Film and Communication
Ahankar Kahankar : Story Maker Story Taker.
The work of Anjali Monteiro and KP Jayasankar ; “Ahankar Kahankar”, was an eye opener to the audience. Both are professors at the Centre for media and cultural studies (CMCS). The documentary portraits the history, life and the world view of Warli Tribes based in the Thane district of Bombay. They have their own beliefs, life and customs which have nothing in common with Hinduism. CMCS is an independent centre of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, engaged in media teaching, production and research situated in Mumbai.
The documentary starts with a wide angle shot of two gentle men sitting opposite to each other in a jungle. One who was named as Ahankar who is the Story Maker and second one the Kahankar who was the story taker. During that, the visuals slowly entered into the world of Warli accompanying with voice over. The film went on by holding their traditional paintings and with the support of a rat story. A rat that had caught a thorn in his tail went to a lady to remove it. But accidently she cut his tail along with the thorn. The irritated rat asked the lady to return back his tail or the sickle. She returned the sickle and thus the story goes on by portraying the development of the tribe. Like cultivation, equipments, coming out of settlements and so forth.
The Warli speak an unwritten dialect mingling Sanskrit, Maharati and Gujarati words. Their extremely elementary wall paintings use a very basic graphic vocabulary which consists of a circle, a triangle and a square. Like our ancestors the Warli’s were also used to carve the paintings in rocks and caves but later they used bamboo sticks and walls. Apart from the general phase Warli women were the beginners of their painting tradition and they are still continuing. They used this art form in their wedding functions. Later when it came to commercial aspect men also starts working and they are using paper and plant pulp as material. Now they are importing
The work of Anjali Monteiro and KP Jayasankar ; “Ahankar Kahankar”, was an eye opener to the audience. Both are professors at the Centre for media and cultural studies (CMCS). The documentary portraits the history, life and the world view of Warli Tribes based in the Thane district of Bombay. They have their own beliefs, life and customs which have nothing in common with Hinduism. CMCS is an independent centre of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, engaged in media teaching, production and research situated in Mumbai.
The documentary starts with a wide angle shot of two gentle men sitting opposite to each other in a jungle. One who was named as Ahankar who is the Story Maker and second one the Kahankar who was the story taker. During that, the visuals slowly entered into the world of Warli accompanying with voice over. The film went on by holding their traditional paintings and with the support of a rat story. A rat that had caught a thorn in his tail went to a lady to remove it. But accidently she cut his tail along with the thorn. The irritated rat asked the lady to return back his tail or the sickle. She returned the sickle and thus the story goes on by portraying the development of the tribe. Like cultivation, equipments, coming out of settlements and so forth.
The Warli speak an unwritten dialect mingling Sanskrit, Maharati and Gujarati words. Their extremely elementary wall paintings use a very basic graphic vocabulary which consists of a circle, a triangle and a square. Like our ancestors the Warli’s were also used to carve the paintings in rocks and caves but later they used bamboo sticks and walls. Apart from the general phase Warli women were the beginners of their painting tradition and they are still continuing. They used this art form in their wedding functions. Later when it came to commercial aspect men also starts working and they are using paper and plant pulp as material. Now they are importing