Still Meandering

LEAVE IT FOR IMAGINATION

China is the greatest mystifying fact of Modern World. She is the oldest living Nation with a continuous culture. She has the largest population. Once she was the greatest Empire in the World and conqueror. She gave the World some of its most important inventions. She has a literature, a philosophy, a wisdom of life entirely of her own; and in the realm of Art she soared where others merely made an effort to flap their wings. Now she is modernizing with open markets and one can not but have faith in her ability to do so when one remembers how she survived the Ages after the beauty that was Greece and the glory that was Rome are long vanished.

Now that she has reached Grand Old Age she is beyond bodily & spiritual sorrows and one would have thought at times, beyond hope and beyond redemption. Success & failure have ceased to touch her, calamities and death has lost their meaning; for she is greater than her wars & pestilence. Surrounded by her children and grand children Merry Old China quietly sips her tea and smiles on, and in her smile I see her real strength.

It is the lot of the great to be misunderstood. China has been greatly, magnificently, misunderstood. Greatness is often a term we confer upon what we do not understand and wish to have done with. Between being well understood, however, and being called great, China would have preferred the former; and it would have been better for everybody all around.

Indeed, for the business of trying to understand a foreign Nation and culture there is need for brotherly feeling, of a common bond of humanity & cheer of good fellowship. There is need also for some detachment from one’s self and one’s subconscious notions from one’s childhood; form those big words with capital letters like; Democracy, Capital, Success, Prosperity, Religion, Dividends et. al. above all, one needs ‘Simplicity of Mind’. As it is, it is not humanity but gold that has attracted westerners to this far eastern shore, with not a single spiritual tie among them and the Chinese. As it is, the Englishman did not bother to have himself understood to the Chinese; and the true Chinese bothers even less to make himself understood to the Englishman. Where can that unity of understanding be? How can we combine real appreciation with critical appraisal?  To see with the Mind and to feel with the Heart. To make the mind & heart one is no easy state of grace to attain to. It requires courage, and that rare thing, ‘honesty’; and that still rarer thing, ‘a constant questioning activity of the mind’. A mind free of all ‘conditioning’.

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. By way of illustrating this, I would like to reproduce below, a letter from an elder brother to his younger brother. I feel it captures the essential spirit for the love of Nature & Family among Chinese.

“The house you bought is well enclosed and indeed suitable for residence, only I feel the courtyard is too small, and when you look at the sky, it is not big enough. With my unfettered nature I do not like it. Only a hundred steps from this house there is a Parrot Bridge and another thirty steps from the bridge is the Plum Tower, with vacant spaces all around. If you could spare fifty thousand cash, you could buy a big lot for me to build my cottage there for my later days. My intention is to build an earthen wall around it and plant lots of bamboo, & flowers, & trees. I am going to have a garden path of paved pebbles leading from the gate to the house door. There will be two rooms, one for the parlor, one for the study where I can keep books, paintings, brushes, ink slabs, wine kettle & tea service, and where I can discuss poetry & literature with some good friends and the younger generation. Behind this will be the family living rooms, all covered with grass sheds, three main rooms, two kitchens and one servant’s room. Altogether there will be eight rooms and I shall be quite content. Early in the morning, before sun rise, I shall look east and see the red glow of the morning clouds, and at sun set, the sun will shine from behind the trees. When one stands upon a high place in the courtyard one can already see the bridge and clouds & water in the distance; and when giving a party at night, one can see the lights of the neighbor outside the wall. On looking up there would be a bright moon and a sky full of beautiful stars. This will be only thirty steps on the South to your house and will be separated from the little garden on the East by a small creek. So it is quite ideal. Some may say, “This is indeed very comfortable, only there may be burglars..” They do not know that burglars are but poor people. I would open the door and invite them to come in, and discuss with them what they may share. Whatever there is, they can take away; and if nothing would really suit them, they can even take away the great Wong’s old carpet to pawn it for a hundred cash. Please, my younger brother; bear this in mind, for this is your brother’s provision for spending a happy old age. I wonder whether I may have what I so desire.”

