Artist Vivan Sundaram led a multi-disciplinary collective to reinterpret sculptor Ramkinkar Baij’s figures through paintings, installations and performing arts. Documentary maker RV Ramani captured the process of reinterpretation. By Team Viva
Can you reinterpret a masterIJ Going by contemporary artist Vivan Sundaram, you can. Even adorn the classic with a contemporary liveability. In one fluid stroke, Sundaram, along with theatre practitioners, writers and artists, decided to reinterpret the works of legendary sculptor-painter Ramkinkar Baij, using different media, installations and artforms.
Breaking the purist walls, Sundaram conceived this project, called 409 Ramkinkars, as his take on the life and works of Baij. The process of reinterpretation was captured by documentary filmmaker RV Ramani in a short film called From Santhal Family to Mill Re-call, a spin on Baij’s best known works, Santhal Family and Mill Call. The 1938 Santhal Family features a tribal family — parents, a child, their dog and their worldly possessions. Mill Call, created in 1956, depicts the core of an industrial urbanscape, showcasing a family setting out for work. Sundaram captures this span of the dispossessed, as depicted by Baij, through both performance and static arts. As the film opens, the wail of a woman signifies the gush of suppressed voices who conform for survival in society.
Theatre directors Anuradha Kapur, Santanu Bose, Aditee Biswas and Deepan Sivaraman conceptualised a promenade theatre with skits inspired by Baij’s works — sculptures and paintings — particularly figures. They involved 30 professional actors, associates and technicians. Belinder Dhanoa wrote the script. Vivan guided the actors. The journey begins with the audience looking at the artworks which come to life as the actors enact their scenes and contexts. There is a freefall of emotions — despair, freedom, sadness and power — each embodied by a character who bounces off the other, depicting a chaos called life. A sudden blackout after episodes and fragments keeps you on the edge of your seat, a space that Sundaram felt was required for audience imagination to fill out the spaces outlined by Baij’s figures.
A filmmaker with a unique style, who creates independent, impressionistic documentaries, Ramani was a photo journalist. When the director saw one of the artists perform the character of Radha Rani for the first time, he had never imagined the intensity of the voice artist could enliven the character and bring her closer to our understanding of the original sketch. This is one of the reasons why he was excited by the rehearsals than a finale act. “I wanted to dive into the process of characterisation and create a cinematic experience,” he told us. According to the filmmaker, Sundaram brought out the various dimensions of Baij beyond just the linear interpretations. Editing and adding the subtitles was the most challenging part.
Since the documentary of this nature was a nouvelle experiment, Ramani never expected it to be selected at a festival. What came as a bigger surprise was winning an award for the same. “I never expected either of the two but it is always nice to have a screening at festivals. Even if ten people come to watch the film, I am happy.”
As a director, he is fascinated by the sense of connection. “The idea of expression is quite interesting. It can exist in any context. I feel connected when films are trying to discover ways to say something, break codes or struggle to walk a new path. I feel artists consciously do these things and I love to be in that atmosphere. So I take a lot of expressions from them and try to incorporate it while I am making my films.”
The film had various transitional scenes from rehearsals to the final performance where the actors are preparing for their roles and discovering various nuances to improve their portrayal. “The off-stage and on-stage moments lent vibrancy. I believe the characters are disclosing their layers at every moment and I eagerly look for it.”
Essentially, Ramani works from the zone of a cinematographer and hence, documentaries come naturally to him. “I do not like to depend on too many people. Mostly, I am a one-man army though sometimes, I do take the help of two or three individuals. I love to shoot and film before I develop my narrative,” he said.
Asked if he prefers documentaries over fiction, he was of the opinion that “natural situations are more tempting for me. In fiction, everything is staged and well-planned, which gets boring for me.”
Ramani visited Shantiniketan where Baij lived a greater part of his life and which is a treasure trove of his sculptures. He then familiarised himself with Sundaram’s works. The film, in his words, is about “one artist looking at another artist, and me looking at both and consciously reinterpreting both with my cinematography. It is an artistic process.”