Going back to the roots
When you talk to veteran film journalist Aruna Vasudev, also the president of Indian wing of Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema, you feel her passion for Asian cinema, art and culture in every single word that she says.
She begins the conversation on the richness of Asian culture by asking a simple question, “Why are we swayed by ‘western’ notion of modernity and fail to look inward for inspiration? Don’t we Asians have our own cultural evolution and modernity? The constant need to emulate western models has led to a complete ignorance of our local traditions and culture.”
Two years ago, Aruna embarked upon a career, where she chose to look at cinema as an inherent part of our culture and not as mere entertainment.
“I had gone to a film festival in Vietnam and was deeply disappointed by the fact that the Vietnamese stars wore beautiful local costumes and carried it off very graciously but the Indian stars stuck to western attires,” recollects Vasudev.
Vasudev’s organisation has been hosting a conference titled “Roots Identity Modernity” over last few days that offers a platform for creative thinkers and practitioners from Asia to exchange their thoughts on the relationship between the traditional and the contemporary.
The conference has seen the participation of the likes of author Rashmi Doraiswamy, Rajeev Sethi, founder-director of Asian Heritage Foundation, Rafi Behrouzian, singer and composer from Afghanistan, Tomoko Kuroiwa, curator visual arts from Japan, social scientist Ashish Nandy and many others.
Elucidating further, Vasudev adds, “For instance, Abraham and Thakore, the famous designers came up with a show that showcased beautiful collection of contemporary sarees with belts, jackets. It looked chic and classy, yet stuck to the Indian roots. For me that is modern. A woman dressed in a short western dress is not necessarily so.” The quintessential Asian ‘voice’ needs to come across in cultural mediums.
On being asked if there is an internal conflict within every artist to preserve the tradition and yet create something more contemporary, she concludes, “Ofcourse, an artist has to move into a contemporary zone to cater to younger generation. But just that it should be done keeping our roots in mind. I would hail the efforts of music bands that take up Punjabi rock or a classical dancer, who can add a contemporary twist to her moves.”
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