|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chandigarh-born Tarsem Singh Dhandwar, whose film The Fall has received critical acclaim, is one of the most prolific and stylistic visual artists of recent times, writes Shakuntala Rao
Before embarking on
a career in filmmaking, Tarsem made music videos (best-known for
R.E.M.’s Grammy winning video, Losing My Religion) and
commercials (for Pepsi and Audi, where he directed likes of Michael
Jackson, Justin Timberlake, and David Beckham). His first film, The
Cell, starring Jennifer Lopez, released in 2000, was a box-office
success but received lukewarm reviews. It is his second feature, The
Fall, widely released in 2008, which is getting him the critical
recognition he truly deserves. Shot piecemeal on locations in 18
countries, and paid for out of the pocket by the director, The Fall,
is a genuine labour of love. The story takes place once upon a time in
a picturesque Los Angeles hospital, where a pudgy Romanian 5-year-old
named Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) convalesces from a broken arm.
Befriending her fellow patient Roy Walka, movie stuntman with busted
legs and a cracked spirit, Alexandra sits enthralled as Roy relates an
epic tale of colourful heroes seeking revenge on the nefarious
Governor Odious (Daniel Caltagirone). The details of this saga, a
patchwork of postcard exoticism, liminal characterisations, duels and
lush spectacle, are projected via the imagination of a little girl
cognizant, it would seem, of the full repertory of high-gloss
pictorialism.
The Fall aims to send its audience on a visionary quest full of romance, intrigue, fabulous sights and fantastic creatures (Charles Darwin, swimming elephants, people with dreadlocks). With films like Avatar and Sherlock Holmes burning up global box-offices with the dramatic use of digital special effects, we have become accustomed to the idea that by manipulating pixels on a computer screen, filmmakers can show us practically anything in a more or less convincing manner. But that is what is unique about Tarsem’s movies: these images amaze precisely because they are evidently real, bursting with the life and detail that elude even the most advanced digital artist. "I decided the film wasn’t going to be CGI," said Tarsem, in a recent interview to New York Times, using the industry shorthand for computer-generated imagery. Referring to his previous feature (The Cell), Tarsem
added, "I had enough of that in my first film, as much as I
enjoyed it. I decided in this one that the art direction was going to
be in the landscape and in the costume design and nothing
else."
Tarsem started to collect visuals and it took him 16 years to complete the film. In the meantime, he continued to work in commercials, for clients like Levi’s, Nike and MTV, as well as directing music videos for groups like Green Day and R.E.M. First screened at film festivals in 2008, The Fall has proven to be a divisive film. Critics have not been able to place it in one particular genre or other. But it doesn’t matter. Tarsem is one of those filmmakers whose films you would either love or hate but you cannot remain neutral and someone whose work needs a wider exposure in India.
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
Few people in India know of Tarsem Singh
Dhandwar and his extensive body of work. And that is a pity. Fortysix-year-old
Tarsem, as the filmmaker prefers to be called, was born in Chandigarh,
grew up in Mumbai and Tehran (where his father was an engineer for the
Iranian airlines), educated at the Art Centre College of Design in
Pasadena, California, and currently splits his time and homes between
London and Los Angeles. He also happens to be one of the most prolific
and stylistic visual artist in the recent times.
