architecture. To create a Cinematic object one can use either one of two methods. One can ‘chip away’ to reveal beauty / Goddess within the marble mono block; somewhat like the cave temples of India, or alternatively, one can construct brick by brick (read: shot by shot) a structure. Which, according to me, if pregnant with emotion shall constitute Cinematic Object.
The ‘Sound’, in collusion with perspective & montage is responsible for creation of ‘Virtual space’ in fourth dimension, where it is possible for viewers to transcend limitations of two dimensional frame… very much like the enlightened one who enjoys boundless love, beyond confines of marriage, me & mine! This is a state when Cinema arising from behind the screen, like some ozone rich breathing material, engulfs the entire auditorium, raising en-mass, aesthetizing audience, saturating each individual, man, woman or child alike with emotion or what we call ‘Rasa’. A bit like moments of glory in American soccer game, live in a stadium! …only richer, full spectrum, deeper, subtler, more meaningful, beautiful, perhaps pointing to a sliver of the Truth.
So, here is a brief notional description of what I shall know as ‘Cinematic Object’. There is more to be said around the seven Muses; however, not now.
Rahatavalokit
Cacareadings#537
Shall we say, in Cinema we are stuck with a ‘frame’ just as humans are stuck with marriage. If you wish to give form to content, you have to frame it. A frame is something Cinema shares with Painting and Photography. With the help of a frame, we can either include or exclude, depending upon whichever way one would like to look at the function. The ‘Motion Picture Frame’, however , can be differentiated by its fluidity. Not only does the frame move about freely in space, content within a frame can & does move. All this, in ‘Cinema’ doesn’t happen, it has to be organized; orchestrated with a number of other elements that constitute ‘Film Form’. We shall come to them while correlating Cinema with ‘Western Classical Music’ and that shall be last of all in this unfolding narrative; such is language that we are using here. Cinema, incidentally, shares this ‘linear unfolding’ in time with literature even if you go somersaulting into ‘flash-backs’ , ‘dreams’ or ‘streams of Consciousness’….for the duration it still unfolds forward & linear. The viewer, just as a reader of lingual texts, however, is free to jump backwards and forwards at will within unfolded narrative thus far. (…sub-text : a touch of Destiny?. Memory..? )
So what is ‘Cinematic Object’? Perhaps an idea shall emerge. Perhaps it is something that can only be indicated for it is inherent in Cinema Practice, it can not be articulated outside of it. Yet a very clear indication will be given as reward for patience, just as ‘mise-en-scene’ brings about ‘The Cinematic Icon’ for anybody to look, listen & experience. Here is something, this ‘iconicity’ I feel, Cinema shares with Sculpture as well as ‘Architecture’ where one can move around an ‘object’, live in it and even get lost.
Apart from this business of the ‘Iconic’ ; that it stands alone in time & three dimensional space; Cinematic Articulation shares structural affinities with Sculpture & Architecture. To create a Cinematic object one can use either one of two methods. One can ‘chip away’ to reveal beauty / Goddess within the marble mono block; somewhat like the cave temples of India, or alternatively, one can construct brick by brick (read: shot by shot) a structure. Which, according to me, if pregnant with emotion shall constitute Cinematic Object.
The ‘Sound’, in collusion with perspective & montage is responsible for creation of ‘Virtual space’ in fourth dimension, where it is possible for viewers to transcend limitations of two dimensional frame… very much like the enlightened one who enjoys boundless love, beyond confines of marriage, me & mine! This is a state when Cinema arising from behind the screen, like some ozone rich breathing material, engulfs the entire auditorium, raising en-mass, aesthetizing audience, saturating each individual, man, woman or child alike with emotion or what we call ‘Rasa’. A bit like moments of glory in American soccer game, live in a stadium! …only richer, full spectrum, deeper, subtler, more meaningful, beautiful, perhaps pointing to a sliver of the Truth.
So, here is a brief notional description of what I shall know as ‘Cinematic Object’. There is more to be said around the seven Muses; however, not now.
Rahatavalokit
Cacareadings#537
Tuesday, 24 October 2017
An Informal Resumé of Rahat Yusufi
RESUME : RAHAT. YUSUFI
Born 18th. Nov. 1946 I'm almost a 'Midnight’s Child' .. the only issue of a father, an academic and an educationist, and mother a homemaker. This nuclear family, in a good job, decided to remain in India during partition while most of our extended family from either parent's side migrated to Pakistan.
