Ashish Avikunthak

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Ashish Avikunthak (born 1972) is an Indian avant-garde filmmaker, film theorist, archaeologist and cultural anthropologist. [1] [2] His works have been screened at art galleries and private screenings, including Tate Modern, Centre George Pompidou, Paris Film Archive; along with Rotterdam, Locarno, London film festivals, among others. [3]

Contents

He is considered to be an iconoclastic film artist [4] who works outside Indian mainstream cinema. [5] His films explore Indian philosophy and existentialism and are categorized by their use of unorthodox cinematography and editing. Avikunthak films are rooted in Indian religion, epistemology, ritual and form. [6] Mythical, metaphysical, metaphorical and mundane elements are found in his work. [7] ArtReview describes his works as: “Avikunthak’s works insist on an Indian epistemology while utilising a rigorously formal visual language that is clearly aware of Western avant-garde practices such as those of Andrei Tarkovsky and Samuel Beckett. These are self-consciously difficult works that are filmed in a self-consciously beautiful way.” [8] In his essay "Cinema of Prayoga", Amrit Gangar names Avikunthak's films as an example of his eponymous strain of filmmaking. [9] [10] [11]

Early life

Ashish Avikunthak was born in Jabalpur in 1972. [12] He did his B.A. in social work from Bombay University in 1994, and later studied archaeology in Deccan College, Pune. He did his PhD from Stanford University in cultural anthropology [3] and then taught at Yale. [13]

Career

He is a professor of film media at Harrington School of Communication, University of Rhode Island. [14] Avikunthak began his filmmaking career with short films made between 1995 and 2010. He created a body of work that explored ideas of ceremonial rituals, banality and the inter-relationships between selves and the concepts of ‘community’ and ‘politicality’ by challenging conventional forms of representations. [15] [16] Avikunthak’s first feature film “Nirakar Chhaya” (Shadows Formless) had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival in 2007. [17] It is a Bengali language film that was adapted from Sethumadhavan's award winning Malayalam language novel “Pandavapuram”, translocated to Kolkata from Kerala. [18] [19] His 2010 Hindi language film, “Katho Upanishad" was an adaptation that transformed 6th century BCE Sanskrit language philosophical treatise Katha Upanishad into a triptych of three one-shots, with the longest being a 58-minute single-shot. [20] [21]

In 2013, Avikunthak made India’s first one-shot feature film – “Rati Chakravyuh.” The entire film was made in a single-shot measuring 102 minutes. [22] Made in Kolkata it is Bengali language film, in which six newlywed couples on their wedding night sit in a circle with a priestess in an ancient temple and have a protracted exchange before they commit mass suicide. [23] The film had its world premiere at the 2014 Shanghai Biennale. [24] In 2015, Avikunthak released “Kalkimanthakatha” that was shot on location in the Allahabad Kumbh Mela in 2013. In this feature film, Samuel Beckett’s celebrated play “Waiting for Godot” is transplanted from its European context to Bengali language and the Hindu pilgrimage site of the Kumbh Mela. [25] This film was stopped from a private screening in a Kolkata art gallery by the Central Board of Film Certification in 2017. [26] [27] In 2017, Avikunthak’s film “Aapothkalin Trikalika” which he made a year before had its world première in Forum Expanded in Berlin International Film Festival. [28]

Filmography

[3]
YearOriginal titleInternational titleLanguage(s)Notes
1997Et ceteraEt ceteraEnglish
1999Kalighaat FetishKalighaat FetishHindi
2000Performing DeathPerforming DeathNo spoken language
2001Rummaging for PastsRummaging for Pasts: Excavating Sicily, Digging BombayEnglishfilm essay; partly based on Monte Polizzo excavations in Sicily [29]
2002Brihannala ki KhelkaliDancing OthelloEnglish
2005AntaralEnd NoteBengali
2007Nirakar ChhayaShadows FormlessEnglishdebut feature; based on Malayalam novella Pandavapuram by Sethu [30]
2010Vakratunda SwahaVakratunda SwahaHindico-directed with Moloy Mukherjee
2011Katho UpanishadKatho UpanishadHindibased on the dialogue between Yama and Nachiketa, from the Katha Upanishad [30] [31]
2014Rati ChakravyuhRati ChakravyuhBengali
2015KalkimanthankathaThe Churning of KaliBengaliinspired by Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett [32]
2017Aapothkalin TrikalikaThe Kali of EmergencyBengali
2018Vrindavani VairagyaDispassionate LoveBengali
2021Na Manush Premer KothamalaGlossary of Non-Human LoveBengali
2024VidhvasthaDevastatedBengali

Academic career

In 2021, he wrote a book, Bureaucratic Archaeology: State, Science and Past in Postcolonial India, published by Cambridge University Press, dealing with the intersection of politics and archaeology in India. [33] [34]

