By Tathagat Banerjee
“I feel the cinema that will last longer is the poetic cinema, not the cinema that is just storytelling.” – Abbas Kiarostami
“I think people remember pictures, not dialogue. That’s why I like pictures.” – David Lean
Iconic filmmakers have always firmly held images to be more important than other components of cinema. This idea of the predominance of images or frames in cinema is arguably the single most noticeable feature of new waves of experimental cinema across cultures. From Satyajit Ray (India) to Abbas Kiarostami (Iran), from Hirokazu Koreeda (Japan) to Wong Kar-Wai (Hong Kong), from Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey) to Krzysztof Kieślowski (Poland), all ‘auteurs’ have pushed the envelope in framing breathtaking images to express themselves.
I have always been drawn to the cinema because of its visual poetry. Be it the stunning appearance of the lone horse rider in the desert in Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962) or Apu and Durga’s train watching in Ray’s Pather Panchali (1955), I relish the frames of cinema. However, in 21st-century India, saving a handful of filmmakers, there is a dearth of such avant-garde filmmakers who can stun the world with their frames. Only two names crop up in my mind at present – Aditya Vikram Sengupta (Labour of Love, 2014) and Anand Gandhi (Ship of Theseus, 2012). The situation over here is so depressing that discovering a maverick filmmaker is a rarity. And such rare occasions of discovery fill you with inexplicable wonder. I consider my discovery of Achal Mishra through his two films no less than a rare moment of wonder. Never had I expected a fresh wave of cinema to rise from Bihar’s Darbhanga just because there has never been a long, continuous liaison between Darbhanga and avant-garde cinema. To put it more precisely, there has never been a long tradition of experimental cinema rooted in Darbhanga.
Sumana Roy while briefly discussing Achal Mishra’s Gamak Ghar (2019) in her recently released book Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries (2024) comments: “To imagine a place (Darbhanga), so close to where I was, one ignored by the gaze of art and cinema, suddenly being turned into art energized me immediately” (179). The energy Sumana Roy refers to closely relates to my sense of wonder at the discovery of Achal Mishra’s cinema. Sumana Roy, a Professor of Creative Writing at Ashoka University, conducted an hour-long interview with Achal Mishra at the University followed by an interesting interactive session in which Achal opened up about his art – his methods, his mental processes, his ingenious directing style, what Darbhanga means to him and sources of his inspiration. The interview is available on YouTube. The scope of this article doesn’t allow me to delve into the details of Gamak Ghar and Dhuin (2022), two remarkable films by Achal Mishra. Therefore, I would deliberately refrain from expressing my impression of his two films. I intend to give a short introduction to two central tenets of his art – his frames and his portrayal of Darbhanga.
Achal Mishra has named his production company Achalchitra Productions. As the very name suggests, his films challenge and subvert the very concept of chalchitra (moving images) with their achalchitra (still images/ frames). Achal Mishra, who is candid about the influences of Abbas Kiarostami and Satyajit Ray on him, captures Darbhanga through the cinematic gaze like never before. Not one shot by any director, dead or alive, has ever presented Darbhanga in the poetic style of Achal Mishra. Capturing the life of a village house, Gamak Ghar’s central character is no human, it is the house. The theme of Gamak Ghar is so ambitious that the aesthetics of traditional filmmaking is inept to portray it with all its essence. Achal Mishra, primarily a photographer, used his aesthetics of photography to evolve a method of filming that is closer to photography than motion filmmaking. His method compels us to put this maverick filmmaker into a tradition of filmmaking graced by filmmakers like Satyajit Ray, Wong Kar-Wai, Koredaa, Abbas Kiarostami, and even Kieślowski.
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
Thus wrote T.S. Eliot in “Little Gidding,” Four Quartets. Achal Mishra left Darbhanga, and Bihar, in his childhood. By his admission, he didn’t return to his hometown frequently and was often hesitant to embrace his Bihari identity. However, the place, his hometown, never left him. Darbhanga gave him the voice, the soul of his art. He poignantly says that his filmmaking is also about rediscovering Darbhanga and his Bihari identity. All his aesthetic explorations led him magically to his hometown Darbhanga just as Nuri Bilge Ceylan was led to Turkey, Ray to Calcutta, and Kiarostami to Tehran.
Achal Mishra’s Achalchitra Productions is also assisting other filmmakers with fresh and experimental voices. Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar (2022) by Parth Saurabh is one such instance. We might be on the cusp of a significant transformation in the cinematic language of Bihar. Cinema, experimental cinema challenging the aesthetics of traditional filmmaking, might just become Bihar’s other way of communicating with the world. And who knows, we might soon see Bihar at the Oscars or at the Cannes.
Works Cited
Roy, Sumana. Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries. Yale University Press, 2024.
“THE VISUAL POETRY OF ACHAL MISHRA’S DARBHANGA.” Youtube, uploaded by Ashoka University, Apr 29. 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBWWzwlprE8&t=20s
Bio:
Mr. Tathagat Banerjee is an Assistant Professor of English at Langat Singh College, Muzaffarpur, Bihar.
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