THE ART OF BHADAAS! DHO! by Subhankar Das

[Bring Your Own Film Festival]

Dear Friends

 

While Ranjan's article has created a controversy of sorts (it's welcome by us), and a debate is likely to start, here we send you what Subhankar meant by 'Bhadaas! Dho!'

 

Cheers

 

Bhadaas! Dho!

 

the BYOFF team

 

 

The Art of Bhaadas! Dho!

 

                                                                              Subhankar Das

 

Have you ever Bhaadased in a crowded lift? Or been on a lift with someone who has? Notice how everyone shifts their feet and look around uncomfortably (including, presumably the person who did it) trying less to identify who did it than to identify themselves as one of the people who did not do it. Why are we so afraid of our natural functions and those of others?

 

Even armed with the knowledge that Bhaadas is universal, many people are still unwilling to own up to it. I would even go so far as to say 'I Bhaadas, therefore I exist'.

 

What actually people do when they sit on a toilet seat? The Dho coming after... yes so very Indian.Ginsberg learnt it in India and washed his arse slim the rest of his Hare Krishna holy life.

 

I was musing about all these sipping my black coffee and smoking as the sea breeze washed the glitches of my brain clean in the Pink House when Bishu the photographer came up with another story.

 

BYOFF had two tents for screening in the first year-- one was named Bhaadas and the other Dho. Later some one realizing we are all made of blood, sweat, bone, snot, shit and gas added -- Bhaadas Tarkovsky, Dho Fellini.

 

The spirit of these words are such that they change, shape up, change again. So the words which are originally meant to be in Oriya does not remain so. It transgresses in celebration. A celebration of sounds and it means Bhaadas Hierarchy, Bhaadas Bureaucracy, Bhaadas Hassle... only the sand, the sea, the G, the booze and cinema that matters where I lazed around talking, sharing, tripping and watching films.

 

This Bhaadas in Orissa might be shocking for I-know-it-all intellectuals who are afraid of their natural bodily functions and those of others to be free and so do not understand the basic spirit of independent films. The only natural thing that could happen happened in Puri, that is to have a festival away from the oppressive atmosphere of bureaucratic control of big cities and it's I-know-it-all intellectuals and where just about anybody could participate. It does not matter whether Digital Film making is incorporating shit to happen and even Jean-Luc 'Cinema' Godard had no answer whether the future of cinema lies with the craft of digital filmmaking (Notre Musique). My experience was different--the brilliance, the exuberance of the young artists and the people make the spirit going of the great Bhaadas Dho and that was all I was looking for--not some super intellectual I-know-it-all dead meat.

 

So I fell in love with Bhaadas, the alternative spirit which keeps BYOFF going year after year. If you can't Bhaadas very loud because you have a bony spirit then shift and wiggle and contort yourself to try and find a good angle for amplification. Nobody will shift their feet and look around uncomfortably, that I can assure you of.

 

Subhankar Das is a poet, writer, and is associated with Graffiti magazine and publication, an alternative publication in Bengali literature. He is based in Calcutta.

 

He can be contacted in graffiti...@yahoo.com

 

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Visit http://www.byofilmfestival.com to know more about and register for the BRING YOUR OWN FILM FESTIVAL, PURI 2006

Also visit the Group home page: http://groups.google.com/group/byoffpuri to post your thoughts, suggestions and of course communications with fellow-filmmakers/enthusiasts to make BYOFF 2006 a grand success!