This is typical of a Tao soul. ‘Choose the lighter happiness’, said a scholar at the end of Ming Dynasties, and somehow, there was an echo of consent in the Chinese breast. Happiness is so precarious that retreat to Nature & simplicity are the best safeguards for it. This is a different philosophy of life. Compared with this view of life, the whole fabric of Western Civilization seems raw & immature. All this bustle and restlessness of the spirit of ‘young man’ – where will it all lead to? And all this enthusiasm, self assertion and struggle; war & hot headed nationalism – where will it all end; and what is it all for? In myriad forms spirit of Lao-tse finds expression in literature, painting, poetry & proverb. At its worst, this highest product of Chinese intelligence works against idealism & action. It shatters all desire for reform, laughs at the futility of all human effort and renders people incapable of all idealism & action. It has a way of reducing all human activities to the level of alimentary canal and other simple biologic needs. Elimination & reproduction. This nonchalant and materialistic attitude is based on a very shrewd view of life to which only old people and Old Nations can attain. It would be futile for young men under thirty and young nations of the West to try to understand, even appreciate it. Perhaps it is no mere accident that “Laotse” means “The Old Boy”. All Chinese literature that is worthwhile, that is readable and that pleases human mind and sooths human heart is imbued with Tao-istic spirit. Tao-ism & Confusion-ism are negative & positive poles of Chinese thought which make life possible in China. In sum, one recognizes the necessity of human effort but one also admits the futility of it; and human life moves on, on the level of least resistance. This develops a certain calmness of mind which enables one to swallow insults and find oneself in harmony with the Universe.

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.

The Chinese are a nation of individualists. They are family minded and social minded; and the family mind is only a form of magnified selfishness. The word ‘society’ does not exist in Chinese thought. The family system and the village system, which is a family raised to a higher exponent, accounts for all there is to explain in Chinese social life. Modern readers of our ‘global village’ can take this in the sense of ‘Vasudeva Kutumbakam’. ‘Public Spirit’ is a new term, so is ‘Civic Consciousness’ & so is ‘social service’. They do not indulge in ‘Sport, Politics & Religion’; which bind human beings together, the essence of English & American social life. Chinese games do not divide players into two parties as in cricket, with one team playing against the other. Team work is unknown. They like poker and do not like bridge. To a Chinese social work always looks like, “mingling in other people’s business”. The persuasive argument is, “The illiterate are not interfering with you, why must you interfere with them? What do you mean by going out of your way to do all this “work”? Were you invited in the first place? Are you courting publicity? Why are you not loyal to your family?”

The best, modern educated Chinese, still can not understand why western women should organize a “Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals”. Why bother about dogs and why do they not stay at home and nurse their babies? They reason that these women have no children and therefore have nothing better to do, which, probably, often is the truth. The conflict is between the Family mind and the Social mind. It may be interesting to study how Man behaves as a social being in the absence of a social mind.

From the love of Family there grew a love for Clan, and there developed an attachment to Land where one was born. Thus, a sentiment arose which may be called, ‘Provincialism’. This idea of being from the same native place binds people of the same village, district or province together and is responsible for the existence of schools, public granaries, orphanage and other public foundations. It is the enlarged family mind that makes civic co-operation and public governance possible at village level. As regards law & justice, people were & are shy of the Law Court; ninety five percent of village disputes being settled by village elders. The absence of lawyers makes justice possible. And where there is justice, there is peace in human heart. If the ‘thing’ called Government can leave them alone, people are always willing to leave the Government alone. A housewife would still like to sweep her house clean and throw rubbish in front of neighbor’s house while the other housewife would throw her garbage in front of this one’s house when she is not looking.

Poetry has given the Chinese a view of life and taught them compassion, an overflowing love for Nature. Poetry cleanses the heart through artistic reflection of sorrow. It teaches them to listen with enjoyment to the sound of raindrops on banana leaves and wind rustling through a clump of bamboo grove. To admire smoke rising & mingling with clouds in evening sun light, to be tender to white lilies on country foot paths. Above all, it teaches them a pantheistic union with Nature; to awaken & rejoice with Spring, to doze off & hear Time visibly flying away with droning cicadas in Summer, to feel sad with falling Autumn leaves and to ‘look for lines of poetry in snow’ during Winter.

