Tracing Life From Canvas To Celluloid

Tracing Life From Canvas To Celluloid

From canvas and acrylics to celluloid, Babu Ishwar Prasad’s works are all about finding meaning in the journey of life. A renowned painter who mostly loves to paint still life with bold and bright sceneries depicting everyday life, he has tried to experiment his creative strain but with a film this time.

With his film ‘Gaali Beeja’ (Wind seed), Prasad makes a balance of two art forms. All the main characters in the film are on a continuous journey called life. An experimental film, Gaali Beeja has garnered great response and appreciation from the audience and the film circuit as well. Among the many accolades that it has received, the film was recently honoured with Karnataka Lalit Kala Akademi Award.

The artist-filmmaker talked to My City Links while he was in the temple city to participate in the 9th Indian Film Festival Bhubaneswar. Excerpts.

Visual art or filmmaking, which medium gives you more freedom as an artist?

Every medium gives you the freedom to use your creativity, but filmmaking has a different scope. In painting, your creativity is confined to one single canvas whereas filmmaking gives the opportunity to put all the images, we have in our mind,intoa sequence on a larger canvas. Films facilitate audio with the canvas, moving images, space besides the cinematic time. Cinematic time is different from real time. An entire journey can be shown in ten minutes.

Being a painter, what inspired you to turn towards filmmaking?

Filmmaking and fine arts are not totally different media. Many visual artists have made films. During the era of silent films, artists, photographers and writers were the ones to try experimental things. Therefore,cinema isn’t the forte of film makers alone; there are many others who are doing well in this field. Films as a medium have a lot of scope and I wanted to experiment with my ideas on a much larger canvas.

Your debut film is a road movie. What motivated you to do so?

My love for travelling and the exposure to some brilliant world movies had me wanting to do a road movie.  Access to good world movies was not easy during my college days. It was during my stay in Baroda that I got to watch a lot of films. I would even watch pirated movies. In 1991, I got an opportunity to watch ‘Alice in the Cities’, a 1974 German road movie directed by Wim Wenders. I really liked that movie and watched several more such movies.

As an artist, do you feel that digitalisation has made the works of artists and filmmakers much easier?

Nothing is easy or complicated; everything depends on how we use things. People often think that computer makes things easier, which is not usually true. Digital media is a tool but how you use that tool, depends on your skill. Moreover, everybody is dealing with contemporary issues, techniques and tools. So, whatever we create, is contemporary.

In the last couple of days, you have been interacting with young students in the city who are enthusiastic about filmmaking.  How was their response?

The response of the people during the workshop was overwhelming. The participants were curious to know about various aspects of filmmaking that could be used to enhance their creativity. The sessions with them were interactive. The participants were enthusiastic and buzzing with interesting ideas.

Indian audience is mostly unaware of the marvellous work that Indian parallel cinema produces. What do you have to say about this scenario?

Every film has some or the other platform to be showcased. While commercial filmsattract large crowds and do good business within a week of their release, there are other films, which are made for a particular set of people and will be shown at various film festivals. We can’t compare two forms of films; eachhas its own set of audiences.

How has been your experience in Bhubaneswar?

Coming from Delhi, I liked the city’s clean environment. The air here is much cleaner. I had visited the city 10 years ago but can notice that many things have changed now. I guess, a few years later all the cities will look the same, with similar tall buildings. I hope the city will continue to retain its clean air.

What will be your suggestion to all the aspiring artists?

There is no suggestion for budding artists. I feel that there is a scope for everybody and anybody who wants to work. They just have to figure out how to do it. With technology in our pocket, we need to learn how to utilise it properly.