Rhythm of a Flower

Amit Dutta, arguably the greatest living Indian avant-garde filmmaker, has worked with animation since his earliest shorts. Over the last decade animation has taken centre stage in his practice and now reaches its zenith with his first feature-length essay in the realm.

Like many of his films, Amit Dutta’s latest is also dedicated to an artist. Here he directs his attention to Kumar Gandharav, a singer with a unique and in many ways, incomparable style. A child prodigy who gave his first performances at the age of ten, Gandharav’s career seemed all but finished when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis in his mid-twenties. This period of illness became the source of many stories and myths of a man lying in his bed listening to the sounds of the world around him.

This is where Dutta anchors Rhythm of a Flower: in the limbo that Gandharav’s existence became. It is a transformative space, in which we are enthralled by Dutta’s vision of the way Gandharav re-imagined the world and rethought his art through this period. The style Dutta chose for this endeavour is figurative, and surprisingly gentle thanks to the visual design created by children’s books illustrator Allen Shaw. The result is one of the most astonishing and enchanting essays on creation ever made in animation.

– Olaf Möller

Additional credits
Music Consultant: Kuldeep Barve / Animation: Allen Shaw

Trailer

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