The striking thing about poetry is plastic imagination & kinship of technique with painting. This is most evident in handling perspective. The art lies in selection of an object in foreground and to set it off against objects in the distance. Then paint them together on a flat surface. Poet’s eye is painter’s eye & painting & poetry become one.

“First we look at the hills in the painting;

Then we look at the painting in the hills”

Worship of Pastoral Life has colored whole of Chinese culture. Today, officials & scholars speak of, ‘going back to the farm’ as the most elegant, the most refined and the most sophisticated ambition in life that they can think of. Behind that flat yellow face is concealed deep emotionalism, behind sullen, decorous appearance resides a carefree, vagabond soul. Those rough, yellow fingers fashion objects of pleasing design and from almond eyes behind high cheek bones shines a tender light that dwells fondly upon forms of exquisite beauty. 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.

In the works of Li Liweng there is an important section devoted to pleasures of life. I would like to close by reproducing below what he said about “willows” and the art of enjoying them.

“The important thing about willows is that their branches hang down, for if they did not hang down, they would not be willows. It is important that the branches be long for otherwise they cannot sway gracefully in the wind. What then would be the use of them hanging down? This tree is the place where cicadas love to rest, as well as other birds. It is to the credit of this tree that we often hear music in the air and do not feel lonely in summer. Especially is this the case with tall willow trees. In short, planting trees is not only to please the eye but also to please the ear as well. The pleasure of the eye is sometimes limited because we are lying down on the bed. On the other hand the ear can take in pleasures all the time. The most lovely notes of birds are not heard when we are sitting, but when we are lying down. Everyone knows that the bird’s song should be heard at dawn, but do not know why they should be heard at dawn, as people do not think about it. The birds are continually afraid of the shooting gun and after seven o’clock in the morning all people are up and birds no longer feel at ease. Once they are on their guard, they can no longer sing whole heartedly; and even if they sing, their song can not be beautiful. That is why day time is not a proper time for listening to the birds. At dawn, people are not up yet, with the exception of a few early risers; since the birds are then free from worry, naturally, they can finish their song at their ease. Besides, their tongues have been lying idle for the whole night and are now itching to try their skill. Consequently when they sing, they sing with full gladness of their heart all singing birds should regard me as their bosom friend.

There are many points about planting trees, but there is one point which is an annoyance to the cultivated. When the tree leaves are too thick, they shut out the moon light, like shutting off a beauty from our view. The tree can not be held guilty for this, because it is the men who are at fault. If we could spend a thought at the time of planting trees and allow a corner of the sky to be shown behind them in order to wait for the rising and setting of the moon, we could then receive its benefits both at night & day.”

Cacareadings#3102

We Shall Meander ... for the point I shall make is rather vast

Monday, February 06, 2012

Hi! Wasn’t there a wonderful book called  “Chalice & the Blade” ?  I do not recall author’s name.  Do you? Have you come across it?  It was about Matriarchal social system at Isle of Crete; probably written by Salvador Allinde’s daughter, while in exile in Europe.

You wrote saying I’m a good man for looking after tribal kids. I am not really sure at all in crisis as to right course of action, at least on my part.  I’m not the leader type so I lead by personal example, but linguistic, class & cultural differences  leave yawning gaps in our communication, locally. One simple example comes to mind; something that  happened last evening an hour or so before sun set. 

A  girl of may be sixteen, studying 10^th standard at our school, living in village, poured kerosene oil and burned herself to death, before her family could return from farms & fields. She has a younger brother at std. 8^th. with us.  Apparently an ex-student from our school, from this same village, vacationing here from a job he is into at Bombay & she were in love.

Any further details I do not now. The school was closed for the day and all teachers went to her house for condolence; what I waned to know  was,  ‘what did they say at the house ?’.  Did they take side of the girl or did they support the social view,  ‘orthodox people take care their daughters do not fall in love & all that’. Teachers, incidentally, are opinion makers in our village society. They are most educated, rich, well mannered, aware and probably higher class than most villagers.