For being scrupulously corruption free, my father was rewarded with transfer orders in quick tempo by the Provincial Government, as a result my schooling was discontinuous and I ended up a lone shark hosteller in single seated rooms. Quietly happy by myself, perceived by others as loner, my life, ever since, is patterned in a series of 'departures’.
I did as I was told until my graduation as Science student and then made my first departure by shifting to the Arts side, so called; received my Master’s degree in Literature and shifted to Cinema Studies. Breezing into a Central Govt. Class I job as documentary filmmaker, posted at New Delhi and then at Bombay, married with one daughter in hand and the other gestating, I shifted to voluntary work with friends in ¾” video doing community conscientization. Our NGO was headquartered at the Maurya Sheraton Hotel at Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi, and project area 80Kms into UP called Sultanpur/Chilkana.
By now both our daughters were growing up and demanding all our attention, and I shifted to FTII Pune as Professor & Head; Dept. Of Film Direction & Screenwriting. Just a few years on we moved to Bangalore as independent filmmakers and soon after I received my two National Awards.
I have, incidentally, several other international awards but for work that I did for 'others’. My second film at Film Institute was awarded as was my Diploma Film; these, and the ones I made as an independent filmmaker are really the only films that I can call, “my own”. I made 'vernacular’ films, in a number of linguistic & eco-regions with stories developed by the specific community, used local, non professionals as cast and worked on live locations with sync sound in 16mm or Betacam. My subject matter would be Women, Children and the Environment, all 'mute’ and in dire need for progressive advocacy.
Meanwhile, our daughters needed educating and since we weren't into 9 to 4, we decided on Homeschool. This soon developed into a modern Gurukul like “Centre for Learning” where the triad of child/teacher/parent were equally staked. My elder daughter works at CFL on the outskirts of Bangalore, and younger is an Arts Teacher at the Bangalore International School, arts section called “Srishti”.
I continue to be deeply involved & active in education, in Cinema Art Practice, enjoying featherweight digital equipment & touch screens of Cybernetic studios … a lone Wolf, catalysing Community Communication and Conscientization.
Best regards
Rahat
Born 18th. Nov. 1946 I'm almost a 'Midnight’s Child' .. the only issue of a father, an academic and an educationist, and mother a homemaker. This nuclear family, in a good job, decided to remain in India during partition while most of our extended family from either parent's side migrated to Pakistan.
For being scrupulously corruption free, my father was rewarded with transfer orders in quick tempo by the Provincial Government, as a result my schooling was discontinuous and I ended up a lone shark hosteller in single seated rooms. Quietly happy by myself, perceived by others as loner, my life, ever since, is patterned in a series of 'departures’.
I did as I was told until my graduation as Science student and then made my first departure by shifting to the Arts side, so called; received my Master’s degree in Literature and shifted to Cinema Studies. Breezing into a Central Govt. Class I job as documentary filmmaker, posted at New Delhi and then at Bombay, married with one daughter in hand and the other gestating, I shifted to voluntary work with friends in ¾” video doing community conscientization. Our NGO was headquartered at the Maurya Sheraton Hotel at Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi, and project area 80Kms into UP called Sultanpur/Chilkana.
By now both our daughters were growing up and demanding all our attention, and I shifted to FTII Pune as Professor & Head; Dept. Of Film Direction & Screenwriting. Just a few years on we moved to Bangalore as independent filmmakers and soon after I received my two National Awards.
I have, incidentally, several other international awards but for work that I did for 'others’. My second film at Film Institute was awarded as was my Diploma Film; these, and the ones I made as an independent filmmaker are really the only films that I can call, “my own”. I made 'vernacular’ films, in a number of linguistic & eco-regions with stories developed by the specific community, used local, non professionals as cast and worked on live locations with sync sound in 16mm or Betacam. My subject matter would be Women, Children and the Environment, all 'mute’ and in dire need for progressive advocacy.
Meanwhile, our daughters needed educating and since we weren't into 9 to 4, we decided on Homeschool. This soon developed into a modern Gurukul like “Centre for Learning” where the triad of child/teacher/parent were equally staked. My elder daughter works at CFL on the outskirts of Bangalore, and younger is an Arts Teacher at the Bangalore International School, arts section called “Srishti”.
