A film about the bond between the festival of Navratri, the city of Vadodara and me.
A film about the bond between the festival of Navratri, the city of Vadodara and me.
A film about the bond between the festival of Navratri, the city of Vadodara and me.
SYNOPSIS
The film "Ramji Thakkar Bhimji Thakkar” encapsulates the essence of the festival of Navratri in the city of Baroda, the reinvention of a dying culture, its survival and its evolution as an urban folk culture.
The film uses the director's experiences as a narrative that gets echoed through the voices of the people and through some chapters of the history of the festival.
As the film unfolds one begins to understand how a culture, a living entity, is born out of the emotions and participation of a society. It takes you through the 1950s to the 2000s, where the city's and director's experiences are echoed together. One begins to see how Culture is, not an immutable structure carved in stone, but, a patchwork of influences. The push and the pull between the pure and the ever changing, the good and the bad, education and intuition, the old and the new, form the ground for a vibrant culture. This urban story is entwined along with that of the history of the folk form itself. Individual anecdotes mark the changes that led to the evolution of the folk culture. All this makes for an emotional, natural and humorous narrative which explores the bond between the festival, the city and its people. The film is a look into the interrelationship of the people and the festival, the role of educational institutions and the city’s culture, the idea of static tradition verses culture as a palimpsest of many influences.
The film is constructed as a wonderful collage of archival footage, images, music as well as candid interviews interspersed with live footage of the present day celebrations. Stalwarts from the fields of art and music who have contributed to the festival like artists Padma Shri Jyoti Bhatt, Raghav Kaneria, art historian Ratan Parimoo, theatre stalwart Markand Bhatt, musician Vikram Patil and dancer Gujarat Gaurav Parul Patel are a part of this film and have lent their intellectual support to the film.
The making of the film:
The film happened as an outcome of the filmmaker's varied interests and pursuits, and is a story in itself! In 2013, inspired by a short conversation that she had with her students, Shwetal Bhatt, embarked on a journey of documenting the Navratri Festival of Baroda. The end result of which was, “Ramji Thakkar Bhimji Thakkar”, a 74 min film in Gujarati and English with English subtitles. Shwetal took on the many roles of researcher, director, camera person, translator and promoter of the film as she was driven by her passion to bring this story to the people. She is a first time film maker who learnt the art and business of it while on the job. Her strength and guides were her family who truly understood the relevance of her work. To her, her many roles, including that of a mother, a creative person and an educator are all opportunities to express creativity and love.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Shwetal Bhatt is a designer, artist, an educator and a mom. An alumna of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda and IIM, Bangalore. Shwetal runs an independent design studio, FoDoMe, which makes works in copper and glass since 2005. In the recent years, the studio has become a lab for creative explorations of all kinds of materials, mediums and ideas. She has been involved in the field of training and education out of a desire to work with various aspects of creativity and to understand its impact on society. She started her journey into education through workshops for adults, children and by doing clay play modules in corporate training workshops. She has been a teacher at the The Valley School - KFI, Bangalore. She is currently a visiting faculty at the National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad and Bangalore) and Pramiti School, Bangalore. Shwetal is also a naturalist and often conducts workshops on nature observation. She is continuing her research on this folk form and its relevance today.
REVIEWS
Navratri is a subject close to the heart of most Barodians. There is a deep sense of ownership and pride. Which is why when you broach the subject that is so special and rakes up much sentiment, you want to tread carefully.
Everyone has a favourite Navratri story, singer group and myth about why the Baroda garba is the way it is. When I saw the teaser for this documentary, I wasn't sure what to expect. Would it do justice to the subject? How do you approach something as complex and as delicate as this?
Turns out, I was in for a pleasant surprise. "It's not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it," Roger Ebert has famously said. Ramji Thakkar Bhimji Thakkar takes you through the roller-coaster of a ride that is the origins of the urban phenomenon in the Fine Arts campus. Featuring some of Baroda's finest artists and singers, it teleports you to the 1950s. And then the 60s and the 70s and the magic of those nights, where students flocked to see their favourite singers sing or just play the dholak.
Featuring some precious interviews with the likes of Jyoti and Jyotsna Bhatt, Vikram Patil, Shyama Thakore, Aruna Choksi, Markand Bhatt, Atul Purohit, just to name a few, it traces the journey of this cult classic and pays a very personal, passionate tribute to the festival.
There are questions about the old and the new, culture, reinvention of culture, spiritualism and divinity and the fading away of some traditions to fuse some new ones. Laced with nostalgia, humour and a strong sense of recreating the past, and inevitably Navratri music. Directed, narrated and beautifully written by Shwetal Bhatt, it is as much an introspective journey into her connection with this festival, as it is about the ephemeral sense of time and transience. With the familiar sights and sounds of Baroda, and songs that brought back a deluge of memories, and many personal anecdotes to those sitting in the audience. If you are lucky, you will have an old friend to discuss it with and share a smile!
Jasmine Choksi
What a brilliant show it was last evening, Shwetal Bhatt! After watching Ramji Thakkar, Bhimji Thakkar, all I can say is that I came out of the iPlex with a lump in my throat. The nostalgia, realisation and pride of being a part of such a rich heritage was overwhelming.
Besides a great dose of information on the way garba evolved in Baroda, what I loved was the personal touch that was given to the entire documentation, just so typical of a person born and brought up in Baroda. The best part was the passion and the twinkle of excitement in the eyes of the people who narrated their experiences. So many memories came flooding in at the sight of familiar local artists and areas. My favourite line throughout the entire film was that Baroda refused the onslaught of disco garba, retaining it's original sophistication and grace of this festival. The pride went two notches higher when I got to know of the role that our own college, the Faculty of Fine Arts, played in the evolution of Navratri in Baroda. And hey, it was a happy realisation that even I remember over 300 garba songs off my head! How we take these things for granted?!
A well deserved standing ovation it was! This should reach the international audiences. People of Baroda, don't miss this gem.
Vinodini Iyer
What's the difference between Garba and Garbi? Was Garba always about outdoing each other? Ramji Thakkar Bhimji Thakkar, a documentary film on Navratri, answers these questions with such simplicity that you won't feel you watched a film. You'll think you visited a few homes and chatted up with few eminent artists, educationists and Garba enthusiasts of Vadodara.
Directed by Shwetal Bhatt and screened last week in the city, the film offers insight into the nine-night festival and the story of its origins in Vadodara. An alumnus of NID, Ahmedabad and Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara debutant filmmaker Shwetal describes her film as a personal quest.
"This film started with a conversation I had with one of my students. She asked me why they should learn folk dance in school, despite not being able to relate to it. I decided to do a presentation on Navratri for students." she says.
She ended up with 70 hours of footage replete with interviews, live events and a suitcase full of books about Garba and Navratri. The documentary features veteran artists like the late Markand Bhatt and Vikram Patil and popular Garba singers like Atul Purohit and Paritosh Goswami among others. It documents the origins of Navratri and the way Navratri has changed over a period of time.
Prakash Gowda, Loksatta Newspaper (English)
