For research towards a film on work songs, known as Li, sung by the inhabitants of Phek village in Nagaland. These work songs and chants have no lyrics but are vocalizations, grunts and sighs that are transformed into polyphonic melodies, while their music makers are busy harvesting paddy. This research is a part of a larger project to document and share everyday music and rhythms from across India.
For preserving and sustaining the performance practice and repertoire of the Bettiah gharana, one of the oldest and richest traditions of dhrupad. Through interactions with two contemporary musicians living in Kolkata and Bettiah, the musical ecology of Bettiah dhrupad will be documented and reinvigorated. The project will result in a multimedia physical archive located in Bettiah and Kolkata, an online portal and a guided listening DVD of the dhrupad of Bettiah.
For a two-day conference bringing together archivists, scholars, collectors and artists to examine the role of the archive in shaping the history of early Tamil cinema. The publication of the papers presented at the conference, along with an exhaustive filmography of Tamil films from 1930, will serve as a basic reference for further research.
For the replication of the seventeenth century Ramayana murals of the Chengam Venugopala Parthasarthy temple on other media, including Kalamkari and digital animation. As an exploration of alternative forms of mural conservation, reconstruction and restoration, the relationships between the visual arts and animation, artists and filmmakers, conservators and the lay public will also be examined. This process will be disseminated via a multimedia website.
For the production of a new choreographic work titled Beautiful Thing 1. This performance will investigate the interplay of sound, word, movement and meaning, and attempt to bridge the gaps between our historical memories and contemporary selves.
For the making of a two-part film on the Draupadi Amman Mahabharatha Koothu festival that is celebrated in over 200 villages in Tamil Nadu every year. Draupadi is the presiding deity of the festival and the Mahabharata is narrated as a story, re-created as theatre and performed as a ritual for her. The first part of the film will explore the mythology of the Draupadi cult and the history of the region, the second part will document the villagers reciting, performing and living the Mahabharata for the duration of the festival.
For conceptualising and producing an installation based on the video documentation of the unique performance language developed in Brhannala, a production by Adishakti, a Pondicherry based theatre group.
For the production of a film on Koothu-p-pattarai (KPP), a pioneering theatre group in Tamil Nadu. Video recordings of KPP’s activities over the last fifteen years will be complied, interreted and edited to capture the evolution of a very particular syntax of experimental theatre, the tensions within the group and the changes it has witnessed. Fresh footage will also be shot to illustrate KPP’s present character and highlight viewpoints critical of the group’s artistic vision and accomplishments.
For translating a theatre group’s production Brhannala into a film envisaged as a work that will explore the intrinsic differences between theatre and cinema in relation to ideas of space and time. Members of the theatre group, who are used to sharing a physical space with the audience, would be led to re-imagine their roles when they act in the film.
For preparatory work towards the development of a strategic plan to strengthen the governance, work culture, public relations and fundraising capabilities of a theatre group.