The news shook me to the quick; some said the boy must have jilted her. I feel it might have been parents who’d have threatened her against meeting her boy friend. I don’t know what should I do? I’m just waiting & watching from  my rooms….& writing to you! … how silly really.

Love rahat

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Dear Jo,

Here are a few , (I won’t call them facts) details . The boy and girl were caught in another nearby school function, being intimate/ maybe just together alone in a secluded dark corner. The boy, not well off, with ailing father, slumming in Bombay, and here at the village house old,  poverty stricken  relatives. They are ‘Kunbi’ a low cast community and girl was ‘Maratha’ ; relatively higher cast. So it seems, the girl’s folks went to the boy asking to settle them in marriage, but he chickened out, not having money and support. The girl, in addition to this rebuttal, was taunted and teased by other village women, it seems, (That’s the one who got caught!) and was deeply hurt within. All this in quick succession, life in all villages  enjoys no “privacy’. Every body knows everything about everyone else. So she thought it is a life long stigma, an end of the road.

She actually put on dress on top of dress, some four layers; gagged her mouth in case screams of agony escape & betray her; she soaked all the layers of her dresses so that they will burn for long time. It seems she stood her ground till the end. Only in the last few moments, it seems, she dragged her body a couple of yards and she was completely burnt.

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Hi jo. During the course of the day, a couple of details emerged.  One that the girl had left a suicide note in her school bag. She absolved her parents as well as the boy she loved.  The vernacular newspaper carried a piece saying she had done poorly in mid-term exams, so she set herself ablaze.

In a couple of days  /  nights from now; it will become a full moon night.  The moon already is very bright & looking quite full.  It illuminates landscapes , rolling country walks and modest hills around in our terrain.  People do not use too much electric lights, population density is very sparse. Most able bodied people are in Bombay.  Here population hasn’t risen in the past twenty years. My friends come seeking solitude, silence & peace of mind. They say, Rahat! Your village is like an open air sound proof studio!!

Most of us are free, non-commercial filmmakers and audio freaks. They are amazed at the quality of silence here. Full moon nights and days, as well as dark-moon durations are saturated with celestial power. The Oceans are pulled up and as you know, viscosity and salinity of human blood is equal to the viscosity & salinity of sea water. [not the dead sea water!] .  The blood, therefore, gets affected and charged during those many hours. They could fall during any part of day or night, although we seem to see and be aware of full moon only during nights when we can actually see the full or the dark moon.

One nice evening call placed by my dear friend Tarun Bedi was  icing on the cake that was today!

Love rahat.     [& rahat hopes he is not boring you Jo … hogging your time & emotional energy’ tell him …]

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Hi! Jo…

I think the news spread about our 10^th grader’s self immolation.  Others on facebook have been asking me to meet her younger brother and console him.  I do what I do here, as you know in the absence of any ‘privacy’. When I sit on my laptop children crowd around me and yours and Tarunji’s and Gabriella’s and a few others’ conversations are public knowledge as it were. What I write to you and Gabriella I translate or children, or they just look & learn as the letters form into words on my screen. I notice it helps them learn English language as well. It’s better than reading a book because here they know the story & are keen to follow each word that  my un-trained two, sometimes three or four finger typing can form; that’s not too fast. My interactions with all of you are known through out the school. Every one is talking about it at the one & only grocer’s shop near by where all children go to buy some  cookies, munchies; and where most, if not all villagers have to come for their purchases. My views and reciprocally their news gets around fast.

Then there this other collateral aspect as well. First of all value of human life is no different, more or less than the value of any other form of life; a cow, a stray dog, a mendicant, myself, the dead girl or her living brother, a tree, river or a stone are all looked upon with same sort of complacent equanimity. If there is something  specific between boy / girl child it is this. The girl is the ‘financial deposit’ for another house, the boy shall attract money, an un-paid underling for doing all dirty work in the house;  the boy shall remain ‘mom’s baby’ and  shall inherit ancestral property. So prejudice for male off-spring is embedded in ‘Patriarchal System’  of organizing family, private property as well as the State / Governance ethos.

