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Aesthetics of Cinema

(Part II)

V N Jatla

February 7, 2008

As I have already explained about the Aesthetics, which can be applicable to any art form like Cinema, Theatre, Painting, Sculpture, Literature etc. Now I will analyse BHAGAVADGITA and its setting against war backdrop by saint Vyasa. Everybody knows that Lord Krishna enlightens Arjuna, who denounces his weapons and in a deep depressed mood at the battle field of Kurukshetra. Lord Krishna preaches Arjuna through Bhagavatgita and makes him to fight against Kauravas.

Let us take it other way round that Lord Krishna can enlighten the mind of Arjuna, who is in a depressed mood at any place like at Arjuna’s place or Lord Krishna’s palace in Dwarakapuri or under a tree in a forest. Usually our RUSHIS were enlightening their students or SESHYYAS. Then why saint Vyasa has set Bhagavadgita at the battlefield? The reason is highly aesthetic. The battle between Pandavas and Kauravas is about to start. At that moment Arjuna denounces his weapons, because he feels very sad to fight with his brothers, gurus and grand father in the battle-field of Kurukshetra. The battle is yet to start.

There is an arrest of movement!!

The war of Valcano is at the verge!!

Another important thing is that setting the whole incident in the early hours of a day and the orange colour present in the early hours of a day suggests that the fire is at its initial state to reach its peak. Not only that the colour itself creates the mood of battlefield.

In our contemporary life, even today Bhagvatgita makes the reader to identify himself with Arjuna and the whole battlefield appears as our contemporary society. In general it is the opinion of a common man that Bhagavatgita is meant for aged people to read in their advanced age to get liberation. It is totally a misconception and misunderstanding. Bhagavatgita is meant for younger people and it propagates the action and preaches every youth to fight like Arjuna without surrendering to anyone! It inspires a spirit of fight to destroy our inner demons. I strongly believe that in all cases, Bhagavatgita is meant for younger people only, but at the same time it is useful for aged people who can be inspired to have absolutely independent lives and not use their children as crutches!

Let us examine a good painting of Bhagavatgita painted by a great artiste. The content of the painting is like this. Lord Krishna and Arjuna are seen in the foreground. Horses, Chariots, Elephants and Warriors are painted in the background. The most important thing about the artist is that the usage of vertical lines. In graphic arts, vertical lines stand for liveliness and activeness Horizontal lines represent inactiveness, dead etc.

The painter paints Lord Krishna who is seen standing in front of Arjuna and Arjuna is seen at the feet of Lord Krishna standing on his knees and praying Lord Krishna with folded hands. Of course, the denounced weapons of Arjuna like the bow and arrows are seen lying on the ground. The highest aesthetic values of the painter is that his usage of two vertical lines. One is bigger and the second one is smaller, conveying the idea of omnipotence of Lord Krishna. Light orange colour is seen in the surroundings in the painting which conveys the idea of initial stage of fire and would possibly erupt will a volcano very soon!!

>>> Scroll down to read rest of the Story

 
I can give one more example of high aesthetics in Sculpture.

MICHELANGELO was born in Italy in 16^th Century. He was a Painter, Sculptor, Poet, Architect, and Engineer. At the age of 24 he made a very famous Sculpture titled VIRGIN MARY. In this Sculpture, Virgin Mary is seen sitting in a throne like a thing and on her lap she holds the crucified body of Jesus Christ.

So what does it signify?

The greatness of MOTHERHOOD!!!

One can speak hours together about the aesthetic in the work of Michelangelo’s Sculpture Virgin Mary. Likewise one can write volumes about the same!!

Now I am sure that all of you are quite clear in mind about the aesthetics. Once again I am writing that aesthetics can be in Cinema, Literature, Painting, Sculpture, Theatre etc. Now I will analyse the aesthetics of Cinema by quoting a few examples from the film classic titled, ‘Pather Panchali’ made by film maestro Satyajit Ray. Before going into detail, I will write its synopsis in a nutshell.

The synopsis of Pather Panchali goes like this. A poor Bengali family is living in a far-off village. The head of the family is by name Harihar Roy and his wife Sharbhojaya are living with their daughter Durga aged about 14 years and son Apu aged about 10 years. Due to accute poverty Harihar Roy goes to Banaras for employment.

