The cultural revolution of break-dancing has been viewed as a guerilla or rebellious form of dance. Unravelling that belief are film makers Samreen Farooqui and Shabani Hassanwalia. As grantees of Indian Foundation for the Arts, the three-year project titled Gali will finally be screened at Lamakaan on July 25.
Gali follows a troupe in Khirki, New Delhi, which uses the lawn of a mall for their practise pad and show. Making the most of the technology, viewers will see how adept the dancers are at showcasing their art in a small 20 minute window while the guards change.
The duo shares, “Break-dancing (or b-boying) is still enjoyed as a form that helps the artistes articulate their search for identity; they are still looking for a physical space to inhabit in cities that are fast becoming more and more exclusive in their design and very being. It is a form of cultural convergence, but it still carries with it, its root of dissent against the mainstream that continues to try and appropriate it with advertising, Bollywood and reality shows.”
They add that the personalities in the documentary will resonate with many viewers, “Each dancer and rapper in the film inspired us in different ways. The crew of 8 Hindus, relentlessly fight deterministic perceptions by their never ending search of looking for a physical space to practice. Prabh Deep pushes back against homogenisation through his powerful verse while Ray writes as catharsis. But what brought together all of this for us was dissent; we felt we could learn from them, through their performance of dissent which is something we feel very strongly about.”
Samreen and Shabani’s technique in filming was intended to be very purist and separate from the typical styles that come with hip-hop-oriented films— no embellishment while playing around with the idea of performance.
“We hope people, upon seeing the film, will see that dissent is the only pure democratic idea and it's as beautiful as it's angry.”
‘B-boying’or ‘b-girling,’ depending on the troupe, is an evolved dance movement that started in the early 1970s in New York’s The Bronx. Its exact origin cannot be placed due to its mosaical nature.Break dancing has changed more lives than the masses know.