I continue to be deeply involved & active in education, in Cinema Art Practice, enjoying featherweight digital equipment & touch screens of Cybernetic studios … a lone Wolf, catalysing Community Communication and Conscientization.
Best regards
Rahat
Monday, 28 September 2015
My National Awards
The then President of the Republic of India , Sri. R. Venkatraman gave me two of his medals in 1991.:... and I promptly forgot about it. It was a grand moment and our President , by giving the medals said in effect that, 'Rahat !! You are a good film maker !' ... and that was that !!
I made movies, the way only I make them, then do now. What I don't understand are a couple of things.
First # : Why do people have to go up and fetch more & more awards? Year after Year; as though they need to be reassured that they still are 'good' !! And besides this leaves out other, younger film makers from getting that award.
Second # Why do people, and not only just people but fillum wallhas too, including Government think that Feature Films are Upper Cast Brahmanicals and shorts as well as documentaries are the Lower Cast? Having mastered and practiced the Art Of Visual Articulation any film maker worth his/her salt will tell you that making a dialogue driven, actor based, narrative is cake walk compared to working with sociological phenomenon, armed with an idea or an ideology, a camera with sync. sound.
I made movies, the way only I make them, then do now. What I don't understand are a couple of things.
First # : Why do people have to go up and fetch more & more awards? Year after Year; as though they need to be reassured that they still are 'good' !! And besides this leaves out other, younger film makers from getting that award.
Second # Why do people, and not only just people but fillum wallhas too, including Government think that Feature Films are Upper Cast Brahmanicals and shorts as well as documentaries are the Lower Cast? Having mastered and practiced the Art Of Visual Articulation any film maker worth his/her salt will tell you that making a dialogue driven, actor based, narrative is cake walk compared to working with sociological phenomenon, armed with an idea or an ideology, a camera with sync. sound.
Tuesday, 10 September 2013
Manali
MANALI ... !! Bhuntar is a tiny chit of an air-strip.
Straight up North, when one looks some 3000 ft. above is sitting Bijli Maharaj ...
on the bald spur of mountain, above the tree line. There one can see, a
tiny, match-stick like lone 'Stambha' ...
when one gets up to the temple, its several tree trunks stapled together
by solid iron straps and stands tall, maybe 200 feet, maybe more or less. This
acts as lightening conductor and each year around the same time, lightening
strikes it, the energy is conducted to the Lingam at the Garbha and it shatters
into pieces. Word spreads and devotees start arriving with sacrificial animals
and Ghee (solidified at this altitude)
with which the Pujari re-assembles the Lingam, ceremoniously & every
body makes merry, feasting and jollying.
Now if one looks down below, one sees a
litmus paper like strip, that's Bhuntar aerodrome! A shiny river forks out like
the tongue of a snake bracketing the spur of this mountain. Huge eagles glide
past in line of sight, just 10 feet away from the edge (they are gliding 3,000
ft. above the ground!) ... Once a huge
red sun was setting and right across on the other horizon an equally huge
silvery full moon was rising ... Rahatavalokit 11.09.'13
What Can FTII Become?
THE QUESTION OF FTII @ PUNE
... one & only ...
this side of IDHEC PARIS :
"We” interact with “Reality” ...
not to satisfy some bourgeois, banal self interest, ours or anyone else’s ...
but in order to “Change It”
... In this “Regarde” if you are
not “Us” ... then you are the “Them”
... remember this ... And in case you are hoping that your “Parents”
/ “Family” /
“Private property” will help you on the path of “Wisdom”, that they will find
you a suitable match in marriage and see to it that your first born in “Male” ... then you have another thing coming !! It
will be useful to read-up, ”The Origin Of Family, Private Property and the
State” ... before
you take another step towards finding a “Solution” for FTII. Its “People” who make the
“Place” ... You see.
I have said this in private conversations and I shall say
this publicly, “Please gift this FTII as it is
within Prabhat Studio to Maharashtra State; leaving behind the TV
section as well as the Wisdom tree; make a fresh start that may be called say, “The Indian School of Cinema” ...