In his absence, his teenaged girl dies with the attack of Nimonia and due to the lack of medical care. Harihar Roy comes back home after earning some money for working as a priest. After knowing about the death of his daughter Durga, he leaves his ancestral home and goes to Banaras along with his wife and his only son Apu to give him a good education in Banaras.

This is the story of Pather Panchali based on famous Bengali classic novel written by Vibhuthibushan Bhandopadhaya. Satyajit Ray made this novel into three films, like Pather Panchali, Aparajito, and Apursansar. All these three films are known as Apu Trilogy. Actually Vibhuthibushan Bhandopadhaya’s novel was sufficient for making two films only like Patherpanchali and Aparajito. To make the third film Apur Sansar Satyajit Ray himself wrote the story as an extension of Vibhutibushan Bhandopadhaya’s novel Pather Panchali.

Now I will analyse three scenes of Patherpanchali for their heigh aesthetic values.Harihar Roy goes to Banaras leaving behind his wife Sarbhojaya, daughter Durga and his son Apu in the village. After some days Sharbojaya receives a post card from her husband, writing that he did not get any job and trying to get it somewhere soon. The content of the letter is known through the off-screen voice of Harihar Roy. Sharbhojaya, after going through the letter, gets into a depressed mood, because their family is starving with insufficient food.

The most important point is that Satyajit Ray has never shown the whereabouts of Harihar Roy at Banaras on the screen. But at the same time he has given full information about Harihar Roy in Banaras what he is doing. That, as we call it, is the high aesthetics of Cinema. Let’s see how he has achieved it. The scene follows like this. After going through the letter, Sharbhojaya is in a very depressed mood. In the meanwhile, a beggar comes to their house for alms uttering the sloka like BHAVATEE BHIKSHAN DAHEE. Durga sees the beggar, goes inside the house and offers a handful of rice to him.

What does it say?

It simply means that Harihar Roy is also doing the same thing in Banaras because he is yet to get a job. This kind of presentation is highly cinematic and at the same time it is having high aesthetic values.

Another example is that foreshadowing the death of Durga in a scene, which appears much more before her death in the film. Apu and Durga are seen in the sugarcane fields and a train is seen passing in a long distance. Durga and Apu start running across the sugarcane field to get a closer view of the train. During their run in a longshot in a most subtle way it is seen that Durga falls on the ground and Apu runs further. The way of juxtaposition of the visuals conveys the idea about the death of Durga before.

I can mention one more example from the same film. Apu and Durga are seen playing in the rain. The rain increases and Apu is seen shivering due to cold. Durga goes under a tree and sits at its trunk. The rain continues. Durga asks Apu to sit near by her. She catches Apu very tightly. The way Durga is seen holding Apu tightly and his body touching her small breasts — it indicates the awakening of sex in Durga, who is in her teens. Showing the awakening of sex in a teenage girl on a high aesthetic plane is very remarkable and highly appreciable. Only great artists of Satyajit Ray’s caliber can do that!!!

I would like to write about an Iranian Film titled “Taste of Cherry” made by Abbas Kiarostami. The synopsis of the film is in a nutshell like this. A person wants to commit suicide due to some personal reasons. He is in search of a man, who can throw 20 spadefuls of soil on his dead body. For that he is ready to offer a good amount of money. But nobody comes forward to do the job. At the end, he gets enlightenment through a person and changes his mind and returns to his happy life.

The beautiful part of the film is that the main character is in search of a person, who can throw 20 spadefuls of soil on his dead body after committing suicide. The entire search is shown through a car journey, where he is driving the vehicle. The entire journey is shown in such a way that the hilly background is seen with brown colour. No other colour is seen!! When the person changes his mind and sees the beauty of living on earth, the green colour appears on the surroundings and now the brown colour is not seen anywhere. This we can consider as high aesthetic usage of colour to convey the idea of the film most cinematically. >>> Read Part I of the Article

(Author is an FTII (Pune) pass out Cinematographer and a Hyderabad based Film Director featured in the Limca Book of Records)

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