I shall stop now. Life has gone on since and time is passing. I feel hungry, my lunch has been brought in from school mess by one of our children who in his other hand carried my five Lit. Jerry can of water supply & before it grows cold I am going to sit down & eat it.

Love rahat

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, 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 on 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

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 We Want To Do…”

Rahatavalokit

Cacareadings#1174

Holiday Special

I Placed A Call to a Friend

I placed my call to a friend this afternoon. I’d got his number from his wife who asked her son to give it to me. Last time when he had called me, it was from his wife’s cell; so I had that saved on my cell. She just received the call, heard me and handed over the phone to her son. He said they were traveling and I can take the number for his father. Somehow, although I am not able to put a finger on it yet, I felt that they were both rather cold and indifferent. Anyway, I spoke to them nicely, took down the number and thanked the young man who just kept quiet so I had to cut the line. Then I discovered I had got one digit wrong. I finally corrected that and spoke to my friend who seemed lonesome and was suffering from some throat infection which is spread all over Bombay. Sounding like an old Films Division commentary speaker he spoke to me till my battery ran down, as usual. He reconnected and I invited him here and called off. What saddened me during our otherwise normal course of conversation was the fact that a brilliant and innovative sound recordist should find himself thrown out of the fray simply because technology has changed from analog to digital. He was sounding so forlorn. No big studios, no grand machines. No Nagara tape recorder! All gone. Huge empires like Prasad Studios going to seed. No takers for him and his abilities. He said he too is a ‘one man show’ who goes to places like Satyajit Ray Film School to find lucrative ways for disposing their obsolete equipment. A consultant for trash; waste disposal. No wonder the young do not look upon him as a well fitting, oiled cog in the machine and therefore have no respect for a man as wonderful and humble, intelligent, quiet and soft spoken as him. But it was good that we talked. Another friend, a good old Cameraman would be facing similar throw backs of fast changing technology. In a sense we, the so called ‘lovers of Cinema’, who wish to see the state of art of Cinema grow as fine Art and are sad due to the media, rather multi media tornado sweeping all fine things away and saturating our air with toxic invisible vibrations, creating dust and gloom of cheap MP3 like ‘time pass muck’; we are victim of the same phenomenon. My only consolation is that these are passing fancies. The faster they come the faster they go. That Cinema, like any other Fine Art Form will also have to take its time to mature. A quill, a fountain pen or a ball point is not the thing, its Poetry and Literature, calligraphy. It’s a fine thing that technology influences content but evolution of any art form has to go through all these better or worse modifications. They may not actually be for the worse in the long run; vinyl LPs are making a come back with analog sound systems costing the earth! There is nothing to beat a Grand Piano, Stradivarius Violen or an ancient Vichittra Veena. The sound timber of a nice, old, well seasoned acoustic guitar is something else again. The digital cloud shall pass and the worm shall keep turning! That is what I say, and I said it to him. There is only one thing and that is that technicians do not share the optimism of an Artist. They are there to handle machines; they are not driven by ‘vision’, by aesthetics, by philosophy, ideology; by emotion, passion and longing; by a calling, by the devastating urge to get under the skin of fellow beings; which is what makes or breaks an Artist in the last analysis. Which is what keeps us alive and kicking; unaffected by physical aging we remain forever free and young; some of us actually become more childlike and more innocent, full of eternal wonder and awe as we mature. That is something that I thought our technician friends do not share with Rahat and Vishnu.

08:30 PM.

