How does one define mainstream films? What is parallel cinema? For years, what does not conform to the familiar has been labelled ‘avant-garde’. As film theorist and curator Amrit Gangar says, “The first explorations into the so-called experimental or avant-garde films started in Europe and America; the relevant theories also emerged from there.”
But there are films that don’t even match this. “So-called Indian parallel cinema doesn’t fit into the accepted notion of avant-garde,” Gangar feels. Then how would that cinema in turn be defined? An attempt is being made by Gangar through the Cinema of Prayoga (a term he coined in 2005), a seven-set program (saat sarjat, saat samvaad) that will showcase the work of seven renowned experimental filmmakers, he explains.
Prayoga can be loosely translated to mean ‘experiment’. According to Gangar, the cinema showcased will not be restricted to films made to fit a “rational mindset that dominated the western avant-garde films”, but
includes a larger context of experimentation. The series aims to offer “adequate interactive space where the discussion between myself (as curator), the filmmaker and audiences will aim at getting deeper into the concept of Cinema of Prayoga.”
The works have been selected on the basis of their inclusion in the Tate Modern programme and in the Experimenta started by Shai Heredia in Mumbai. But filmmakers such as Vipin Vijay, Kabir Mohanty and the gurus of prayoga cinema, such as Kumar Shahani and Mani Kaul, are new additions. Ashish Avikunthak works will open the series, for “the simple reason that he happens to be in Mumbai in June,” says Gangar.
“Except Avikunthak, who is committed to only celluloid films, most of these filmmakers have explored the digital medium.” Avikunthak prefers working in celluloid because “It is work that does not allow for opulence. There is also room for contemplation.”
How have these experiments been received by the audience? Gangar replies that the concept of Cinema of Prayoga has been largely accepted by intellectuals and curators in the West, as there is a “saturation of experimental films there”. Avikunthak agrees, but believes that the audience response to his films, be it in
Cannes or New York, has been “uniformly misunderstanding, as my films have a complex narrative born out experience and contemplation and have almost nil commercial value”.
Sarjak1. Samvaad 1: Ashish
Avikunthak, Little Theatre, NCPA,
June 12, 6.30pm
Comments
