Outside the boundaries

Ashish Avikunthak calls himself a film artist who tries not to belong either to the film or the art world. Shailaja Tripathi speaks to the artist.

Of Temporality and Individuality

Rati Chakravyuh, 2013

105 minutes

On a lunar eclipse midnight, in a desolate temple, six young newlywed couples and a priestess meet after a mass wedding. They sit in a circle and talk about life, death, beginning, end and everything in between after which they commit mass suicide.

Vakratunda Swaha, 2010

21 minutes

Vakratunda Swaha is a film made over 12 years. It begins as a requiem to a friend who passed away and ends as a contemplation on death and ritual. Using the footage of the late artist Girish Dahiwale (1974-1998) filmed in 1997 as the kernel, the film is a meditative exploration on the place of dying and resurrection in our times.

Katho Upanishad, 2011

59 minutes

It is an adaptation of a 2500-year-old Sanskrit treatise of the same name, where Yama instructs Nachiketa about the path towards enlightenment. Structurally, the film is a triad with three chapters – the quest, the dialogue and the final liberation.

Et cetera, 1997

33 minutes

Et cetera is a tetralogy of four separate films made between 1995-1997. They seek to examine the various levels at which the reality of human existence functions. In these films, specific ritual exercitations have been focused on and their movements, contemplated upon, by studying the dynamics of their etymologies.