Chitrashala: House of Paintings

The project attempts to push the boundaries of cinema by juxtaposing it with ideas from philosophy, visual art, chess, mathematics, geometry, linguistics and psychology

Suggestions of ancient and modern myths and folklore coalesce in dreams to bring alive a colourful animated world.

The 18th-century Indian painter Nainsukh of Guler receives a poetic, visually stunning tribute from a young Indian filmmaker employing an arresting pictorial language. Shot in the region where Nainsukh produced his most celebrated work, this is a meditative and meticulous recreation of the world of an artistic genius.

An ascetic walks through the narrow streets of a village every morning while his family is still asleep. In his semi-somnolent state he dreams about the history of the village mixing up myths, folklore and facts.

The village artist Jangarh Singh Shyam left home and became a well-known contemporary painter. He committed suicide in 2001. Through his art, places and stories, the filmmaker explores the traces he left on his path.

A rare and intimate glimpse into the everyday life of the famously reclusive and creative Warli tribe. Ramkhind is a village in Thane district, a little over 100km from Mumbai. Yet in the year 2000, this village had managed to stay centuries away from the mainstream, preserving it's ancient way of life and rich ecosystem. Gods, ghosts and tigers still inhabited their world.

Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.

Two travelers are in search of a flying-craft, which they believe could possibly take them to the ultimate escape from the cycle of births. On their way they record their memories, dreams and fears on a sound-recorder and in a notebook.

Jangarh Singh Shyam, a famous Indian artist born in an isolated tribal village, committed suicide in a Japanese museum in 2001. I found on an old MiniDV tape the images of a trip I had undertaken in 2008, when I had gone looking for him in his native region.

Two philosophers discuss their ideas. The next day one of them is getting married and invites the others.

After a successful season in the Upper Dhauladhar Mountains, a hunter hides his meat in a cave and heads home with his first load. At home, his wife is upset over his prolonged absence and its impact on their disabled daughter. He promises to return quickly and the next morning, sets out to retrieve the rest of the meat and leave the forest for the season. To his dismay, he finds the cave empty and the meat stolen. Using his hunter instincts he launches a desperate search through the treacherous mountain, discovering that the rival is just as cunning. In this quest for meat, humans behave no differently than wild animals. Battling harsh conditions and difficult terrains, they go to all extremes to prove themselves stronger and more deserving. This allegorical tale of conflicting morals and twisted values reveals the true nature of man in the wild.

In Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra Valley, an ancient network of kuhls – hand-built water channels – carries water. The kohlis, “water masters,” struggle to protect this heritage, custodians of a way of life where water flows alongside folk tales, myths, and local arts.

Professor B.N. Goswamy travels back along the path of some forty years’ research on the 18th century Indian master-painter Nainsukh. Field-Trip follows the scholar in the lower western Himalayas as he tracks down contemporary vestiges of Nainsukh’s lineage.

The 18th century Pahari miniatures illustrating the verses of 'Gita Govinda' by the poet Jayadeva, are also loving and intimate portraits of the verdant landscape of the Kangra Valley. Nature becomes a primary actor and the director focuses on the alchemy of the 'transformation of nature in art.'

A nostalgic tale about childhood bazaars, scents and smells.

In ‘Abhagir Swargo’ the mother Abhaghi is a lower caste woman, whose only dream was that after her death she should be cremated with full rituals like the high-caste Hindus. She dies in penury and his son went further into the debt trap to fulfill his mother’s last wish.