A Thought for the Day.

             

Faith  In The Space

            
Faith is what one carries in one's mind to a place of   worship. A place becomes holy because of the collective manifestation of faith the devotees carry there. 
            

Vishnu Mathur.
August 8, 2013.

CityLights.

भीगा हुआ शहर   

   बहती हुई सड़के      

          टिमटिमाती  रात          

       और आती हुई सुबह।   

           

  The  drenched city

 Flowing Pathways

Flickering Lights

              And the distant morning.

    

                                                               

         Painting and Poems :   

      Vishnu Mathur © 

     August 5, 2013.

Crossing The River.

A Zen Story.

Two  Buddhist monks were travelling from one place to another traversing a difficult terrain. On the way they came across a fast flowing river.As they were preparing to cross the river on its bank they saw a young woman waiting. She needed their help to cross the river.One of the monks immediately volunteered. He picked up the young lady on his back and helped her to go across the river.Once on the other side of the river the woman thanked him and went on her way.The second monk did not look happy with the event. After they had walked for a while in silence the second monk asked the first monk, "What was the need to carry that woman?You know that we have taken the vow of celibacy." The first monk kept on walking and then quietly replied after a while." I have left  the woman on the river bank long ago but you are still carrying her with you."

Sketch: Vishnu Mathur  © 

Vishnu Mathur.
August 1.2013.

The Last Sunset

Film makers who are engaged in practising the language of cinema in their own personal syntax have been for long debating the concept of  'realism' in cinema. To begin with, cinema captured a certain physical reality but then as the language of cinema evolved through fictional narrative and then its abstraction  it went on to find its own form of art which is not necessarily employed to tell a story or depict a certain physical reality.This contemplative form of cinema is often used by film makers who are engaged in their own interpretation of the so called "realism' or how they perceive life as such. In that context a question is often raised about what is real and what is perceived as reality. In this context I thought  of an interesting visual exercise which can be used as an example to illustrate how a  visual symbolism depicting a certain "reality" can be demystified,

Take for example a  sunset, The shot of a setting sun ,one of the most commonly used visual metaphor in  the history of world cinema. It is used in many ways in different contexts including the most famous "walking into the sunset".  At a very basic level a shot of a sunset gives the meaning of an end of an episode or just depicting an end of the day. What happens if the camera which is capturing a sunset from a certain given location is placed on a helicopter and as soon as the sun sets behind the horizon or the sea the camera lifts up in the sky to a higher altitude?The sun would appear into the frame again in its full form And if the moving platform on which camera is placed, maybe a helicopter or a flying machine follows the 'setting sun' along the globe for twenty four hours, and comes back to the exact location where it had started we would visually see the analogy of the 'sunset' demystified. That would be the end of the 'sunset'. The sun never sets, in a sense. 

It is just an example of how  certain visual representation of the so called 'reality' in cinema can be reinterpreted to understand "realism" in cinema.  Cinema  can  depict a certain 'reality' which is ever changing and at the same time its visuals contained within the frame can indicate towards a larger 'realty' which is outside the frame. 

Vishnu Mathur.

July 30.2013.

Life Is A Miracle.

  Akbar Padamsee

Akbar Padamsee, the celebrated Indian painter, once told us an interesting story.

Many years  ago when he was travelling in south of France for a lecture tour and during one of his lectures in a university there a professor who had travelled to India earlier asked him a question. The professor said that during his visit to India he had observed that generally people in India looked happy in spite of so many problems India was facing. He wanted to know why it was so while people in France looked sullen and unhappy in spite of the fact that France was a prosperous state.

To that Akbar gave an interesting answer. He said that what people in France take for granted as a routine is a miracle in India. For example Akbar explained if one gets up in the morning and finds the water running in the tap one says, “Ah, the water is running!”  If someone presses the button of the lift in a building and the lift comes up that person would be delighted. And if you are waiting on a platform for a train and if the train arrives on time then you would say “Oh thank God the train has come on time!” So Akbar explained that what seems to be routine and boring event in France seems like a miracle in India That is why people seem happier India as compared to people in France. “In India we feel  life itself  is a miracle” said Akbar Padamsee to an audience enthralled by his explanation.  

Vishnu Mathur.

July 27^th, 2013.

Hand to mouth

This morning my eyes saw my hand feeding my mouth.I felt my teeth chewing the food and my gullet putting the food in my stomach and my ears heard my voice say,"That was nice."

Vishnu Mathur.
July 22,2013.

"I Quote"

                                        

"I don't know if I am unhappy because I am not free or I am  not free because I am unhappy."

From the French film "Breathless"(1960)

Directed by Jean Luc Godard.

Vishnu Mathur

July 15th 2013