Capturing the nostalgia of Bengaluru’s iconic house

It was like an end of an era, when, in 2013, the iconic house of filmmaker

Pattabhirama Reddy

and his wife,

Snehalata

— which was in the family for 200 years — made way for a commercial space. We are all familiar with the nostalgia we feel about our childhood home, where you grew up and made lasting memories. And this is what Revisiting 58, St Mark’s Road — a visual essay on that nostalgia — aims to share today through a movie, pictures and discussions.

MEMORY OF A LIGHT
Interested in the theme, director Sandhya Kumar made her film, Memory of a Light, in 2014. She wanted to explore the theme of what makes the experience of the childhood house, our first inhabited house, so special. “I planned to film it in Delhi, since I grew up there. Then, someone introduced me to theatre person

Kirtana Kumar

and I got to learn about the iconic house in which her husband’s family lived for 200 years. Since Pattabhirama Reddy was a filmmaker, it was a hub for artistes for many decades. She operated her Theatre Lab also from that house for around 15 years. All these aspects are explored in my film. A channel carried news about the movie a couple of weeks ago, and those who saw it wrote to Kirtana, telling her that they wanted to watch the whole film. That’s when the idea of this screening came about,” says Sandhya, whose film is 26 minutes long.

CAPTURING MEMORIES
Over a span of the three years that Lekha Naidu worked for Kirtana, she formed a close bond with the house. That was also the time when she was discovering herself as a photographer, so Lekha has a treasure trove of pictures, which she will share after the screening. “I got to spend a lot of time house sitting for Kirtana and her husband (

Konarak Reddy

). I lived there alone with the pets, so my bond with the house and the animals was deeper than what I have with some people. So, a little part of me was left behind in the house. I have several photographs of the house, with the dogs, cats and monkeys as my models. Kritana got in touch with me about the screening and asked if I would display my pictures — we will be reliving the memories and share them with others,” says Lekha.

A DEEP ATTACHMENT
After the film screening, there will be a performance by children of Kirtana’s Theatre Lab, but that will be is a surprise, even for Kirtana. “These kids have all grown up in that house — they have all spent 10-15 years there as students of theatre. This is why they have a deep attachment to the house. Instead of having a chief guest for the show, we thought that it would be lovely for the kids to respond to the film. The kids said that they want to put something together, but that is a surprise to me,” says Kirtana.