Select a neutral location and build on World Standard of The State of
the Art of Cinematographic ( in the Bressonic sense) sensibility and technology, a 'Center of Excellence', where
young & old alike can imbibe “Culture”, take long or short duration
courses, where creativity, stylistic research & philosophic enquiry can be nurtured
at a deep level of involvement
... Rahatavalokit 10. 09. ‘13
What is Cinema?
What is Cinema?
It is a virtual artifact, as yet an imperfect Art Form
because it tends to cannibalize upon other Arts, Social /Linguistic signs
and symbols. It is unique among Muses, the latest; it uses six
‘dimensions’. The basic two that are called ‘Aspect Ratio’ lead onto the third
called ‘Depth’. These three visual
dimensions are linked to an Aural dimension of ‘Sounds’ and a Linguistic one that
we can call ‘ Semiological Dimension’. As Cinema unfolds in Analogue Time there
is, therefore, a ‘Temporal Dimension’ to it.
This combination of Son et Lumiere chiaroscuro when projected
under ideal conditions, in a dark, sound-proof hall, powerfully grips the
imagination of each individual Man, Woman & Child among the ‘Mindless Paying Public’ and the discerning, critical viewer
finds the experience compellingly engaging. This accounts for the popularity of
Cinema even in its trivialized avatara as TV.
Rahatavalokit 11. 09. ‘13
What is God?
Q: WHAT IS GOD? ...
WHEN ARE WE GOING TO GET RID OF GOD?
...
A:
God is a principle of perfection which compensates the imperfections of
each individual; there are countless varieties of imperfections and countless
gods therefore. So long as gods are
needed there will be not one, but many. This plurality can be overcome only
when the individual forgets his personal limitations in a more comprehensive
unity. Then gods are no longer necessary. Rahatavalokit 11, 09.'13
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
FEATURE FILM SCENARIO #2
“WOMAN
IN THREE PARTS” – SCENARIO 
{For private & restricted
circulation}
IDEA: To
take a close, sympathetic look at the origin, current status & future of
Gender sensitive culture in an orthodox, upwardly mobile society …
and then gently float it into the vast embrace of “Advait Vedanta” …
There has
to be a woman. She will have to grow in the film. The film has to be about this
woman. Yet she must turn into a metaphor. Three parts can be roughly divided as:
Ossification
Impression
Immersion
Coda
OSSIFICATION
This is
happening in modern times. Like in any suburban house we see in Hindi t.v
serials; a house with a lawn & verandah, uncles & aunts, other young
& olds, including babies. She is one among all of these. The house leaves
every one pretty much to them.
She has a
boy friend, a young film maker. He’s got a powerful motor bike, real test
driver’s helmets, even for pillion rider. He likes to play songs for her on his
guitar in public parks, in other places he blows upon the harmonica that’s
always in his jacket pocket. He likes to go fishing with a rod and baited hook,
plays tennis & billiards. She is an air hostess, likes to party anywhere on
off nights. They are on board a plane, accidentally. He is returning from a
shoot, flirting openly with the lead girl. She comes to serve them. There
ensues a subdued implosion within the aircraft. Other film crew, guys &
girls, senior hostesses & flight attendant, even the Captain turns up for a
toast as they are pronounced Man & Wife by a Christian Priest co-passenger
on flight. This is known as ‘Janasakshi’ and restoration of peace. She gets ten
days off for honeymoon during which they separate. She gives up her job as
well. If there isn’t anything in it for her, she isn’t gonna take it.
An aunt in
the house is a social activist. She, our leading lady, we call her Gimmi, is
helped along to meet women’s groups who hate men. There Gimmi meets with a
female partner called Squirrel. They start living together. While social work
takes her further into public life, emotionally something seems to whither away
somewhere deep within. She keeps pet cats that sleep with these women in the
same bed. Her sensual nature oozes out in her professional dynamism. Her house
is like a den and so is her car, but this sublimation is flawed; there is a vacuum
somewhere. A void that is not to be filled with anything but the truth. What
‘truth’, she doesn’t think of all those things at all, but there is something
missing, it is telling upon her health, every one can see that. The aunt runs a
‘gift your toys’ link with poor children and manages to secure a male child for
Gimmi to ‘virtually adopt & support at a distance’ by means of checks paid
monthly to a name; picture of this child she remembers seeing in the agency reference
on Facebook. She has a link saved somewhere. She is at the top of her carrier.
