KOCHI: An extension of canvas onto the cinema screen,
Gaali Beeja
(2014) - the debut feature by artist Babu Eshwar Prasad - which was initially denied a censor certificate after being deemed 'too confusing', saw a sizeable crowd during its screening at the
Kochi Muziris Biennale
on Thursday at the Cabral Yard Pavillion.
With its sparse dialogue, existential concerns and fragmented non-linear narrative, the Kannada film is intended as a homage to the 'road movie' genre with "the road itself the protagonist".
"Just as the seed travels in the wind, my movie is about a journey. I have always had this fascination with journeys. I have also been most attracted to road movies. The road movie is the ultimate 'vehicle' for a character on a journey of reflection and change," Prasad said.
While it reflects the works of filmmakers
Jim Jarmusch and
Abbas Kiarostami, the film is at its core a dialogue with the iconic film Alice in the Cities (1977) by German auteur
Wim Wenders, one of the first road movies Prasad saw. "I can never forget the impression it made on me," said Prasad, who was first exposed to world cinema as a printmaking student at MSU-Baroda.
"The desire to make a film has been a longstanding one. As an artist devouring good cinema, I wanted to pursue filmmaking as an art form. All those years of watching have helped crystallise my ideas on the stories I want to tell and the way I want to tell them," said the Bengaluru-based artist, who had been shooting footage during car journeys along the featured road since 2006.
Seen through the eyes of a civil engineer, the 96-minute wholly self-financed movie is about his encounters during a road-widening project in an unnamed village and along the way. "Many characters in the movie are inspired by real life people whom I have met or have known. In that way, this is a very personal, even autobiographical, endeavour," Prasad said.
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