FRAGMENTS AND FRAGILITY

Set within the structural sculptures of his installation, it unravels as fragments within fragile islands of moorings, and floating in the narrative are symbols of everyday idioms of living – a wooden bed with faded bolster pillows, an antique looking dresser with a photograph on top and a dusty television set mounted on a wall, even a small shelf. In the video, what becomes surreal is the agile grace of the characters moving among the installations, as well as the musicians. In more ways than one, it is the poet of the past who becomes the hero and the sage with a doha – a couplet that transcends time.

Famed anthropologist Vyjayanthi Venuturupalli Rao explains the entire ethos of the film succinctly: “In the space of the rasas – is it preparation or something else?” asks Rao. “How do we approach the apparently completed set as an object given our experience of its diffusion throughout Shoonya Ghar? How do we approach the appearance and extension of the film’s set into the static realm of a historical photograph? How, for that matter, do we approach the life from which this art comes? The network of connections that evoke events, memories and tastes specific to the artist’s life including his encounter of Gorakhnath’s poetry performed in the voice of cosmic emptiness.”

Rao explains that the film’s effect of multiplicity is intensified. Even the cinematic work of the camera and its ability to resolve questions of time, to connect narratives and scale itself is questioned by the film. The film’s final scenes had enchanted viewers shooting scenes with their phones. No doubt Shoonya Ghar had stunned Basel audiences. The abundance of architectonics laced with poignant poetry and dulcet melodies is what remained long after the 60 minutes were over.