Nurturing an Art form, a new, budding one called the Cinema is not an easy task. Unlike Music, Painting, Dance, Poetry, Sculpture and the Theatre, Cinema has come to us late in civilizational time frame. One can safely say that it is a tiny little infant and within the first few days of its birth and because it is so beautiful, nasty demons such as advertising and propaganda, technology and greed for consumerism as well as some evil spirits like ghosts of Drama and Music have all conspired to abduct it. They feel its power will give them strength for further exploitation of the mass hysteria. They may be right in a narrow, myopic way. Our baby, however, needs to nourish itself before it provides for others. Its mothers are all the Muses and it must suckle at the essence, the milk from the bosoms of all those foster mothers. It will absorb all the six or seven types of juices and gradually develop into a bonny baby. If its life span is to be comparable to other Arts it is clear that this baby will be a long time getting weaned from mother’s milk and start chewing upon life itself for nourishment, there will need to be a very long nurturing and an equally long weaning period. This in real time and space would mean that centuries and generations shall have to look after it keeping the glorious vision and the sound of its wailing, crying and gurgling, looking after its physical security and psychological needs. We shall have to be as careful as doting mothers, right now, as this is the most vulnerable period in the growth and development of its faculties and because suddenly so many evil spirits have materialized to haunt and harm it.

This sort of framework ought to give us our true sense of calling; as guardians, as stewards, as guides and care givers for our Cinema. We must play with it, keep ourselves amused and not lose a sense of the sacred involved in formulating Art as an image of god itself; god can be said to be eternal life force and will to truth. We must never falsify the truth of Cinema as we know it nor must we ever try to subvert it in the guise of loving care as some greedy mothers are prone to do.

As for Cinema Art Practice, the ‘Reyaz’, so to speak; I would like to take a simple example from my own life; playing a simple tune on my guitar. A tune that I already know intimately; not only the notes and rhythm but the nuances and emotional framework of the tune are clear to my mind. Actually I can hum it, whistle it as it keeps revolving in my right hemisphere. Now if I want to play that tune on my guitar, let me see what must be present and functioning at the same fraction of time when the notes form and I hear them. I take it that I am fairly dexterous at my instrument and that I know basics of music; the language, theory and practice.

There must be silence both in my head and in surroundings. I must be seated in correct posture with a well tuned instrument. My nails must be cut exactly and smooth so that the fret work is correct and plectrum does not slip and slide. There should be light enough so that I can see where I am playing on fret board. My stomach should not be heavy and my spirit should be light. Now if for music practice so much is involved and all these elements ought to be present at the same time, then it can be seen as to how much care has to be taken if one say, wants to take a ‘shot’. This simple, basic unit of Cinematic architecture is perhaps one of the most difficult and mysterious event that must take place repeatedly, throughout the process of shooting. It must have a consistency of constituent elements as well as inspiration. If for such a thing as music practice one wavers and gropes for inspiration after say 20 minutes, how can one keep a constant quality of inspiration shot after shot for say a fortnight of shooting? This is only the basic requirement. One needs to know what a ‘shot’ is. Why is it to be of certain duration, what it should include and what must be excluded. When in a given piece of action ought a shot to begin and when should it be ‘cut’ and why? What precedes the specific shot being taken and what is to succeed it? Should the composition be ‘static’ or ‘mobile’? What light condition is to be present for it to become ‘the shot’ and not just any thing that a camera can always record. Then one has to know what comparable and contrasting elements between a ‘still’ photographic shot and cinematographic shot are. What are the qualifications of a ‘motion picture shot’?  What is ‘montage’ and ‘mis-en-scene are questions to be asked later.

Usually, in motion picture production ‘shooting’ is the most hectic period. For one thousand different reasons tensions and tempers always mount. All sorts of so called ‘unit members’ are involved in all sorts of personal, ego or greed driven objectives and desires. The Director is perhaps the only man alive who has any sympathy for any or some of the above mentioned elements. And how, the Director, being pushed and pulled from all sides to keep his vision, his inspiration and even the constituent elements in mind, prey, unless he is a ‘Yogi’ a ‘Rishi or a muni? What I’m trying to suggest is that film making as an art form depends on shot taking at the base level. For any reasonably decent film shoot, therefore it is of paramount importance that a certain vibratory coherence prevails. That there be no extraneous distractions, that everyone ought to be well fed on light, oil free food so that their energies soar like a young bird, the one that wants to fly to the moon, one called ‘chakor’. That everybody should work from a position of sympathy and trust for the Director to enjoy a stress free space wherein he or she can dispense verbal instructions in material form for the vision floating in his mind’s eye. These dispensations are once again the jargon one must not misuse, composition, lighting, focal length, movement, the exposure and focus, texture and color of the intended image; all of these intangibles have to be translated into specific instructions in specific jargon for specific technicians and then comes the most intriguing  human relations fix, the actor/director dialogue. This can really be the limit. It can make or break the whole enterprise. How is one to communicate with an actor?  Now, take all that and push it up the view finder! Lo and behold you have a ‘shot’.

