Films:
Sunday 25 6.45pm
The Courtyard Hereford
Bhavantaran (U)
Director: Kumar Shahani
India, 1996, 1 hour 3 minutes
An experiment and a homage, Bhavantaran is a spiritually intoxicating documentary about classical Odissi dance maestro Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra that defies any generic or stylistic definition. Shot over ten years, Bhavantaran is a curvaceous encounter between two masters - one before the lens and the second behind it. Thoroughly immersed in ancient Indian aesthetics, Kumar Shahani, one of India's most important filmmakers, has always attempted in his cinema to evoke the rasa (nectar) and bhava (emotion) traditions. In Bhavantaran he gets closest to the sat-chit-ananda (truth-consciousness-bliss) - the immaterial - as an aesthetic experience.
"one of the 10 most important dance films in the history of cinema." Laura Mulvey/Peter Wollen
Indian Film Season