And so...

...our journey begins again.

Tra La La

I just returned from a 5-day film-bazaar event in Goa. Lots of big names were there. While I chatted and chin-chined with Shaji N. Karun, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Anurag Kashyap and Mr. Shyam Benegal, I realised its a long road. To get anywhere. Recognition is more than just a drink with the boys. There are, apparently, over 50,000 documentary filmmakers in India. All trying to bite into the distribution pie. "Sell my film, its good", they all say. So much promise. No avenues. We are, after all, step-sons and step-daughters of the Indian film industry. There are no trifle puddings for us. But someday something will happen. Our film is finding it so hard to make an entry into the Landmarks and Crosswords of India. On a crossroads. Which way now? When people like Shaji Karun come to such an event pitching their project for funding what chance does a little-known to almost unknown filmmaker like me have? God bless us. God bless Mr. Doshi for opening his doors to us. Thank God for that. Just that is enough. :)

IN NYC

:)

"A man is rich, directly in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let go."
Henry David Thoreau

Overwhelming...

...to see over 600 people attend the screening of the film. It was truly a great day. The papers wrote about us and the film, people recognised us and it was praise for the film all the way. Everyone seemed really touched by it and some of them even said it was better than "My Architect" which, for me, is a great compliment. God is great. More such experiences please.

I will keep updating this blog with future screenings in Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Delhi. These are good times. :)

70mm

It was the most loveliest feeling to watch Doshi on a 70mm screen (and in India's first multiplex). Very satisfying. Epic. To suit his scale. Gorgeous. His story needs to be seen/heard. He is like Pi. Everlasting.

The premiere is on the 30th of August, 6:30pm at City Pulse, Gandhinagar. I can't wait.

Its 2am, I have just finished watching the final cut on DVD post colour correction, audio mastering, etc.
I am very happy.
God is great. God bless D.

D/C

...and one more

So, Doshi, his wife and daughter Radhika arrived in Bangalore yesterday and we had a screening of the film in my place. They absolutely loved it. A round of applause from them was quite a touching moment. :) God bless him.

...working
in architecture
in many respects
is
really more
a working on oneself,
on one’s own interpretation,
on one’s own way of seeing things.

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

C

We have been very fortunate. Bijoy and me got to spend 3 hours with Mr. Charles Correa and the experience we had was absolutely unreal. I dont think it would be fair to put it in words. We discussed so many things from films to music to living in Japan to handloom. It was amazing. He was a bit uncomfortable in the beginning but as he got to know us he warmed up to us and finally even said he would like to say something personally to Doshi on camera. Here is a screenshot of it. What did he say? Well, you will have to come to the premiere to find out. :)

The world is the stage, the world is the audience.

Further

Just when things seemed to be settling down we have suddenly begun to feel the need to invite more people to this party. With reactions now coming from all corners we are keen to take this even further. We have lined up new interviews in Bombay and hopefully in Delhi. This will give us a chance to also visit a few of the projects there. Prem and I do have reservations about turning this into a biopic in the true sense with a story of the beginnings and the trajectory of Doshi's career. His philosophy, and his unique ability to inspire are compelling lessons for architects. The academic investigation of his architecture and his practice will need to remain a separate project.

Tea

Just felt like posting this. It has nothing to do with architecture or Mr. D. I just think its beautiful.

----

I like pouring your tea, lifting
the heavy pot, and tipping it up,
so the fragrant liquid streams in your china cup.

Or when you're away, or at work,
I like to think of your cupped hands as you sip,
as you sip, of the faint half-smile of your lips.

I like the questions – sugar? – milk? –
and the answers I don't know by heart, yet,
for I see your soul in your eyes, and I forget.

Jasmine, Gunpowder, Assam, Earl Grey, Ceylon,
I love tea's names. Which tea would you like? I say
but it's any tea for you, please, any time of day,

as the women harvest the slopes
for the sweetest leaves, on Mount Wu-Yi,
and I am your lover, smitten, straining your tea.


----

Carol Ann Duffy

Official Trailer

Here is the new 3-minute preview for the Doshi film. A celebration of life. :)

When Yves Saint Laurent retired, he said: "I have known fear and the terrors of solitude. I have known those fair-weather friends we call tranquilizers and drugs. I have known the prison of depression and the confinement of hospital. But one day, I was able to come through all of that, dazzled yet sober."

Of light. The new opening theme for the Doshi film.

"Beauty is the reward of the unintended. Nothing ages more rapidly than art which strains towards immortality from the moment of inception. The most durable works grow out of the moment, are marked by it. And while they are linked to the moment, they are pledged to the future. There is no true work of art that is not primarily related to the present from which it arose; and none that is related only to the present."
Peter Ruedi

"For me its a search, search for that unknown which I have not known, neither I know how it will manifest. That's actually the essence of my work."

Progressing very well. I think we may have something special in our hands. :)

Goodmorning Sunshine

We are not sure how many of you read this. Thanks anyway. To both of you. :)
The film is progressing wonderfully. We now have a deadline. Mr. D's birthday, 26th August. We are planning a big premier at CEPT on August 29th. A beautifully designed poster will start doing the rounds soon. God bless us.
So far, the Indology, Shreyas and LIC and the final Sarkhej vignettes are complete. They all have come out better than I expected. So far its been the most wonderful experience. Ever!

@ INDOLOGY

As he faced the sun, he cast no shadow.