So it is not easy. Filming has to be one of the most enjoyable, relaxed and inspired events in a motion picture production. Editing ought to be like ‘club class’ really; not like a barber shop in a cantonment because, like so many aspects of life, film making too is separated in active and contemplative sections. Life being active one sits in contemplation while writing script. Shooting is an active phase and editing once again is the most contemplative period in film production; I include mixing sounds in this same life infusing stage where Cinema can be evoked. Then of course, we have the active phase when we go out to show our movie. When we mix and mingle with life once more, a specific movie having been delivered as if it were.

I merely ask if any one could create conditions of such a framework of reference within Industrial conditions, where maximizing ‘profits’ in the basic aim. Only a Michelangelo Antonioni could enjoy such a climate of creativity or Robert Bresson; what about you and me? And I answer that yes, DV has today, rather since some time now, made exactly just that possible. And that is my hope. I regard technological changes with due respect and take what suits me for advancement of Cinematic articulation, and I chuck the rest on the mountain of electronic garbage that has already accumulated around the World.

Rahat Yusufi (FTII, Direction, 1969)

What's On Offer?

CACA   (Pronounced: KASA)

  “Creative Advancement of Cinematic Articulation”

One of our programs is known as “Illuminations”.  It can happen as distance learning / continuing education. Here we invite a group on ‘Facebook’, people who are interested in general in ‘Cinematic Articulation” and offers in-depth individual support for seekers of meaning & significance of “Non-commercial Cinema Art Practice”. 

There is a course of self discipline for film makers known as “PRAXIS”  (i.e. :  spontaneous / instantaneous real time thought & action);  so much more plausible with digital machines now as compared to when we were developing these concepts with Mitchell heavy weight cameras on ‘patlas’ !! This system has relevance, therefore, for new & young. The supple, buoyant & bubbling now / post now ‘Warriors of Cinema’.  There is scope for aligning CACA with informal or ‘Formal’ I don’t know! … Schools of Cinema that I read about on GRAFTII DELHI group wall, in Bangalore & elsewhere.

At CACA we have a comprehensive Course Architecture consisting of Reading Materials, Bibliography, Lecture / Discussion notes, Theory / Practice concept notes & propositions for practical learning by doing, including walk-through Film Production Flow-charts, call-sheets, shooting scheduling & breakups. I have developed these materials as I was fortunate to have been studying at “Film Institute” during its formative years full of idealism and then I caught up with the present hybrid called FTII. My experience during re-construction of Film Direction & Screen Writing Course has been dovetailed into my own learning, understanding & accumulated course materials from my student days. Then there are visual & auditory materials from Fine Arts including Cinema floating about in the Ether. We look & we listen carefully, we learn, share, analyze and, of course, enjoy them any time of day or night. We are so interconnected it seems like a residential campus; as such it is totally virtual.

You can help me construct this proposal better, more functional, practical, attractive & capable of receiving funding & corpus support. I do not wish it to become like the “Best Proposal you have ever seen”, as I am a bit old for that !

 love

Rahat Yusufi

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.

Rahatavalokit

cacareadings #001

Because...

…  Because the world is round….  It turns me on

…Because the wind is high….      It blows my mind

…Love is all…Love is you….      Love is all…Love is new

…Because the sky is blue…         It makes me cry

You never give me your money

You only give me your funny paper

And in the middle of negotiations

You break – down.

I never give you my number

I only give you my situation

And in the middle of investigation

I break – down.

I never give you my pillow

I only send you my invitation

And in the middle of the celebrations

I break – down.

Boy, you’re gonna carry that way,

Carry that way…. A long time.

And in the end

The Love you take

Is equal to the Love

You make.