So, here we go again!

I'm still high from the experience of filming Doshi ten years later and listening to him talk of the otherworldly things, what we call Aulokik. These mythical stories and cosmic experiences have followed me my whole life. And Doshi was there all along, from those apocalyptic times in 2011 and 2013, to those mysterious days when briefly in 2014 I became The Antagonist, another role I had to play. One of the hundred thousand roles. And after being graced an entry into such vastly diverse lives, it only feels gratifying to hear him saying about the nature's diversity in various lives. I have been blessed to witness, capture and direct these beautiful moments in time. Imprinted forever. Sculpting in Time at Tiruvannamalai. Hallelujah, Doshi Ji. Long Live Timelessness! 

Oh, and this is the DVD artwork for The Second Chapter. Screening on 20th September, 2019, at Bangalore International Centre. 

Doshi: The Second Chapter

Doshi: The Second Chapter was screened at the Frame Conclave Modern Heritage Design Conference in August. The response was overwhelmingly positive. The journey marks a serendipitous ten year cycle of cosmic interventions and revelations. Shoot took place on two schedules. First in June 17 & 18 and then July 16, 17, 18 & 19. Editing and Music Production commenced end July and the final cut was ready by August 10th. The premiere took place at the Cardium Auditorium, Dona Paula, on the 18th of August, as a closer to the festival and was attended by several stalwarts in the field of architecture and art. Thank You Ruturaj Parikh for the GaneshHands. :)

The film is almost ready. Running time sixty-two minutes. Thoughts on timelessness, reflections on stillness. Blessed to be in the presence of The Guru. Transmitting in August. 

Photo Courtesy: Ruturaj Parikh

"Doshi" Review on archdaily.com

Balkrishna Doshi, despite his vast number of completed projects, is a little-known name in the Western world. Directed by Premjit Ramachandran, the documentary "Doshi" allows the viewer to appreciate the vision of this important Indian architect, probing his thoughts while getting to know a number of his projects. Filmed in a frank style of conversation, the documentary reveals an original and creative human being who, even in old age, remains passionate about architecture as well as life and learning.

The film becomes a roundtable with Doshi, his alumni, his contemporaries and even family members, all within the context of his architecture. The camera follows its protagonist through spaces designed by him, while he narrates, recalls and explains his processes of creation. It also reveals how he makes his philosophy an intrinsic part of his own life.

Read the full article here https://www.archdaily.com/890243/doshi-documentary-explores-pritzker-prize-winning-career-modern-indian-architect

Doshi II / The Return To Formlessness

Ten years since we made the film on Doshi. As we revisit Sangath, Kamala House and Sarkhej we realise how blessed we are to be in the presence of a real Guru. At 92, he is still like a child curious to learn, inquisitive to see, touch, hear & feel the environments and people he comes in contact with.

It marks also a full circle 2009 to 2019. I have experienced a thousand lifetimes in these last ten years. We shot using the same Canon XH-A1 that Gautam gifted us back in 2008. Cosmic conclusions floating in the etheric spaces everywhere. And now with the magnetic presence of Arunachalam in my life, this time I am curious to see what comes out of this exercise in timelessness!

Doshi Review: Perch

At one point in the documentary Doshi, Balkrishna Doshi explains his influences saying, “ it’s like I’m eating the food by the best chefs, but I am digesting it. How you digest your food and make it part of your blood and body is up to you.” As one of the few Indian architects known and respected internationally, Doshi is often introduced as a man who trained in his craft under Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, a pronouncement that though accurate, tends to attribute his achievement to their personalities rather than his own talent. Shot in a candid, conversational style, the film overturns this presumption, showing us a highly original, creative human being who at age 84, is still as much in love with architecture as he is with life and learning.

A personal undertaking for architect Premjit Ramachandran with filmmaker Bijoy Ramachandran of 100 Hands, Doshi is a film about an architect, but it is also a film about a teacher and a father. Rather than show us bland shots of buildings, the camera follows him through their spaces as he narrates, reminisces and explains the process of creating them. We enter his home and discover how he made his philosophy an intricate part of his own life. The film becomes a round table discussion with him, his former students, contemporaries and even family members, all in the backdrop of his architecture. I could almost imagine myself sitting under a great big tree in the CEPT courtyard, drinking chai and listen to him talk.

By itself,the film is remarkable for the number of quotable quotes it throws at you and I found myself struggling to keep pace with them all. Ideas like “architecture is about transformation” can sound like glib proselytizing until one realises that these concepts are the result of a lifetime of distillation. Doshi’s ideas are not borrowed, but they come from an open minded – though deliberate – assimilation of influences. “Le Corbusier was like a guru to me,” he says. “And because he was my guru, I decided that I could not copy him.” He freely acknowledges his teachers and perhaps it is only appropriate that through the medium of this documentary, his students willingly acknowledge him as well.

Doshi began his career soon after independence. In the early 1950s Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision for a modern, self reliant and confident Indian was the inspiration for a great many institutions and initiatives. The School of Architecture, together with ISRO, NID and IIM, made Ahmedabad a hotbed for innovation and experimentation with its founder Doshi and his counterparts at the vanguard. These institutions sought out a harmonised way forward for modern India, one that would combine Western tendencies with local sensibilities. A deep understanding of the past and a comfortable relationship with the present was the only way that India could invent a sustainable future for herself, was their belief. Explaining his philosophy, Doshi quotes Gandhi, “open the windows but see that your roof is not blown out, make sure that the foundations are strong.”

Combining his early work experience at Le Corbusier’s studio in Paris with his own research into native Indian architecture, he introduced a unique form of modernism to the country that remained sensitive to the Indian context of community and environment. He cites the temples of Madhurai as his learning grounds for lessons on rhythm and composition, just as he attributes his work ethic to Le Corbusier. As the founder Dean of Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) in Ahmedabad he influenced generations of architects in the country: whether as an institution builder, teacher or academician. His own practice, the Vastu-Shilpa Foundation for Studies and Research in Environmental Design pioneered work in affordable housing and city planning. Doshi was eventually awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 in recognition for his services to architecture.

Cut to the present day, and Doshi is disappointed by what he sees around him. It appears to him as though architecture has fallen into the hands of developers as architects themselves find it increasingly difficult to question the demands of anxious capitalism. “What can you give me, for how much money and in how much time?” – these, he says, are the concerns of a culture obsessed with products rather than process. Lamenting the lack of institutions and community spaces he wonders what the legacy of contemporary architecture will be. “Heritage is not just ancient monuments,” he says, “it is everything around us.” He was sitting at the inimitable monument of Sarkhej Roza outside Ahmedabad as he said this, but I felt a resonance with his ideas when I considered the glass and steel buildings one has to encounter on the highway that leads to this historic site.

As a young design student in Ahmedabad it was impossible not to encounter the ripples that Doshi has left in the creative mantle of the city: in every quest to understand space, volume and mass, I was directed to architecture that he had hand in building. Experiencing the CEPT campus, the Husain-Doshi Gufa, the IIM Ahmedabad campus and his studio Sangath became part of my education as a designer. I feel as though Doshi has been my teacher as well. If his buildings are demonstrations in the practice of design, then this film is a discourse in its philosophy. I would recommend it to anyone looking for an Indian way of doing, making, creating and building for there are few people who have so articulately done that very Indian thing that Doshi talks about: sampling the best of everything the world has to offer and making it your own.

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Perch