Ashim Ahluwalia’s short film to premiere in Venice
Mumbai, Aug 3 (IANS) “Miss Lovely” director Ashim Ahluwalia’s short film “Events In A Cloud Chamber” — a remake of an eponymous film made by Indian artist Akbar Padamsee in the 1960s — will have its world premiere at the 73rd Venice Film Festival.
It will be screened as part of the Venice Classic section of the fest, which is to be held from August 31 to September 10.
For the 20-minute short film, Ahluwalia has collaborated with Padamsee, 89, and Jhaveri Contemporary art gallery.
“When I met Akbar Padamsee, he was 87 years old. I knew he was one of the pioneers of Indian modernist painting, but I had no idea that he had made two forgotten experimental films,” Ahluwalia said in a statement.
In 1969, Padamsee, a Padma Bhushan awardee and one of the pioneers in modern Indian painting, made a visionary 16 mm film called “Events In A Cloud Chamber”.
This was one of the only Indian experimental films ever made back in 1969 — the print is now lost and no copies exist. Over 40 years later, Ahluwalia worked with Padamsee to remake the film.
Talking about how the collaboration happened, Ahluwalia said: “Akbar was really keen to collaborate on something cinematic because he knew I was interested in that sort of thing. I really wasn’t sure what we could do together until he just happened to tell me about this second film — ‘Events in a Cloud Chamber’.
“After just a handful of screenings, this film was shipped to an art expo in Delhi in the 1970s where it was misplaced. There was no negative and the film is now long lost. This could have been the start of an entirely different kind of cinema in India, but I suppose that was never meant to be,” he added.
The new movie is produced by Ahluwalia’s film company Future East in association with the art gallery Jhaveri Contemporary, where the film will be screened in November.
