My latest collaboration with dancer Parimal Phadke & musician Lionel Dentan (DA-SAZ) is the short film “Dudro” shot in a huge chaotic cycle rickshaw yard in Delhi. The there where 6 such films produced in 3 weeks under the GATI’s “YLP residency” and where showcased at the Devi Art Gallery on 17th Dec & at Khoj on 18th Dec 2011.
“DUDRO”
A film by Dhanya Pilo & Parimal Phadke
Camera: Frederic Lombard & Dhanya Pilo
Music: Lionel Dentan (DA-SAZ)
5 min 30 seconds
HD (1920x 1080)
India 2011,
We meander through the chaotic landscape of a large cycle rickshaw yard in Nizamuddin (E), Delhi to experience the various narratives that are incubating in it.
The winter light juxtaposed through the complex stacking of the red & blue cycle rickshaws highlights the individual frame of these vehicles calling out to the dancer for a Jugalbandi.
The dancer reacts to the quiet, sleepy yard and its inhabitants using absurd as well as day to day movements.
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We are based out of Mumbai and Pune and this is the first time we have met, interacted and worked on a project like YLP as a film maker & choreographer to make a site specific dance video.
This 3 week Yellow Line Project residency started with a workshop organized by GATI Dance forum facilitated by Liz Aggiss – A British Dance-Film Guru! And she taught us to really break the rules, to search for inspiration from within and to really look around. Location specific projects really teach us to be sensitive to different sites even in their day to day life – to find the absurd from the normal, and vice versa.
The interesting thing about this project was that we instantly selected the cycle rickshaw yard in Nizamuddin (East) from 6 different locations around the yellow metro line in Delhi that where offered to us, and the only non polluting vehicle in delhi – resting in its yard, bustling with people resting and staring up at the over bridge above criss crossing with the city nala, the railway station and the station bus stop. So its quiet a busy area, but the yard is like a sleepy willow, quiet and at peace with everyone who comes there for that resting moment.
Shooting there was a bit risky as film crew always attracts a lot of attention and we didn’t want that to affect the images we wanted to capture from the location, so we spent many days there till the locals where not fascinated with us any longer and we knew the regular rickshaw wallah by name.
So with the co-operation of the rickshaw wallahs and a super crew Parimal and I had a great time exploring the relationship between film, dance and a public site. Parimal being a multifaceted dancer, specializing in Bharathnatayam had to visualize the rickshaw yard as a stage and on watching the film you will see him dance atop rickshaws and dancing with them in quite a lyrical way. The Music for the film has been done by Lionel Denton (from the band Da-Saz) with some scat singing by Parimal. All the sounds in the film are from the location itself and Lionel has used found sounds from the location to make the background score.
Neither did we have to spend to much time to convince the rickshawallahs to do syncronised formations with their rickshaws which we were shooting from a 50 foot crane. They where more than happy to be part of our adventure.
