MAMI Day 1: Festival Diary of a Cinephile: Anatomy of Violence

A Potpourri of Vestiges Feature


Anatomy of Violence is an experimental film directed by Deepa Mehta. She collaborates with theatre artist Neelam Mansingh and stage up a film portraying the psychology of the rapists from the 2012 rape case which shook the people across the country.

The film is unconventional in its approach. Any individual who has seen Deepa Mehta’s films, have lived the grandeur of space, time and framing. ‘Anatomy of Violence’, breaks the barrier of conventional film making and delves into the space of the characters with a handheld camera. The idea behind taking such an unconventional way of film making is to document the theatrical performances of the actors and narrate the story.

The actors were part of a workshop organised by Mansingh at her residence. They were all given a brief on the situation and were asked to portray with their own interpretation.

The striking feature of the film is the simplistic portrayal of the environment where the rapists belonged to. As a film, it distances the audience from the reality and allows one to imagine the environment. Imagination is romantic and it betrays the reality. Imagination is the dream space where nothing is solid and everything floats in the air, until the dust settles down and the audience step out of the theatre screen. Until then, the audience is puzzled with their wild imagination.

The film opens up many dialogues in terms of film-making, story-telling, theatre etc. It challenges the classical format of film narrative and allows a mobility and breathing space with the use of hand-held camera. As for the acting, there is no shorter route to enact any scene in front of the camera.

At the end of the day, every film gives out a dual characteristic of its existence. One can keep talking about the content and break tables arguing about the story or get inspiration from the film making style and tell one's own story.  

Readers, please feel free to share your views/opinions in the comment box below. As always your feedback is highly appreciated!




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