Starting today, one of India’s most reclusive but prolific filmmakers, Amit Dutta’s rarely seen works will be screened in a retrospective curated by Srikanth Srinivasan. As a child, filmmaker Dutta had very little interest in cinema; his attention at the time was geared wholly towards literature. Although he remembers the student diploma films which were shown on television along with the feature-length fares on Saturdays as being compelling enough, it was a 1967 Robert Bresson film ( Mouchette ) and the suicide depicted at the end of that film that ultimately sparked his interest in the subject. In fact, it was the editing of that particular sequence, he clarifies, and not the sense of pathos the scene evoked that led him to take up cinema in earnest. Dutta’s clarification here is interesting. In that it perhaps anticipates the continued focus on form and the medium’s potential that he was to eventually display.
Dutta went on to study direction at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune. In an interview with critic Shubhra Gupta conducted a few years ago, he spoke of how during his stint at the institute his discovery of filmmakers like Sergei Paranjov, Bresson, Alain Resnais, Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani and Kamal Swaroop opened up new horizons and how Kaul and Swaroop took special interest in his work while he was there. The influence of these filmmakers can be traced in Dutta’s works but it was ultimately the need to find and articulate his own unique artistic voice and explore the endless possibilities of his chosen medium that drove him towards a prolific career.
Devoid of easy narrativisation, Dutta’s works are typically elaborate intellectual engagements with history, art and nature, as well as with dreams and reality. These are deeply reflective films where perspectives are often fragmented. Notions of space and time are allowed to expand and contract freely and the past and present frequently co-exist. The much-acclaimed Kramasha (2007) seamlessly weaves memories, folk tales and myths with natural sounds while presenting the viewer with an assorted array of images. Sonchidi (2011), about recollections and a journey, is similar in the way it moves between spaces and traverses both past and present.
These films also demonstrate a deep desire to relate cinema thematically and philosophically to the other arts. Nainsukh (2010), on the 18th century Kangra painter, recreates the artist’s well known works and draws up parallels between the legendary artist’s creative process and that of the filmmaker as does Scenes from a Sketchbook (2016) which, as the title indicates, takes inspiration from the practice attempts and lines that the artist does not erase. Both The Museum of Imagination (2012) and Field Trip (2013) bring art historian B.N. Goswamy into the equation along with the issue of art historical scholarship and closely examine concepts of artistic lineage and inheritance. Dutta had conducted a series of interviews with Goswamy in Chandigarh, and his is a strong presence in these two companion pieces. Lal Bhi Udhaas Ho Sakta Hai (2015) looks at the life and work of expressionist painter Ram Kumar while early works like Jangarh - Film One (2008) explores the tragic life and legacy of young Gond artist Jangarh Singh Shyam. Ramkhind (2001), Dutta’s first feature made while he was still a student, is a documentary about the lives of people in a Warli village. Chitrashala (2015) sees paintings in a museum come alive at night while Saatvin Sair (2013) on landscape painter Paramjit Singh, Gita Govinda (2014) on 12th-century poet Jayadeva’s work and Aadmi Ki Aurat Aur Anya Kahaniyan (2009) based on short stories adapted for the screen – all display Dutta’s abiding interest in the process of creation and in the myriad interactions that take place between different artistic mediums.
Dutta has received immense critical commendation in the international festival circuit. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the National Award and several retrospectives of his films have been conducted at events like the Cinéma du Réel in Paris, the International Short Film Festival at Oberhausen, the Lalit Kala Akademi in Chandigarh among others. And yet, despite the international attention he is one of those singular artists who remains little known in his own country. For years, the famously reclusive filmmaker who lives in Jammu has shunned media attention and has stayed away from the public eye choosing instead to have informal and intimate viewing sessions and discussions of his works with small groups of people at scenic spots far removed from the metropolitan chaos. Moreover, at a time when streaming platforms are fast gaining ground and filmmakers in a bid to hold on to traditional viewing practices are increasingly propagating the merits of the big screen experience, Dutta is curiously in favour of watching films on the laptop. It is the solitary viewing experience which he believes creates a controlled environment and facilitates proper immersion into the subject that shared viewing because of its inherent distractions denies.
The Amit Dutta retrospective will begin this evening at 5.45 p.m. at the Bombay Art Society, Bandra Reclamation and will continue on December 9 and 10; for more details see www.facebook.com/matterdenc
