In By-lanes, I narrate experiences of the
Serpentine journey, full of detours, diversions, tangents, and
by-lanes. Name inspired by the song By-lanes by friend Lueit Parasar.
Check: https://soundcloud.com/adimachine/
After two long years of long void, finally this year Osians film fest 2012 was held. As an obssessive fan since 2006, i made a lot of grand plans this year. Of live blogging, daily online critique of films, personal narratives, viewpoints etc. And even editing my shamble of a film 'After Paris' and giving it for the shorts. But with the Serpentine Lords of Rahu Ketu, its always serpentine deviations from the expected objective. Thus what took place was far from the objective/ critcal schedule i had planned. Instead a visceral/subjective/ highly personal experience unfolded. With the Serpentine Lords of Saturn Rahu Ketu, it's always almost opposite of what's planned. So here I am in the post orgasmic chill, the severe hangover of the festival, mulling over. At the end of a wild, tempestous and brief romance. Chewing the cud that i hastily swallowed. In 10 eventful days. Of Osians 2012.
The first film I saw was Yeralti (Inside) by Zeki Demirkubuz, from Turkey. Suddenly my childhood friend B*** was before my eyes. The perfect EPITOME of Ketu energies!! He was cerebral, hypersensitive, overzealous, idealistic, sentimental. At odds with the changing mores of kaliyuga. Far from the politically correct metrosexual modern dude. And had bouts of iconoclastic behaviour in the most inappropriate social gatherings. The film seemed to explain his very existence. I called my friend painter Kareem, similarly ruled by Ketu energies, who was vastly similar. Told him, the films was on him. He cursed me but saw it. Liked it.
The next remarkable film I saw was Sentimental Animal by Wu Quan, from China. Few years back, me and my wife had gone for Nadi palm leaf/ past life readings at Qutab enclave, katwaria sarai. My wife Sangeeta's previous life seemed to be in China. and her husband was paralytic. but she took good care of him. the dark, grayish, hypnotic, nebulous, hazy, shades of Sentimental Animal seemed to manifest a past life predeliction in great cinematographic detail. Even the hair detail of the actress was same as my wife. the second time i saw without subtitles. Just the pure cinematic form.
Women on Edge by Masahiro Kobayashi, from Japan, captured the very essence of Hecate. The three witches, the fair maiden, the mother earth, the old crone. Three archetypes captured accurately. We saw it sitting cramped, on the carpet of the crammed Siri 4, audi. Worth every hair tingling frame. The divine, insane, hormonal, disbalance of the Shakti archetype.
Shame, that I saw The Smell of Curry and Rice, by Satoshi Yamaguchi, from Japan almost all alone at Blue frog. Maybe the world of mankind was NOT yet ready to be exposed to its infantile , filial obsession with food/ women/ domestication/ entrapment. Maybe the juvenille male illusion, "she cooks good like mother. she is good" is still there to stay. and hold womenkind in disguised enslavement. Sadly with me its reversed. my mom was working, maid cooked horrible. So filialy, mother, women and good food are very different things for me. So i thoroughly enjoyed the sarcasm of this film.!!
Stateless Things by Kim Kyung Mook, from South Korea was one of the darkest movies i saw on migration, urban struggle, displacement. Unimaginably horrifying, cathartic, morbid, it expressed some of my own struggle/ displacement in Delhi. but in a far more acute and horrifying imagery. With Ketu, you see it, its negated. Neccesary, vaccination/ cathartic purgation to survive in this urban jungle. I came to this festival to understand. Not enjoy.
The Road by Yam Laranas, from Phillipines was one of the most brilliantly crafted horror contemporary movies. Its Shutter/Ring/ Grudge/ Curse/ Black water rolled into one. But MUCH More. I actually had to take out my asthalin spray in the vastly spacious, crowded siri Fort 1. Horror on ,many levels. Unlimited layers till the last frame!!! I wanted to congratulate Yam Laranas, but he was overcrowded with extra brilliant people giving him suggestions. First, make a 1/ 105th horror film like him, guys. Then comment.
I'm tired now. So many more. but these were the visceral best. in my personal, subjective, visceral, nightmarish, subterranean experience in Osians Cinefan, 20102. I think the Turtle, the symbol of the Osians Award was perfectly (signifying the amphibious, underwater, Kurma avatar, the subterranean realms this years Osians Cinefan Festival brought to us. From the mainstream highway of commercial fare, a subterranean, Serpentine by-lane into another realm.. worth every visceral moment..
