Cinema and Music

I just completed watching Mani Kaul's 'Uski Roti'. There is a lot to this movie, but I would like to make a note of one thing which i realized after watching the film. 

Many a times and almost is many movies the is an addition of a background score which suggest the emotion of the characters and films; this thus develops the mood for the viewer and she/he gets completely locked in the mood or emotion expressed by the film maker. Music many a times aids to the cinema and helps emphasize the expression, but excessive or unthoughtful use of it becomes a constraint to experience the film to its full potential, as many a times it doesn't allow the viewer to imagine or develop her/his own ideas about the film. It rather becomes a fact that the viewer makes a note of it rather than experiencing it. The ambiguity of the film is what allows the viewer to engage in the it and understand/experience the film by not just the act of 'watching', but by being a part of it, engaging with it.

'Uski Roti' challenges many such mainstream ideas of film making and one of it is that it deny the use of music in the film. Though this film is not the only film which does that, but with its unique story telling and use of a very strong shots, it pushes its expression to its much potential and this is what brought my attention to the use of background score in the films. 

Blue Tokai - Kalledeverapura pulp sun dried

Tasted in pour over 

This coffee is from Kalledevarapura estate, which is at a height of 4400 feet above sea level, in Babadungiri hills, Chikamagalur, Karnataka. 

It tastes quite sour and has grapefruit and raisin tastes notes, but what is much more exciting for me is the the after or the last taste of coffee sip which is very nutty (or roasted almonds as the packet mentions). The nutty after taste is quite complimentary to the sour taste which you get in the first sip of coffee. The process of sun drying helps it to develop this fruity-sour taste and the fact that it is a medium roast, gives it a nutty tail to it. 

Comparing it to the the Quick brown coffee roasters - Baarbara Baba Budangiri (which is from the same region), because Baarbara is a light roast it gives quite a sweet after taste but Kalledevarapura being a medium roast gives quite a nutty after taste 

This is one of the most fascinating thing about coffee I think, it plays in your mouth giving very dramatic taste with the time and allows you to experience it in a many different ways in the entire time period you drinking it. 

Dialectic on 'Making art in one BHK' by Prajakta Potnis

This was composed as a question and it is followed by a dialectic that took place after the presentation of Making art in one BHK (Prajakta Potnis's work) by herself at SEA,Borivali, Mumbai on 8th March, 2019. There are a lot of references to her work in the write up (for which you might like to check her work). I have been reading things around this topic and will bring some good updates. 

It might be not the intent but, I felt that many of your work was about manipulation of everyday to show, let the viewer experience everyday Skewing the scale of it, juxtaposition things. Also, about manipulating the person's experience with the help of again everyday objects - threads, curtains, moss on walls, kitchen objects.

What I am really wondering is the nature of art now. 

Somewhere, it kinds of takes it apart from the everyday, and becomes a different entity. I mean art throughout history, mostly, has always differentiated itself from the everyday life. Also, the way we think about it, we difference it from the life, the mundane life. I mean for art to 'speak' it lifts up from this mundaneness, and I feel somewhere its kinds of becomes an imitation game. It portrays the everyday life, but yet it is not the everyday now, because the materiality changes, medium changes, the motive of its existence changes. 

There is a constant attempt of 'creating' art and which draws this separation. 

Art has its own grammar and language. It has so to represent the daily mundane life. The curtain-looking wall creates a surreal experience, which is hardly noticed, yet it is. The motion of rotating washing machine, and that pictured at a regular interval invites the viewer to look at the mundaneness in detail. The moss and the thread on the wall create an experience for the viewer and invites her into a mediated space. But again, this space is created with materials which are very alien to what they actually portray, for say, the thread portrays a crack in the wall, but there is no crack in the wall. The moss on the walls creates a heavy experience for the person and it is also backed by the green carpet and the moist air. 

Prajakta's main practice is about creating an art which is not a burden to carry, it has to be made with not much capital and production input and it can be discarded or destroyed easily. It removes the burden and concern of material value of art. With this it also allows to explore new mediums of art and explore the grammar if it. The main aspect though is about the everyday excitement which she very beautifully brings in her work. 

Shreyank Khemalapure - (in Prajakta's work) The creation of art, the way the language and grammar works creates a suspense, which brings an excitement, which engages the viewer into it and raises new questions. This becomes quite interesting because it is every day stupid objects but the way it is portrayed, the play of suspense makes it an art or brings that excitement which elevates the thought of the viewer. And this is what brings or is the difference between everyday life.

Everyday mundaneness is something that you would live with a very different mindset, and such art work brings the eye of the viewer and make her look at it in a very different way which gives it much more value, and thus it is identified as art.