A filmmaker and photographer will take you on an unusual journey across India through his three short films
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Filmaker and photographer Anal Shah likes to call his work a result of 'chance encounters'. "I feel the experience lies in seeking without set expectations, and discovering what I could not have conceived with my imagination," says Shah. The result of this experience has come in the form three short films about the life in India seen through three different lenses. The films will be showcased at ARTISANS' next month.
The first shot, titled Kabir Song, is based on the life of 14th century Indian mystic and poet, Kabir. The camera follows a similar mystic as he walks the streets of a northern Indian city singing the songs of Kabir. "None of my films are scripted or planned. Each film is a personal journey I take into the subject, and the idea is to allow the subject to reveal itself for the camera," says Shah, whose work usually explores issues of identity and migration.
Shot in 2007, the second short Laxmi at the Gate is a portrait of Ahmedabad, the filmmaker's hometown. "It tells a story, a barely known local legend in which Laxmi, the Hindu Goddess of wealth was trapped inside the city's gates," he says. The film unfolds through a series of vignettes that takes the viewer on a journey of intimate encounters with the scenes and sounds of Ahmedabad.
Kalaripayattu, his latest shot, is woven from observational footage shot at various Kalaris (martial arts gyms) in northern Kerala, Kalaripayattu. Intriguingly, the film offers no subtitles to its Malayalam language, nor provides any explanation via narration, thus encouraging the viewer into an unfiltered sensory experience. The task for the viewer, he says, it to find the hidden and embedded snippets of personal history in the work. "I see my work as a visual diary of my observations."
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