India, a land of stories, says Bharath Bala

Bengaluru: Emphasising India's rich cultural heritage which needs to be recovered and preserved, renowned filmmaker Bharath Bala, in an engaging interactive session brought a lesser known perspective to filmmaking – untold stories. To him, India is a land of stories, he said, as he talked about his plan of telling atleast 1000 stories in the next five years. His next film, Hari Om, is a love story, one in which two people w ho appear to belong to different ends of the spectrum find a connection with each other. The story unravels, quite fittingly, in Jaipur, the city of love, which he says gave him the insight to present regional stories to the world. He looks to his past – to films like Hari Om and Vande Mataram – which helped him bridge the seemingly insurmountable gap between regional and world cinema. Telling a story in under 10 minutes is a most challenging technique, one he mastered through his years of making ad films. Thorough  research and most importantly, finding a compelling narrative, says Bala, are essential to depicting traditional stories in contemporary forms.

He also screened older films, including his Project Stories of India, Talam, a movie on Chundan Vallam (the boat racers) finding their rhythm. In Pahani Sahib, a story that pays touching tribute to classical music amidst a group of young girls, also deals with a hard-hitting social issue. It tells the story of the wedding traditions that exist among the Adivasis of the Silent Valley.