For research on the evolution of the Indian documentary film. Focusing on major figures and phases of development from the 1920s to the present, the project will chart the chronologies of different types of documentary filmmaking practices in India. The connection of technology, politics, community building, funding and censorship to documentary filmmaking will also be investigated. The outcome of the project will be the manuscript of a book and two paper presentations at seminars.
For turning the performance script S*x, M*rality and Cens*rship, which was developed with the help of an earlier research grant from IFA, into a stage production. The script specifically looks at at the censorship battles fought over the play Sakharam Binder and the audience and critical responses to the production. Audio and video material secured during the research phase will be incorporated in the envisaged docudrama to recreate the cultural context of the 1970s.
For research towards a book on the history and evolution of the little magazine movement from 1881 to 2010. The book will investigate the role of women writers, publishers, sponsors and critics in the little magazine movement, and the correlation between literature, social change and other art forms like painting, cinema and theatre. Digital copies of significant little magazines from 1960 to 1975 (a time of radical literary invention through the little magazines) will be distributed to university libraries and institutions across Maharashtra.
For research on the socio-political history of modern Marathi theatre. The researcher will focus on the different political trends in Marathi theatre from the time of the first modern playwrights in Marathi to the present. The resulting manuscript will serve as a source for three plays that will bring political history of modern Marathi theatre to a larger theatre-going audience.
For researching and photo-documenting the tambu talkies (tent cinemas) that follow the route of the religious jatras (fairs) in Maharashtra. The history of the tambu talkies will be constructed by mapping the film distribution cycle and exhibition patterns, gathering old photographs and documents, and recording oral histories of the proprietors and distributors of the tambu talkies. Photo-documentation will capture the current state of the touring tent cinemas, covering such aspects as the audience profile, the ingenious projection systems and the innovative advertising strategies.
For the development and staging of an adaptation of Kuo Pao Kun’s play for children, Day I Met the Prince based on Antoine Saint Exupery’s classic Le Petit Prince. This interative performance, featuring dance, music and magic, will encourage the young to explore their own concerns and become more keenly aware of the world around them.
For the creation of The Doorway, an exploration of real and imagined stories in the tradition of Grotowski’s Theatre Laboratory, for presentation and discussion in art galleries, theatre institutions and alternative spaces across the country. This evolving performance will deconstruct the craft of acting with minimal spoken text and design support, making it strongly experimental in nature and challenging the actor-spectator equation.
For research into theatre censorship in Maharashtra. Using Vijay Tendulkar’s banned play, Sakharam Binder, as a point of reference, the study will investigate censorship in the larger context of the socio-cultural history of theatre, and look into authoritarian state censorship as well non-state agencies’ agenda of silencing and suppressing theatrical expression. The play “S*x, M*rality, Cenc*rship” is the outcome of the grant got nominated for META awards in 10 categories.
For research into the life of Gond artist Jangarh Singh Shyam and the events, characters and art philosophies that led to his untimely death in Japan. The researcher will identify appropriate areas of arts discourse for reading and analysis, and will travel to interview various individuals who have played significant roles in Jangarh Singh Shyam’s life. The research will subsequently provide the basis for a novel.
For the development of a new choreographic work titled The Rhythm Divine—a collaboration between dancer-choreographer and a master of the Pung Cholom form of Manipur, and his team. The artists will try to assimilate each other’s movement styles and then, through an improvisatory sawaal-jawaab process, create a new contemporary ‘stage-scape’ and idiom of dance.
