LILA Foundation presents PART 2 of 'When the Bird Became a Wave…A Journey with Kumar Shahani' documentary film screening followed by a conversation at Shiv Nadar University, Village Chithera, Tehsil Dadri, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Greater Noida > 3pm-5pm on 5th May 2015

Time : 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm Add to Calendar 05-05-2015 15:00:00 05-05-2015 17:00:00 68 LILA Foundation presents PART 2 of 'When the Bird Became a Wave…A Journey with Kumar Shahani' documentary film screening followed by a conversation Event Page : http://www.delhievents.com/2015/04/part-2-when-bird-became-wavea-journey.html Department of Communication, Shiv Nadar University, Village Chithera, Tehsil Dadri, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh DD/MM/YYYY

Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)

Venue : Department of Communication, Shiv Nadar University, Village Chithera, Tehsil Dadri, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh
Venue Info : www.snu.edu.in | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Sector 32 City Centre Noida(Blue Line)' 
Transport : Bus facility to SNU at 12:00 noon from India Habitat Centre, Gate 2 and back

Event Description : LILA Foundation for Translocal Initiatives in collaboration with the Dept of Communication, SNU, present "Alankar: An Aesthetician’s Trail", 2 days of Film Screenings and Conversations on the Aesthete’s Quest.

PART 2 at Shiv Nadar University : 'When the Bird Became a Wave…A Journey with Kumar Shahani' documentary film screening. 
As The Crow Flies…
Documentary | Direction: Kumar Shahani | 21 min | 2004

followed by
Sadanand Menon in conversation with Kumar Shahani and MR Rajan

After the first evening with a general audience, Alankar moves to an academic space. While When the Bird Became a Wave… looks at Shahani, the aesthete, As The Crow Flies… enters the aesthetic proper of the legendary filmmaker. The documentary moves into the world of Akbar Padamsee, pioneer of Modern Indian painting. The two filmmakers, Kumar Shahani and MR Rajan, converse with cultural critic Sadanand Menon, to explore how the aesthetic art, and the artist aesthete can contribute to propelling a new era of engaged living.

MR Rajan’s docu-film on noted filmmaker Kumar Shahani, When the Bird Became a Wave… is a beautiful tribute to the great director by a sensitive artist. Rajan has interpreted Shahani’s life, work and words with great understanding and imagination. The film is a journey with Shahani across Kerala, which was recorded through a span of four years, from 2010. Kumar discusses history, cinema, music, performing arts, politics, the growth of the market, traditional trade relationships across the country and the globe. He examines the human survival through the eyes of philosophy. Knowledge against the military-industrial complex, creativity against oppressive systems and establishments — Kumar’s eternal concern continues as a debate and an argument throughout the film. The film has been recorded and treated in a very personal style. Translating Shahani’s exquisite aesthetic for the cinematic medium, Rajan has at once enriched it with the lucidity of moving images and sounds, and the gravity of a serious reflection. It speaks to us without speaking, and keeps its splendid silence through the words it employs.

Kumar Shahani is one of the pioneers of the New Indian Cinema. He is best known for his works in parallel cinema, Maya Darpan (1972), Khayal Gatha (1989),Kasba (1990). He is frequently grouped by critics and film enthusiasts alongside Pier Paolo Pasolini, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Jacques Rivette.

MR Rajan is a documentary filmmaker of repute. His oeuvre focuses on the history, tradition and future of the performance arts in Kerala. Nottam (1999) andMinukku (2006) received the National Film Award for Best Biographical Documentary and the Best Documentary film award from the IDPA.

Sadanand Menon is a well-known art critic, cultural commentator and teacher of media. He is currently Adjunct Faculty at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, and at the Humanities Department of IIT, Madras. He is member of Apex Advisory Panel, National Museum, Delhi, of Apex Advisory Committee, National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru, of Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi, of the General Council, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, and Managing Trustee of SPACES, Chennai.

Alankar : An Aesthetician’s Trail" 2 days of Film Screenings and Conversations on the Aesthete’s Quest in collaboration with Department of Communication, SNU

Background : Alankar : An Aesthetician’s Trail, a unique programme of screenings and conversations, evokes ‘Alankar’, the figure for ‘ornamentation’ in Indian aesthetics. Alankar thus attempts here to capture the spirit of Kumar Shahani’s continuous engagement with the experience and ideal of the beautiful. MR Rajan, Shahani’s student and noted filmmaker, shows in his work, a similar endeavour to understand and create art and life in subtle terms. And Sadanand Menon has been exploring the charged space linking politics and culture for several decades through his work in media, pedagogy and activism. Alankar thus bears witness to the difficult, and therefore deeply political acts of these cultural visionaries to inquire about the beautiful in the times of the obvious, even the gross.

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