@IIMA

Shape

The process finally began today at around 2 pm, post lunch. I started with the edit of the Shreyas School footage. We had over an hour of footage of the school. It began really slowly and then suddenly something happened. It just started to flow. And once I placed "Blackbird" over the cut it just looked and sounded "right". Out of the 40 minute interview with Mrs. Leena Mangaldas, I must have used about 1 minute. Ruthless as hell. That's the only way to be. Only Mr. D gets the limelight. He is really the greatest performer. (In a good way). So here goes... LIC housing today. Wish me luck.

The Arrival

Doshi Arrived in India as part of the team supervising Le Corbusier's projects first in Chandigarh and subsequently in Ahmedabad. Nehru's invitation to Corbusier to design India's first truly modern city fundamentally altered the nature of patronage and architectural practice in India. Till then the architect (or chief mason) was largely uncredited and the work was seen solely as a result of the patron's vision. Corbusier's celebrity status as a visionary architect was a new paradigm and Doshi's subsequent rise as a practitioner and instigator of large scale institution building in Ahmedabad may in some part be a result of the change in the way people perceived the role of an architect.
Doshi's real contribution is not so much in the formulation of a 'theory' of building but in the orchastration of patronage to serve the community through the inception of institutions like CEPT and to some extent NID & IIM-A.

Genesis

So here is a brief note on the genesis of this film:
In 2005 I made a documentary on the state of Architecture in Bangalore as seen by 25 of its most prominant practitioners. Made with a small handheld camera and no sound equipment the film was tough to watch and even tougher to hear, but the process of juxtaposing ideas and opinions from different people together on the same topic made it seem like a conversation. The film found an afterlife as an introduction to private practice at some architecture schools and in transcript form at Anand Bhatt's Architexturez (http://www.architexturez.net/+/subject-listing/000070.shtml). Prof. Chhaya of CEPT suggested I do a similar film on Ahmedabad and it got me thinking about Doshi. Maybe we needed to have a conversation about him, his critical works, his ideas about life and his relevance today.
I worked at Doshi's office for a year (95-96) and was a great fan of his. He had a take on things which was at once very modern and ancient. His work had influenced a whole generation of architects and I was always amazed at how diverse his work was and how consistently interesting. He was also the only one from his generation who was presenting the work (especially in the later projects) in a very unusual way - talking about myths, creating narratives steeped in imagined histories and locating key architectural moves as a reaction to these. This ability to at once tackle architecture as both a modern, structured and rigorous artifact as well as an intangible, archaic and philosophical idea made the work seem more rooted than those of his contemporaries. He seemed to be the perfect candidate for a film - his experiences would include working with Le Corbusier, starting an architecture school, setting up a foundation, and being the quintessential family man.
So as soon as Prem returned to India we decided to begin and on a whim we made a trip to Ahmedabad. Reaching there on a Sunday night I made my first call to Doshi.

The Edit

While watching some footage today Prem was reminded of Prof. Levy from Crimes & Misdemeanors
Professor Levy: You will notice that what we are aiming at when we fall in love is a very strange paradox. The paradox consists of the fact that, when we fall in love, we are seeking to re-find all or some of the people to whom we were attached as children. On the other hand, we ask our beloved to correct all of the wrongs that these early parents or siblings inflicted upon us. So that love contains in it the contradiction: The attempt to return to the past and the attempt to undo the past.

Music as a trajectory

So Prakash, one of Bangalore's best musicians, is going to help me with the score for the film. He has also agreed to source live musicians, tabla players, violin players etc to help out with the score. We talked about the film yesterday and after seeing the trailer he was really enthusiastic about composing something special. Everything to do with this film needs to be special. God bless us. x

Doshi with Corbusier (Circa 1950)

This time the joke is on me. The test is on. The surfaces are clearer but my sights are limited. On one plane we have the tremendous benefit of knowledge and on the other the phenomenal burden of statement. How does one balance on this tight rope? Do you look back at the beginning or do you look ahead? The future is a blank page. Sometimes its in the sink. Caution. Tread carefully. The rope is not always made of steel.

This is a tough homecoming. Having spent time with Doshi I now realise how small my ambition is, how insignificant my plans. The soaring roofs of the Shreyas classrooms stand for the grand ambition of the young 30 year old architect in his first major commission. Threads from here link all his later work and show the same concern for fundamentally reinterpreting the way we inhabit space. 

We are all so miopic.

Thoughts

So I have been sitting and importing all the footage and I am so amazed with what we have. He is truly a legend. To imagine that his most iconic works were done when he was just 35 is quite amazing. I am going to be 35 in two years. Where am I going? Do you feel the same way? The harsh reality of mediocrity worries me. Who is watching me? Questions, questions...

"While there has been earlier documentation on Doshi's work, it has largely been in the form of books and magazine articles. While this may capture the qualitative values of Doshi's work, it does not adequately capture Doshi's personality or his role and influence on the architectural profession in India. He was the person responsible for bringing Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn to India. In the early years after India gained independence from colonial rule, he is one of a handful of seminal figures who set the tone in exploring architecture's capacity to come to terms with the sense of modernity sought by this nascent nation. He set the benchmark for architectural education through his founding role in the Centre for Environmental Planning & Technology in Ahmedabad. He has not remained confined to the architectural idiom of his early career, and his work has continued to evolve substantively through his constant questioning of fundamentals in architecture. But what is striking about Doshi is the fact that his passion, enthusiasm and desire to learn have remained unabated even today." - Prem Chandavarkar, Chandavarkar & Thacker Architects

The Beginnings

So, the story begins here. I am nervous. Will I be able to do justice to this great personality with the film. We have approximately 24 hours of footage on the film. The real journey begins now. Its all chop-chop. No one compares. All voices stay in the background. Go, mordecai!