Celebrate Mahasweta Devi's 100th birth anniversary with this screening

Moments from the 2005 documentary with Mahasweta Devi. Pics Courtesy/G5A

The G5A Foundation and Seagull Books have collaborated to celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of the Bengali legend Mahasweta Devi. The event will consist of a screening of Talking Writing, a documentary directed by Pushan Kripalani, featuring the writer in conversation with author and theatre practitioner Naveen Kishore. It will be followed by a performance by Kishore and Anubha Fatehpuria and a conversation with Kripalani. The ‘performative' aspect, Kishore tells us, is "to extend the older time of the film into this newer time by voicing on stage our memories and reading from her writing".

Pushan Kripalani and Naveen Kishore

Kripalani recalls his early memories of reading the writer. "We all have read the occasional short story like Draupadi and Mother of 1084 in school." In 2003, while sitting in Kishore's office, he came across a transcript of Kishore's interview with Mahasweta Devi. "What seemed to me was that this wasn't simply a publisher speaking to his author. This was a complicated, interesting relationship of depth, trust, and knowledge," he tells us.

This relationship was built over the years. When Kishore had started his publishing house, it featured books on theatre, art and cinema. A volume of five plays by Devi was published too. "Little did we know that this would become a rock-solid relationship, not just between a publisher and author but also a friendship. An intimate one, where anything and everything was a conversation of relevance," reveals Kishore.

Mahasweta Devi during a felicitation in New Delhi. File Pic

In the documentary, the format of the long conversation is maintained. "There's a lot that happens when people speak to each other, unencumbered by the structure of a regular interview. I thought how interesting it would be if I could possibly find a balance between Kishore's gaze of her and my gaze of them," shares Kripalani. The two are heard switching seamlessly between English and Bengali during the interview, having achieved a level of comfort. As the artistes pay tribute, they believe Devi remains relevant today. "The thematics are the same - the thematics of oppression, power, and personal revolution. She was very clever with looking at individual stories which are reflective of larger problems; I miss that,"
Kripalani concludes.

ON April 17; 7 pm to 9 pm
AT G5A Warehouse, Laxmi Mills Estate, Mahalaxmi West.
LOG ON TO g5afoundation.org (for event tickets)
ENTRY Rs 499

Reading reccos

>> Mother of 1084
>> Chotti Munda
>> Breast Stories
>> Truth/Untruth
- Naveen Kishore