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The filmmaker’s 200 year old ancestral house in a remote village of Miyar in Karnataka, South India is dismantled, giving an opportunity for him to undertake a journey into a past that he not only shares with his extended family, but also with successive generations of rural Indians. A realisation of the inevitability of a transition marks this journey. It could well be the journey of a country that has propelled itself into modernity. As plans are on for the house to be reconstructed elsewhere in an open air museum, out of its original context - the fossilization seems to be complete.
Production Notes
This film was shot in 2001, when I hired a digital camera and went out to document the dismantling process of my ancestral house. With me was my fellow film school mate Ajay Raina. The result - eight hours of 'aim & shoot' footage that seemingly had no head or tail to it, except the destruction of the house itself. In 2009 during a teaching stint at FTII, my film school in Poona, I gathered courage to assemble the film on my laptop - and surprisingly, it did make sense! The completion of the film coincided with the death of my father, a character in the film, in Mumbai! The journey in the film could as well be his as mine.
Film Festivals
1. International Documentary & Short Film Festival of Kerala - 2011
2. Prague Indian Film Festival - 2011
3. Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI) - 2011
4. Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary & Short Films (MIFF) - 2012
Other Links
1. Article on Live Mint - by Nandini Ramnath
2. Article on Daijiworld - news item
3. Trailer of Miyar House
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