What is art?

Kantara moview - review

Image taken from the newspaper “The Hindu”.

Kantara is a Kannada film directed and written by Rishab Shetty. 
The year 2022 will end in a few days and at a time when Bollywood cinema is struggling to earn some profit. In the midst of love-action-drama-packed movies produced by Bollywood I came to hear about this low-budget movie “Kantara”. I went to the theatre during the night time and by chance, the theatre was full (in the era of Netflix). I will describe the movie later but let me tell you how I felt after coming out of the theatre - I was numb, surprised, and afraid - all these emotions I experienced at the same time. I have never felt this way. Kantara does not come under normal cinema but it is art and the artist was “Rishabh Shetty”.

Image of a painting clicked by me at Sector 17.

What is art ?

Have you ever wondered what is the difference between an. art and a painting? And why do people pay so much money for some paintings/art? The difference is one is able to make you feel some way or wake up some kind of emotions inside you.

I have an example- A few days ago I went to the Sector-17 Chandigarh underpass and by coincidence, there was an art display there. If you would’ve looked at the design/sketches at the very start of it - you would have felt - what’s so special behind it. It’s bizarre, some sketches drawn at different angles, and then after a few steps ahead, there was a gallery decorated with beautiful paintings. Paintings were way more beautiful but they were still followed by the 7–8 sketches that were on display at the very start. Why so? Because the sketches were not mere sketches they were art. Every sketch has a story so deep, so deep that even if you read the background story, and try to locate it in the sketch - you couldn’t do that. I don’t know the original artist who drew them but I was able to know the why? behind every sketch. While people there were going forward in a few seconds, I think I spent 2 hours looking at the art and trying to understand the reason behind that. It was different. I think after 4–5 attempts of looking at all the art by their respective number when I started to look in a last-to-first manner, I got the 2% (which I believe, and which I am writing in this post) of it. The thing is even if I would write in exact same words which were written there - you couldn’t understand. For some things, you have to be present in present (present) to make sense of it.

Image of an art clicked by me at Sector 17.

Kantara attached the traditional dance form of a tribal people and linked it with the mythicism of the Hinduism world. That is why in its Hindi dubbing only people from India can truly understand it. And I am very happy that people (especially the youth) of India are giving way to only stories that make sense and not to “Hero wins in the end” kind of thing. The dance shown in Kantara (“bhootha-kola”) was a ritual and the one who performs the actual dance transcends/transforms into “what we call god mode”. Mr. Shetty joined the traditional with the modern world and the irony shown in each scene from the very start was more than anything to glue the viewer to the screen. The amount of concentration with which I saw the first few seconds of the movie - that I think I will remember my whole life. I have not seen it on OTT, so I cannot comment if one gets the same experience as a theatre on OTT.

Art, the artist, and the viewer all three get into the zone (IYKWIM). 
Now I suppose I should put down my pen.