A comfortable plateau or caesura from her giddy, meteoric rise where physical
time and personal space were on premium, now like in a time capsule she is
shrouded in ennui & cloud computing.
IMPRESSIONS
Gimmi &
Squirrel decide to jump in their car and wheel it to where their adopted child
is situated. They look up a flight map like and hit the road with little other
than a checking account book & a bottle of Bisleri. This journey by road
opens up certain horizons for both G & S. There occur several incidents to
give them ‘reality check’ and help them back to basics. After the glorious
autobahn like speeds up to Pune they have to be slower on the route to
Hyderabad. First thing to break down is
the a/c of their car. It is hot on Southern Plateau and they run out of gas at
a meal stop on the road. As they struggle to start their car, G & S are
hounded by little and large children constantly ogling at them, their curious
eye-balls are plastered upon the flimsy clad, sweating bodies of these women.
She is reminded, despite her best efforts to avoid, that Adoor, the child she
adores could well be one such brash brat. Fact is that rural kids are totally
shameless and inquisitive. A car driven by female, another female passenger to
boot. This in itself is a sight for village children. Boys & girls alike,
they stare them down to limits of embarrassment. Squirrel decides to quit. She
has had enough. They have a show down and Squirrel catches a bus in opposite
direction which had stopped to give them a helping hand. Gimmi is at a null
point. After a caesura with local women who take her down to their village to
dinner at their house, she steels herself for the onward drive. There are other
things, new observations, experiences & situations that have made her act
in certain ways she would never have dreamt of in her city based professional
life. Tedium of solitary driving, coping with unknown languages and crude
cultures, irregular eating habit and sleeping just anywhere to avoid falling
asleep on the steering wheel while speeding on straight stretches of road on
Deccan Plateau with its fantastically breathtaking molten lava honey droplet
like rock formations, no trees, extreme weather; all these combine to give her
a weary, far out contemplative look. She is discovering or being led by force
of circumstance to feel for ‘the other’. And she finds it difficult and tedious
to do so because, “what’s there in it for me?” she reasons.
The car for
the most part has behaved. She has remembered to fill gas and have it serviced
at Hyderabad, where she has had a most charming Muslim family sell her some of
the most exquisite dresses imaginable called ‘shararas’ & ‘ghararas’. She
feels like a princess in those softest of cotton textures and styles for
summer. The road is now getting easier on her. She is really beginning to enjoy
driving at high speeds. She goes up Nandi Hill for fun on hairpin bends. Once
up there she is not able to take her self away from spell binding bird’s eye
view, cloud formations, squeezing and funneling between lower down hill tops
for days. She has never connected with time & space like this before. She
finds herself staring at the clouds like those children stared at her. And who
was that … yes, that black, monstrous looking Tamilian bus driver who said
that, ‘the only true relation in this world is that of a Mother & Child’.
He’d even addressed her as ‘Amma’ & she’d felt that he regarded her as one.
At that moment it had irked her vanity to be called Amma. But in the South even
little daughters are called Amma. This mind blowing journey is acquiring the
form of a pilgrimage now for there is a strange look of determination on her
face, such as we see only on pilgrims driven by some spiritual or fantastic
zeal.
Gimmi is
well on her way, she is approaching the East coast. The weather is mild. She
can live off her car and not have to stay at hotels. She is losing her gender
consciousness insidiously, not aware of it yet her self. Children’s staring
does not trouble her at all any more, for instance. Somehow, or probably due to
this loss of consciousness in her, children have actually ceased getting
attracted to her vibrations. She tries to make efforts to be friendly with
children she comes across. They do not speak the same language but connect in
startlingly refreshing & creative ways. These children are something else again;
she thinks fondly of Adoor and drives on.
IMMERSION
The
orphanage, she reaches late in the evening, housed in a French colonial
building with a compound in Pondicherry. All along the drive way there are
vegetables growing. It is a huge house, leaky during monsoons, damp & dilapidated.
Here some twenty or more boys & girls live and share all their existential
works and pleasures. There is a man who almost looks like and behaves like
their mother. They call him ‘Mother with Moustache’. Gimmi is amazed at this
strange family who are singing happily and serving their guest. The Man is
silent for the most part, courteously enjoying how Gimmi soaks in details of
their dense, emotional & sensual energy. This group or family knows nothing
about her nor do they speak her language. The ‘Mother with Moustache’ speaks English
haltingly, but he chooses his few words well. As the meal is done and over,
current goes off. Children light up the place with candles or oil lamps. It is
an amazing magical sight. She is handed one candle and shown to her room with
the promise that her ‘child’ Venkatesh, will bring her coffee in the morning.
