Urban Lens Film Festival 2014 | In conversation with Rajula Shah

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Synopsis of "Sabad Nirantar" by Rajula Shah

Sabad Nirantar is a search for the Word within the word; a poised reflection on the formless essence of reality expressed through the living resonance, continuing and constant exchanges among diverse worldviews, epochs and emotions of the indigenous spirit and its undying echoes enlivening the emergent and modern soul.

It seeks to comprehend and expand upon the Bhakti movement, an important chapter in the social, political and literary history as far back as 12th century, in India, that of medieval mystic poets like Kabir, Gorakhnath, devout singers Meera, Sehjobai and others blooming from within the wretched of the earth and coming to form cogent dialogues across socio-philosophic fractures in an ancient landscape ravaged by history.

Embarking upon a journey into the flux, the film finds within the zeitgeist, ancestral voices question and dismantle fatal stereotypes, those blind yardsticks of lopsided reason with which knowledge attempts to measure the past and present.

About the Director

Rajula Shah is a poet, visual artist & filmmaker. She started painting at three and has continued eversince. She grew up seeing, listening to and working with tribal and folk artisans from all over and considers it her first school.

This is where she absorbed the indigenous storytelling practices and learnt various craft processes using a range of materials. The second school was the Fine Arts Faculty of Baroda, where she discovered Vincent Van Gogh’s work & letters to Theo.

While pursuing the Masters in English Literature, many paths began to converge towards Cinema. She joined the Film & Television Institute of India in 1997 to study Cinema; specialised in Film Direction from here and continues to learn through her work. Her work falls in the interstice of Poetry, Cinema and Anthropology.

A sustained dialogue with the indigenous knowledge systems and the changing practices thereof has formed the core of her study. Her practice emerges through a close collaboration with people, their histories and environments. She has been producing/ directing short films & documentaries for well over a decade.