Active Voice

The films,based on the lives of three theatre directors,proved to be a unique experience for Maharishi. “They were diametrically opposite to each other,” notes Maharishi,who says it brought an interesting perspective to train the camera on another director. “While one director,Ovlya Kuli,brought with him the European-Middle East Islamic influences,Grotowski Workshop from the Polish Grotowski Institute devised training exercises for an actor originating from traditional funeral singing in Polish village. The third in the trilogy is Orissa-based director,Robin Das’s work,” he reflects. Maharishi shot the making of a play in all the three films,and was later commissioned by the National School of Drama (NSD),Delhi to do the same. “Theatre usually has recordings and photographs as study material. The movies will act as a visual document of how a play is conceptualized and translated on stage,” he says.

After starting off as a cinematographer,Maharishi realised he was not meant for the commercial sector. “The ground realities were missing,and I couldn’t continue,so I decided to shift to documentaries,” he says. From capturing the anomalies in water distribution in Rajasthan in 1991 to working on traveling documentaries on human rights,health and social issues with the UN,Maharishi has been on the road for quite a while. “There is a huge demand for documentaries now. Small festivals are cropping up all over,like one in Gorakhpur and Karimnagar. There are works focussing on Maoists,farmer suicides,foeticide,transgenders and sexuality,and thanks to the digital format,it’s got cheaper too,” he quips.