In May I was doing some research for a new piece of mine called "Mamta" and came across a movie called "Mamta" made in 1966 which is the story of a woman who runs away from her manipulative, alcoholic husband to become a courtesan. The same day* I watched the movie, I also interviewed one of the women from the South Asian Network support group who is currently getting a divorce from an alcoholic, abusive and philandering husband. I was struck by the similarities between the heroine in the movie and the woman I interviewed. Both endured extreme stigma due to their life circumstances and choices and both sacrificed so much for the well being of their children. So in trying to figure out my relationship to the Bollywood courtesan, I suppose what makes sense to me most is viewing her with the eyes of empathy and identification...with an awareness that she is also being portrayed as an object of desire and thus identifying with her identifies myself as that object as well (for more thoughts on this, read Laura Mulvey's seminal essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" ). So here is my study creating a viewing, empathizing, desiring love triangle with the hero, heroine, and myself.
PASSWORD: "Mamta"
Mamta and Me from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
Questions:
1. What is your experience as a viewer?
2. How is the timing of the cuts particularly in the way the relationship between me and the film unfolds?
3. How do you relate the figurines to the film and/or me? Do they symbolize anything? Do they add to or disrupt the experience for you?
4. Any ideas for how this idea might be used in a group performance?
5. Other thoughts?
*Due to scheduling issues, I did the May research and assignment in July though I am posting it udner May so it is clustered with the original assignment and the other responses.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1. What is your experience as a viewer?
ReplyDeleteI witness, decipher, parse out a drama, a daydream, a mental journey unfolding. I feel like a detective figuring something out and like a friendly voyeur.
Generally I interpret you as a house-wife, lazing alone by herself during the day in her pajamas, whiling away the time by watching a Bollywood courtesan film. At first watching passively, the film draws you into greater engagement, and you start fantasizing yourself in the position of the courtesan while longing for your own partner, who eventually calls at the end. I didn’t quite see the alcoholic abusive aspect that you mention in your notes.
2. How is the timing of the cuts particularly in the way the relationship between me and the film unfolds?
In general I like the cuts – I feel that they align well with the music and unveil information about how you are entering the courtesan’s world in a logical way. I was, however, slightly confused about why your reflection was seen on a black TV instead of one with the film playing.
3. How do you relate the figurines to the film and/or me? Do they symbolize anything? Do they add to or disrupt the experience for you?
The figurines, framing the film, put me in a fanciful, slightly magical world. Zooming into the heart-shaped box, I am entering the love story of the female figurine. I interpret the woman figurine as being equivalent to the heroine on the film as well as you and the man figure as equivalent to the man on the film. I notice that they are musicians (the woman playing a harmonium) and seem to be from material folk culture, perhaps Rajasthani. I wonder why there is a Kashmiri box and Rajasthani figures.
4. Any ideas for how this idea might be used in a group performance?
Hm...we could all be lying on couches watching a film together, like a Bollywood slumber party? But more than that (rather silly) idea, the theme of showing ourselves watching, reading, researching, or otherwise engaging with the figure of the courtesan as part of our choreographic process would be a nice thread to pull out throughout the evening.
5. Other thoughts?
More, more!