In her
room, first thing that strikes Gimmi is the quality of silence here. Without
electricity silence is darker, a deep roar of distant sea is filling it through
huge French windows with no barriers. Sleep is impossible. She wants some coffee
now. The whole house is dark. ‘Mother’ is walking up & down in silence,
bare feet, upon the drive way. She still doesn’t know his name. He makes her
coffee in his rooms. They have a silent conversation. Sitting there, Gimmi
realizes, ‘…they are so coherent because they have practically defeated
consumerism and abolished dependence on paper currency. They have found joy in
elemental life and they are digging it…’
In his rooms,
there is a charge, perception heightens with blazing aroma of freshly ground
well roasted coffee. The roar of Sea seems to have become louder on the rear
verandah, silence has deeper tones filled with sighs of worshipful joy; the
tide is shifting; all fluids moving toward a cosmic orgasm. One adorable
convenience being lesbian was you disregard contraception. So here, she
conceives, tonight. Her pilgrimage is complete. She sees herself behind the
wheel of her car, driving home with a benign smile of contentment. Soon to be a
single parent.
CODA
Early the
next morning, however, Adoor brings her a good tumbler of steaming coffee as
promised. She is delighted to find that this is the same boy who’d come to town
responding to her call for street directions to the Orphanage and now she
recollects him being silently near her through out last evening. She hadn’t
reacted to the vibe, that’s all. They have washed and cleaned her car. It is
sparkling in early morning sunshine against the lovely period building with
cabbages in foreground. Suddenly its time for taking pictures. She goes to town
with children buying things they want or need or wish from a town, that is to
say a market place. She finds a ticket to Bombay on a night flight the same
day. In the evening they go to see her off at the airport; ‘Mother’ comes along
as well. At the airport she tells him that they should keep her car and use it,
she is tired of driving and that she will come back soon. Then they will need
to use this car and hurriedly moves away from disbelieving eyes of children.
There is eye contact with Mother, but no one goes inside the airport & all.
The movie should end here. Unless there is some earth shaking idea forthcoming,
this is it. -----------------------------------------------------------
Text prepared by Rahat Yusufi for CACA (pronounced
kasa)
Creative Advancement of Cinematic Articulation.
© Author shall be pleased to see his I.P. Rights
intact.
FEATURE FILM SCENARIO #1
“Ek FILM” AN
ABRIDGED SCENARIO
{For private &
restricted circulation.}
IDEA: … and what should I feel?
I am not to blame for
what happened to him.
Just as you are not to blame for what has
happened to me.
Because we are all beasts.
Ch#1 mother &
child
Piki, an adolescent boy, lives in his
mountain village. He is perhaps an only child with his Mother or Grandmother we
are not able to say as mountain women age so early in life. Mother loves Piki
and she loves too, her hens & rooster, her vegetable patch & the photo
of a man that sits in a sacred corner of the house among pictures of her Gods.
The house she seems to love just as she loves to stand in front of it on the
road and make conversation with passers by.
Piki is a quiet child. He loves nature, its
cycles and so many changes that salubrious blossoming bodies of youth are to
know. His bicycle, accidentally one day, kills a hen and the grief of Mother is
undeniable. It is as though she lost her own child. That then, is precisely
what happens. The same accident takes place again in precisely the same way;
this time it is Piki who flies over the handlebar, hits his head on a stone and
dies. The grief of Mother is exactly the same. Unable to see his situation
clearly, Piki rebels and runs away from this home in the hills.
Mother keeps grieving and continues to live
& love her elemental existence. Piki ends up working for his keep at a
dhaba in Bombay. He will never see her again in this life, his unborn children
would never know her. There are many young boys here who for an extra buck
stage road accidents and among them Piki, lives by his wits; a day at a time.
Ch#2
bonhomie
Piki, the smart kid on the block, in
Colaba. He represents no cast and comes from no creed, a nowhere man who the
rest of hide-bound young society of Colaba looks agog at. In their dreams they would
like to be like him but confronted, buckle to their knees at pinball machine
and billiard table; he could even pull a card trick or two in dire straights.