Controversy

In July 2017, a social-media outrage erupted when Avikunthak was debarred from entering the upmarket Quest Mall in Kolkata because he was wearing a dhoti. [35] He was eventually allowed after he spoke in English. [36] [37] In a Facebook post that went viral he wrote: “"This is unambiguously a new low for this city. Private clubs have always created hierarchies and distinctions because of clothing. Now public spaces are also threatened and a culture of segregation based on class is being practiced unhindered. I write this with a sense of deep disgust." [38] [39]

Personal life

He married twice; his second marriage is to Debleena Sen Chadha, an actress in Bengali-language films. He has a daughter. [40]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Bengali film makes it to Berlin festival - Times of India".
  2. ↑ "URI associate professor's experimental film to be screened at Berlin Film Festival in February". today.uri.edu.
  3. 1 2 3 "Ashish Avikunthak". Chatterjee & Lal .
  4. ↑ "Vidvastha (Devastated) Review: The Bizarre and the Bhagavad Gita - ArtReview".
  5. ↑ "Far Out Meets: Ashish Avikunthak on making cinema from the margins - Far Out".
  6. ↑ "Eyes Wide Open". 29 July 2015.
  7. ↑ "I'm disillusioned with modernity, says filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak". 31 May 2015.
  8. ↑ name, Site. "Ashish Avikunthak by Niru Ratnam / ArtReview". artreview.com.
  9. ↑ Srinivasan, Srikanth (2012-06-02). "Cinema of Prayoga". The Hindu .
  10. ↑ "Cinema of Prayoga". experimenta.in. 2015.
  11. ↑ Laali (2015). "CINEMA OF PRAYOGA: INDIAN AVANT-GARDE CINEMA". MUBI .
  12. ↑ "AN IDIOM UNTO ITSELF: AN ASHISH AVIKUNTHAK RETROSPECTIVE". MUBI . 2021.
  13. ↑ Gupta, Gargi (2017-12-05). "I'm disillusioned with modernity, says filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak". DNAIndia.
  14. ↑ "Ashish Avikunthak by Arun A.K. - BOMB".
  15. ↑ "Ashish Avikunthak: East By Northwest". Débordements. 31 March 2013.
  16. ↑ "Their experiments with truth". The Big Indian Picture. 1 June 2013.
  17. ↑ "NIRAKAR CHHAYA". archive.pardo.ch.
  18. ↑ "Charmed by transcendental magic". The New Indian Express. 21 May 2013.
  19. ↑ "Reinventing the mythical world". The New Indian Express. 22 May 2013.
  20. ↑ "The secret of death". Mid Day, Mumbai. 9 July 2012.
  21. ↑ "Should 'high art' evolve with the times to stay in the race?". Sunday Guardian, Mumbai. 12 July 2012.
  22. ↑ Sorabjee, Deepika (2014-07-06). "Circling Time". ArtSlant. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
  23. ↑ "Temporal Universe". Indian Express. 3 July 2014.
  24. ↑ "Ashish Avikunthak". Shanghai Biennale 2014. Shanghai Biennale. 2014-12-12. Retrieved 2019-08-20.
  25. ↑ "Eyes Wide Open". Indian Express. 29 July 2015.
  26. ↑ "Uncertified film screening at Kolkata gallery miffs CBFC". Times of India. 17 March 2017.
  27. ↑ "Censor board stops screening of independent film Kalkimanthakatha". Anandabazar Patrika. 18 March 2017.
  28. ↑ "Goddess in the details: 'Aapothkalin Trikalika'". Mint. 24 June 2017.
  29. ↑ Bose, Swapnil Dhruv (2023-10-17). "'Rummaging for Pasts': an Ashish Avikunthak exhibition at Chatterjee and Lal". Far Out Magazine .
  30. 1 2 A.K., Arun (2021). "An Idiom Unto Itself: An Ashish Avikunthak Retrospective". Screen Slate .
  31. ↑ "Treasures of the Yale Film Archive: Katho Upanishad" (PDF). Yale Film Archive . 2018.
  32. ↑ "Kalkimanthankatha". University of Kent . 2016-05-04.
  33. ↑ Avikunthak, Ashish (2021-09-30). Bureaucratic Archaeology: State, Science, and Past in Postcolonial India (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009067119. ISBN   978-1-009-06711-9. S2CID   243742619.
  34. ↑ Ray, Rajat (2022-11-19). "Bureaucratic Archaeology is a scholarly investigation of the history and hierarchical structure of the ASI". Indian Express .
  35. ↑ "Denied entry to Kolkata mall in dhoti: Filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak - India News, The Indian Express". indianexpress.com.
  36. ↑ "Social apartheid: I was barred from entering a Kolkata mall because I was wearing a dhoti". 17 July 2017.
  37. ↑ "Denied entry to Kolkata mall in dhoti: Filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak on 'public space'". 4 August 2017.
  38. ↑ "Was Denied Entry Into Kolkata Mall For Wearing Dhoti, Alleges Filmmaker". 16 July 2017.
  39. ↑ "All doors should open for those in traditional Indian wear". 24 July 2017.
  40. ↑ Saini, Bhavya (2022-03-02). "I Fell In Love With Ashish Despite The 17-Year Age Gap, Says Debleena Sen Chadha". SheThePeople .
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