From canvas to film

M.F. Husain is perhaps the most privileged artist to have had the opportunity to experiment with and exploit every medium of art - from painting banners to making films. LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN looks at how his 'Gaja Gamini' is an extension of the art of painting.

"DEFYING chaos and confusion or, to be precise, traversing them, he has celebrated life. All within the confines of cinemascope screen, with no special effects and no high-tech, drawing images and sound from far and near, whichever his mind beholds and eyes capture, all juxtaposed, not following the rules of the game, all given unpredictable shapes and forms, but all compounded in a homogeneous work", writes Mrinal Sen on M.F. Husain's film "Gaja Gamini". It is indeed a valid appreciation from an expert film maker. It is understandable why it received bad reviews in the popular magazines, because it is far from one of the usual Bollywood offerings. "Years ago when I made my documentary 'Visual Equation' people did not understand it and it was banned in India, even though it won the award in the Berlin Film Festival. Similarly, people do not understand or appreciate 'Gaja Gamini', but I have enjoyed making it and it has been a worthwhile experience," says Husain.

And consider this.

Recently, this film was selected for the International Forum for New Cinema at Berlin.

In an unusual gesture, the Tate Gallery screened this film to a packed house, followed by a discussion led by Girish Karnad.

The London University has included it as part of the syllabus in the study of cinema.

"Each object has a shape, a forum and stands on its own; only we connect them to various functions; in my earlier documentary I used objects to represent the elements; in 'Gaja Gamini' I have used five women," says Husain. This film is conceptual art from an intelligent, talented artist combining static elements along with movement; it narrates a concept through the medium of cinema. Though there are identifiable characters from various periods in history, the film still offers a beautiful experience of looking at an abstract painting. The experience is also like watching contemporary theatre at the same time.

As Husain himself affirms, "Gaja Gamini" is a tribute to Indian womanhood from the artist, who appreciates her physical as well as spiritual beauty. Like cubism in painting, this film is multi- dimensional and multi-layered in terms of time like, several periods of history existing at the same time. Each period is represented by its own outstanding personalities who are also metaphors - such as Kalidasa, whom Husain considers the unequalled among poets and here the metaphor of illusion; Leonardo da Vinci - the Italian Renaissance artist and intellectual, the earthly lover; C. V. Raman - the scientist, metaphor of reality; Kamdev, the eternal lover and Gaja Gamini, the perfect woman sought by each of them in their own way as a source of inspiration.

"It took me 60 years to realise this dream, of which 30 were spent in allowing Madhuri to arrive," writes Husain. He had been looking for the image of the perfect Indian woman and when he saw the film "Hum Apke Hain Kaun" he was struck by Madhuri Dixit and her body language. If he saw the film over and over again, it was for nothing else but to observe the image of the woman and every nuance of her movement; he found that when one side of her body moved in one direction, the other side had a balancing movement, automatically.

Husain is perhaps the most privileged artist to have had the opportunity to have exploited and experimented with every creative medium of art, beginning from banner painting to film making. Not all artists have such a spirit of adventure either, even if the opportunity were offered.

When the "toy" of a camera was invented, worldwide, it was only artists who thought of exploring its possibilities. Initially they imitated painting in photography; but slowly it evolved and attained its own character. It stands now as an art form in its own right. The first recorded moving images also were by artists too. They have had a major role in the growth of the art of cinema too. Looking at Husain, he has had a long relationship with cinema and cinema-related images.

"Gaja Gamini" is an extension of the art of painting. Everything is an artistic and intellectual metaphor or symbol. The black wall, which stands independently, does not divide but links different ages and spaces, as does Gaja Gamini. The film opens with Gaja Gamini emerging from the brick wall of Pandharpur, clad in a saree tied in the Marathi style, her back to the viewer, her movement so graceful as that of an elephant, symbolising the transition between the past and the future, between realism and illusion. Even when she turns around, she hides her face with her forearm. Pandharpur was Husain's birth place; his mother passed away when he was hardly two - she used to wear the saree - Marathi style too - he says. He has no memory of her face and this is what is reflected in that opening scene, according to him.

