Ahead of its screening at a city film fest tomorrow, a Bhil artist and a filmmaker share insights into an animated short that narrates how India's third largest tribal community took to painting
A still from Hum Chitra Banate Hai (We Make Images)
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As a parched rooster tries to stretch its neck and crow from a roof in the trailer of the animation film, Hum Chitra Banate Hai (We Make Images), our eyes are transfixed on its body, patterned with myriad, multi-hued dots that pulsate and glow with every movement. The frame shifts to a village setting, where we see characters — men, women, deer and goats — fighting over water, glowing with similar dotted patterns.
Nina Sabnani
Sketch like a Bhil
A painting in motion, the trailer showcases a tale (narrated by Raghubir Yadav) of a community starved for water, and how a wise Badwaji (shaman) suggests that they paint trees on their walls, which solves the problem. In under nine minutes, the film, to be screened at MAMI tomorrow, explains the origin of painting being integral to the Bhil tribe of Madhya Pradesh.
Bhil artist Sher Singh at work
Directed by artist-filmmaker Nina Sabnani, known for award-winning animated films like Tanko Bole Chhe (The Stitch-es Speak) and Baat Wahi Hai, Hum Chitra Banate Hai (Hindi with English subtitles) has been produced by IIT Bombay, where Sabnani is a professor.
Pages from the picture book, A Bhil Story
Similar to how she collaborated with Kutch artisans for Tanko Bole Chhe, Sabnani roped in Sher Singh, a known Bhil artist from Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh to create the art for the film. “This approach allows me to access lesser-known oral traditions that are still alive. I met Sher Singh at a craft mela in Orissa, and invited him to IIT for a workshop. In the process of learning how to make the art, we also realised the importance of painting in their lives,” she shares.
Sabnani travelled with Singh to Jhabua and Bhopal to gain insight into the Bhil life and their beliefs. "For instance, he told me that each dot represents an ancestor and that the idea of painting dots came from the corn they grow," informs the filmmaker.
Art for nature
Steeped in rituals, tradition and symbolism, Bhil art is connected to nature, and used as form of prayer and for healing. Thirty-year-old Singh, who learnt the art from his mother, Bhuri Bai when he was just seven, says, "We are connected to land and the paintings feature mythological characters along with trees, animals, birds, celestial objects like the sun and moon and scenes from festivals. These are present in the film too."
Glow the dots
While traditionally, the tribe practised it as Pithora art (ritual paintings on walls), today, artistes use paper for canvas. For the project, Singh offered over 60 paintings from his oeuvre, and created works depicting cornfields, a barrel-like instrument called dhak and the character of shaman.
In order to avoid distortion, Sabnani and her team of animators (Piyush Verma, Ashwin Vasudevan and Shyam Sundar Chatterjee) scanned the paintings and worked for over four months to convert them into moving images, with glow bulb-like effect et al, using software like Photoshop, After Effects and Final Cut Pro. The film features background score by music director Rajat Dholakia, who heard several Bhil songs to maintain authenticity. In production for over two years, the film was completed this June and has won awards at the Indie-AniFest Festival in Seoul and Signs Festival in Kerala before arriving in Mumbai. “I never imagined that my paintings would be animated. I’ve seen the film and it is surreal,” gushes Singh over a disturbed phone line from Madhya Pradesh.
On: October 23, 5 pm
At: Audi 4, PVR Phoenix, Lower Parel (as part of MAMI festival)
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