He’s got friends, some freakish painters & rich local kids; piki sleeps in
a vacant loft or an empty studio and moves about among boys mainly. He could
just as well sleep on the beach with a sky for cover. Piki is free because he’s
got nothing to lose.
One night, after staging an astonishingly
successful ‘accident’, Piki walks out of victim’s building, his pockets and a
bag stuffed with bank notes. He notices that his dhaba boss, the cop &
cabby are all looking elsewhere; & in that moment Piki turns away from them
all with a silent good bye. Loaded with cash at Sarver’s Joint Piki comes
across two other characters, paying up Sarvar for a boat ride to Abu Dhabi. Piki
joins in with his money & the three take off, on an adventure of their life
time.
Ch#3
comredare`
After a grueling voyage in the hold of a
trawler these three, who really come from different universes, turn into good
comrades; they come together with a single aim of making it good & fast.
They realize that they have been cheated, that they have been dropped back on
Indian soil further up North around marshy wastelands of the Gulf of Kutch.
This misadventure binds them together even more strongly than before as each
one’s survival now depends upon each other. There is little trust and mutual promises
sound hollow. Nevertheless they hang together because there is pestilence
around, the country is at war & communications have broken down. They have
to stay away from cities and in the forest armies are conducting search &
comb operations.
Ch#4
me & myself
Each one of them is separated from the
others due to some greed, misadventure or difference of opinion; even then
there are hopes and promises for each other when accidentally two of them meet
after suffering horrible conditions of isolation, deprivation, hunger and
mortal fear. Desperately they recount some of their deep fears and experiences
and promise to help each other, knowing fully well they are trapped by
commandos who are sure to shoot them down at sight, now any moment, their foot
falls and cat calls are highly terrifying. The two slip into their personal,
private, individual, own isolations, hiding away from each other in a desperate
bid to survive. Piki actually witnesses his friend being burnt alive in the middle
of a beautiful, olive green thicket in the forest. At last Piki is also caught
but because he is totally unarmed and innocent, the Commanding Officer spares
his life and couriers him back to Bombay on the next AN12.
Ch#5
self & the other
Piki looks groovy on the same old streets
of Colaba. Now no one seems to recognize him any more. His hair & beard has
grown; with a near death experience he looks more handsome than ever, actually
with all that realization behind him, in his new dockyard uniform overalls, Piki
walks along lit shop windows full of mannequins. Others pass by. The most
miraculous chase sequence occurs then
through the streets of Colaba, this chase begins in taxis up to Victoria
Terminus, then through empty, last train time platforms of VT the chase
actually moves along the central line on local trains running on parallel
tracks, Piki and his girl in one and the Cat chasing them in the other fast
train overtaking steadily. In the end our hero and heroin, {newly found …the
cause of this magnificent chase …} are the only occupants of an entire local
train compartment which is where their new dawn comes as the train is docked
for the end of shift. Our Heroin, then takes the Hero with his hand and they
walk away, hand in hand on the receding line of perspective of Bombay-Lonavala
train track, asymptotically … !!
Ch#6
married life & destruction
Piki now begets three children, count his
wife, mother in law, himself; six, & now father in law is to arrive this
evening to stay on after retirement; so seven souls live under this one room
tin roof, a tenement of the stone quarry where every one goes to work. The only
time they are together as a family is when they are resting during nights.
Proximity makes them shameless and the old man peeps in to watch what’s going
on with the couple. Children sleep with them on the same floor and the old lady
is somewhere in the dark rear with a dripping tap, often loudly making her
presence felt by dropping a steel vessel. There are so many different types of
gaze intersecting each other in this tiny, darkened space & Piki is in top
form. Staccato speech in such high strung quick tempo, hissing & flying.
Here every one is for them selves. There is no controversy about that. The planes
over head are too low and Piki just moves out to do susu when bombs begin to
fall on this locality. Piki is once again witness to the utter destruction of
his entire cosmology. It just burns up in direct hits and muffled agonized
screams while he finishes piddling. Next morning he is among many survivors who
do not know what to do. Everyone is shell shocked, bereft of their daily time
table & schedules they really are at a loss to find any meaningful gesture
or move to make.
