Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of Mati Manas

Timestamp:

Jul 16, 2012, 5:57:24 PM (12 years ago)

Author:

Trupti

Comment:

--

Mati Manas

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+'''Mati Manas'''
+
+
+aka Mind of Clay aka Terracotta
+1984 92’ col Hindi
+d/p/co-s Mani Kaul pc Infrakino Film Prod.
+co-sc Kamal Swaroop c Venu
+m T.R. Mahalingam
+lp Anita Kanwar, Robin Das, Ashok Sharma
+
+
+Episodic film about the ancient Indian tradition
+of terracotta sculpture and pottery and the
+several legends associated with this tradition.
+The artefacts involved include some of the
+oldest items of Indian civilisation (from the
+Indus Valley, 2500BC) and have been, together
+with the legends associated with terracotta
+techniques, central to historical research into
+e.g. the origins of patriarchy, the shift from
+pastoral to agrarian systems, etc. The film
+enacts a series of such legends. The first is of
+the Sariya Mata or cat mother whose kittens
+remained safe in the interior of the baked pot,
+a legend associated with Harappan
+archaeological sites which had human
+skeletons buried in womb-like pots. The
+second legend revolves around the Kala-Gora
+(Black-White) icon produced in the village of
+Molella, Rajasthan, and features the witch
+Gangli who transforms Gora into a bull by day,
+making him work in her oil-press, until finally
+Kala beheads Gangli. The film connects this
+tale with the Mesopotamian legend of
+Gilgamesh and Enkidu. The third, and bestknown,
+legend features Parashuram who
+beheads his own mother Renuka with his axe.
+Interwoven with these tales are stories narrated
+by the potters themselves and fictional
+sequences featuring three contemporary
+historians who recall the legends while looking
+at the terracotta artefacts, often through the
+eyepiece of a camera or from behind glass
+panes in a museum. Shot throughout Central,
+South and Eastern India, the film deliberately
+suppresses its variety of locations to achieve
+the idea of an integrated civilisation endowed
+with a sense of immortality through cultural
+(pro)creativity. At the same time, the technocultural
+process of film-making is presented as
+an extension of similar craft traditions.
+
+[[Film]]