As she moves away from the wall she manifests herself in four different characters - Sangeeta, the blind singer, Shakuntal, the heroine of Kalidas, Mona Lisa of Italian Renaissance art, and Monika of the 20th Century - and is yet deep inside the same woman, the symbol of the woman of all ages; the Gathri she is shown carrying on her head symbolises the burden which she bears in every role as a woman; as Madhuri writes, "whether she is a prehistoric woman or a post-1990's woman, her pain, her passions, her problems are very much the same ... All said, suffered and understood, a woman is a woman is a woman". This fact is emphasised when Premchand's Nirmala, one of the four women Sangeeta meets on the unending lanes of Dal Mandi, finds the face of Gaja Gamini in all the other three women too - i.e. Noorbibi of Satara, symbolising stability, Sindhu from the pages of Munto and Abhisarika, who yearns openly and boldly for her lover. The modern times are brought in by introducing the character of a corporate woman Lady Malika Bil Grates and the Boat woman Monika (Lewinsky?) "searching for existential love", living in a boat, surrounded by scraps of newspapers, about to enter the new millennium. Her lover is the photojournalist Sharukh; he has to go to the war front and, as always, the woman has to wait for her man, wondering and worrying about when he will return safely. The woman's voice has always been silenced; but in the present day, women have dared to come out and face the challenges; the five of them meet at the Dal Mandi and decide to voice their concerns. This they do in a silent march. There is no shouting of slogans or holding banners, just black clothing, indicating the profundity of the cause, revealing the artist at work.

Whether it is the ghats of Ganga or the forests of Kerala, everything is conceptualised by Husain in his own inimitable painterly fashion, avoiding unnecessary details and embellishments; they have no resemblance to the real locations. The artist gets into the act, in creating the moods through his designs and colours as seen in the yellow of the buildings on the banks of Ganges and the walls of Dal Mandi painted in patches of deep blue. "How can the sky be copper toned?" some friends have asked Husain. He has responded saying that he was not aiming to create a realistic representation of sky, but a golden morning. Can the moon be black? It is in Husain's film; the black moon and sky are an omen for the impending tragedy of the prince (Kamdev) leaving Shakuntal. The Kerala forest, where her ashram is set, is of dry bamboo groves.

He has experimented even with the movement within a three dimensional environment. On the steps of the river sit the white clothed virgins; on the next level are the five women representing the elements in choreographed graceful movements. Above them run free the little boys, with shaven heads and wearing just a langoti; the little ones could also signify new life and growth. There is drama/theatre and tableau with movement.

Husain has also suggested the co-existence of different periods and the moving in and out of different times through the language of the dialogue - sometimes chaste Hindi, sometimes English-mixed modern parlance. About the costumes, look at Shakuntal in a very fashionable long black dress.

All the male characters yearn for Gaja Gamini in one way or the other: Kalidas dreams of her as the perfect heroine - no one celebrated female beauty as he did; Husain says that some of the leading female singers refused to sing the Sanskrit verses of Kalidas describing Shakuntal's physical beauty as they felt it was "vulgar"; for da Vinci she is again the perfect woman who could be the model for his Mona Lisa, with whom he was in love and Kamdev declares that he has been longing for her in birth after birth; while he plays the mridanga, da Vinci plays the violin, serenading the beauty; and she in her turn dances with the instruments in a most sensual manner - they being the symbol of the lover.

Whether the ancient, mythological heroine Shakuntal - (Husain's Shakuntal is also quite contemporary in the way she taunts and challenges the hero) or the most contemporary Monica, not once is Madhuri shown dressed revealingly; she is most elegant, if at times symbolically, exuding sensuousness. Even the prince raping Shakuntal is depicted without obscenity. Says Husain, "when you look at the erotic sculptures of Khajuraho, you do not think about obscenity. Or take the Kamasutra, it has a deep philosophy. That is the beauty and greatness of Indian art and literature."

"Gaja Gamini" is the creation of a consummate artist, who has presented his dream/ vision in a "moving" manner.

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