Ch#7
recreation
This lazy, aimless crowd, Piki one among
them, moves aimlessly toward the railway station where there is no train going
any where and none arriving. No one is manning the ticket window. Some wiser
folk, knowing the value of these stacks of paper card tickets start collecting
them. Some start walking along the tracks. They form a sort of locality later,
on a sort of no-man’s-land; in between warring & opposing yet invisible
forces and their guard rooms & bunkers far off on top of the hills,
exchanging friendly bombardments on either side. This is where most people from
stone quarry settlement begin to re-recognize each other. Women begin to
re-group and men try on different professional masks as they have lost features
and props of their old ones; the settlement… gone now, family, businesses,
middle-men-ship, petty shops. Piki has stopped speaking altogether. He merely
makes some wondering or questioning sounds or gestures but he has no opinion on
any thing any more, it would seem. Eventually, he does find it funny that a
woman who is about to give birth to a child will not be helped by any other
woman till this one tells as to who is the father of the child! So he goes in
and helps her. There is an Aghori, hatha yogi who enjoys boiling and eating after-birth
and placenta while the baby is cleaned and put to mother’s breast by Piki.
… and Time has moved on …
The people of this refugee camp have all
gone away. No bunkers, no cross firing. There is a rivulet instead, streaming,
gurgling down the hill side. A woman drying some diaphanous cloth on a line and
a child splashes the back lit water, very clean. Piki sits burning holes in
bamboo reeds. He talks with the child through notes of music that he can create
on the flutes he makes. Piki plays flute interlude from the Beatle’s
composition called “The Fool on the Hill”
ξηď şŧąġė
Ї. Saturday, August 14, 2004. 11:53 PM
Ch#8
coda
Piki is walking up a steeply inclined
pavement of Carmichæl road looking like a jumbo bouquet of colorful flutes. He
is breathing steadily. Crisply uniformed in white & sky blue, children are returning
from school. Piki does not play his flute to attract them; he is slightly out
of breath. Children take no notice of him until; walking steadily up the
incline with his tree of flutes upon his shoulder, putting one foot after the
next it seems to him as though he has become motionless, instead it seems the
Earth is moving away, not letting his forward step touch the ground. The ground
just ahead is falling and there is no need to make any effort any more Piki
felt / Piki feels light as a feather in a gust of cool breeze as gravitation
slowly takes over and without him realizing it, Piki just keels over backward,
his head hits a stone; he passes out & away among children scurrying round
the body to make their way home. Some wise guys among them pick up a flute or
two from his bouquet and mothers are screaming from higher floors. His companion
& child would never know. They listen to sounds of flutes among bamboo reed
forests surrounding their stream of sparkling water, juvenile sun shining on
pale green grass and a sky, blue with fluffy white clouds who lazily tumble
over.
Ψ text prepared
by Rahat Yusufi for CACA (pronounced Kasa)
Creative Advancement
of Cinematic Articulation.
© Author would
appreciate it if his I.P. Rights are respected.
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
MOVIES ON CINEMA AS A WAY OF LIFE
It will come to you too if you leave the Space { do not be too busy all the time } and be Mindful in waking ... sleeping ... dreaming ... meditating { Jagrit / Sushupta / Swapnil / Turya } states. Allow it and it shall come, in other words... don't resist it
The wonderful folks at this wonderful place called Culture Unplugged have done me the favor. They have up-loaded my films concerning all of the above and all that has gone below in this blog here and what may yet come into it. ... The Grand-plan is here .. please look-up / visit
www.cultureunplugged.com/storyteller/Rahat_Yusufi { TRANSPARENCIES }
to access the stuff. It was originally meant to be interspersed with the text of this blog, but now that may be possible if I make an e-book out of it...!!
Love & Blessings
Rahatavalokit
The wonderful folks at this wonderful place called Culture Unplugged have done me the favor. They have up-loaded my films concerning all of the above and all that has gone below in this blog here and what may yet come into it. ... The Grand-plan is here .. please look-up / visit
www.cultureunplugged.com/storyteller/Rahat_Yusufi { TRANSPARENCIES }
to access the stuff. It was originally meant to be interspersed with the text of this blog, but now that may be possible if I make an e-book out of it...!!
Love & Blessings
Rahatavalokit
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)