Monday, March 31, 2008

As he faced the sun, he cast no shadow.

@IIMA

B @ IIMA

Saturday, March 29, 2008

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.

Friday, March 28, 2008

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.

Friday, March 21, 2008

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.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

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.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

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

Friday, March 14, 2008

Doshi with Corbusier (Circa 1950)

CorbwithDoshi
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.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

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!