The Epic Cinema of Kumar Shahani , livre ebook

THE EPIC CINEMA
OF KUMAR SHAHANI
THE EPIC
CINEMA
of
KUMAR
SHAHANI

LALEEN JAYAMANNE

INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bloomington Indianapolis
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2015 by Laleen Jayamanne
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No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
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Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jayamanne, Laleen.
The epic cinema of Kumar Shahani / Laleen Jayamanne.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-01407-8 (cl: alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-01410-8 (pb: alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-01414-6 (eb) 1. Shahani, Kumar - Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
PN 1998.3.S4518J39 2014
791.4302 33092 - dc23
2014022236
1 2 3 4 5 20 19 18 17 16 15
For Kumar Shahani
Once Claire was asleep again, the professor removed a chunk of her brain - the epileptogenic part - and dropped it into a bin. What do you think that patch of cortex was responsible for? I asked him. He shrugged, perhaps a little defensively. No idea, he said, we just know it s not eloquent.
Will she notice any change?
Probably not, the rest of the brain will adapt.
There was a scar like a lunar crater by the time we d finished. With her brain and mind once more anaesthetized, we cauterized the severed blood vessels, filled up the crater with fluid, and then sutured up the dura with neat embroidery stitches. We reattached the disc of bone by inserting little screws through strips of titanium mesh.
Don t drop them, the professor said as he handed me each screw. They cost about fifty quid each.
GAVIN FRANCIS
Diary (London Review of Books, January 24, 2013)
CONTENTS


Preface and Acknowledgments

1. To Arrive at the Station: Trains of Thought
2. To Leave the Factory: With Cloth and Film
3. To Derail Thought: Of Infinity as Motif or Walking
4. In the Beginning Was Sound: Tar ng (Wave)
5. Lapidary Dynamisms: River, Stone, Icon
6. A Second Nervous System: Acting and Thinking
7. Shahani and Baz Luhrmann: Directing as Choreographic Act
8. Modulating Cinematic Avat rs: Shahani s Unit
9. Memory of the World: Archive Fever
Notes
Bibliography
Filmography
Index
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Kumar Shahani s response on hearing that I had just completed this book was Is there something of yourself in it? I laughed and changed the subject. The singularity of the self (swabh va) of each actor is an abiding concern of Shahani as a director. As for myself, the exploration of the multivalent selves of the actor has excited me for as long as I can remember, and for a one-time performer turned cinema studies lecturer and critic, it was not a question that could be answered directly. Indirection was one of Shahani s methods of guiding me as a guru during the long gestation of this book, which explores his epic cinematic practice and a philosophy of cinema and politics. The enlightening pedagogy of the civilizational Indian epic awakens dormant faculties one didn t suspect one had by posing riddles to the neophyte rather than by giving the right answer to a stale question. This pedagogic process takes time, because one gets lost on the way, tangled up in blue, and has to learn to unlearn and then to sense, see and hear, and find modes of articulation that are not readily available within one s own discipline.
I now understand this process of teaching and learning as an apprenticeship in the exploration and articulation of intensive signs of cinema. To be given a chance of such an apprenticeship this late in life is a huge gift, and it is my privilege and joy to be able now to thank those who have guided and sustained me through these heady years of a belated adventure. If I have been able, like those resourceful souls in Agnes Varda s Gleaners and I, to glean some nourishment from here and there in a variety of disciplines that are quite new to me so as to assuage my hunger for cinema and thinking about it and with it, then I am happy. And if you, gentle reader, find a little nourishment and enjoyment here, I shall be very happy indeed. If this book, by some chance, encourages the government authorities to issue a box set of Shahani DVDS , it would allow new generations who have seen his films only on YouTube to view them in a more satisfactory format.
I am grateful to Kumar for his faith in me and for having nurtured my intellectual and spiritual well-being tirelessly while also arguing and disagreeing at times as friends must. Paul Willemen introduced me to Shahani s thought and cinema and impressed on me their value in the early 1980s. Vivan Sundaram encouraged me to write on Shahani and assuaged my fear of knowing so little about Indian culture by saying that I could think of his films in terms of modern cinema and the avant-garde. Geeta Kapur, Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Madhav Prasad, Rimli Bhattacharya, and Kumar all spent a week with me at the National Film Archive in Pune in 1998 viewing and discussing Shahani s work, in the original 35mm prints, within the context of the New Indian Cinema. It was a most memorable week (of food, film, hearing them sing Hindi film songs, dancing, and talking), and it was my first introduction to Shahani s and Ghatak s cinema and to the vitality and rigor of debate among argumentative Indians, even among the best of friends. It was a bit scary for a former Ceylonese from Australia. I did so want to be one of them!
Geeta Kapur had innumerable long-distance chats with me on Shahani s practice for well over a decade whenever I needed clarification of an idea, an image, or a link to contemporary debates on art, politics, and culture. She and Vivan coaxed me to come to India for the very first time in the 1990s after I met them both at the Edinburgh Film Festival s Third Cinema Event of 1986, organized by our mutual friend Paul Willemen. Both of them were loving hosts in Delhi who helped me to get to know India a little bit during this project.
Roshan Shahani, who has worked on the majority of Shahani s films, discussed the music in them in a most illuminating manner as only a specialist can. Roshan, Uttar , and Rewathi Shahani welcomed me to their home in Mumbai with warm hospitality during my numerous research trips to India.
I was able to undertake the research in India in a systematic way through an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant for 2005-07.
Dr. Richard Smith, lecturer in film studies in the Department of Art History and Film, has been a friend and colleague with whom I have shared many of the ideas in this book. He has actively encouraged me to explore the textiles-and-cinema link, and for his passion for thinking cinema in its complexity and for the rigor of his thought, generosity of spirit, and friendship I am most grateful.
My students over the years have been interested in this work, which strengthened my confidence in it, some of which has been tested in the courses I teach. The decision to bring the Australian director Baz Luhrmann s practice into this book so as to make a divergent connection with Shahani s work was made possible by the collaborative thinking we did in my courses on silent cinema and cross-cultural perspectives on cinema.
My husband, Brian Rutnam, has been an unfailing source of support and help in all aspects of writing this book, as well as in everything I write. He listens to my wild ideas, goes through them with his logical mind, and makes me clarify material by alerting me to the structure of sentences. His knowledge of Western musical theory has also been invaluable for me in thinking through the idea of sequencing in Shahani s practice, derived from Indian music based on different principles.
My daughter, Anusha Rutnam, saw this work to completion in several crucial ways. She has enriched my thinking especially through her professional knowledge of textiles and design, which has been an immense intellectual and sensory resource for the work in this book. If now I see a costume s line and silhouette and feel its details as movements or gestures, it is thanks to her.
Professor Meaghan Morris came to my rescue in the nick of time, true to her activist-oriented, creative scholarly practice, by inviting me to be part of the Gender and Modernity in the Asia-Pacific Research Network of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Sydney (2010-12). The two international symposia organized within this network by Professor Catherine Driscoll and Meaghan enabled me to offer papers based on this book, thereby providing the much-needed addressee to test my ideas on during a particularly difficult period within the university. This network, created by the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, certainly restored my faith in collective feminist practice and collaborative work. Subsequently, Meaghan astutely edited a piece for publication and