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In 2015, I stayed and shot in my ancestral village in western coastal India, thus starting an experiment of documenting/killing 'time'.... The film is a record of this village during that time. The resulting film flows into stories of people and events happening in the village. The subject's canvass demanded the scale of the longer narrative form, like a novel in digital video.
The cinematic idea was that the process of shooting with a digital camera would give rise to the narrative. The intention behind the project was, through the camera, to do a political study of a village, of how a non-descript village becomes a microcosm for the country or even the world, at this critical juncture in time. The characters and stories in the village unfold, and power along caste, class and gender lines plays out through a point of implosion to small ironical irresolutions. The village opens up slowly through the characters.
*Many Months in Mirya* is a lyrical ethnography of a village in the Konkan region of Maharashtra. It is a steady exploration of many characters and forces in the village; natural and human-made, historical and present. The film evokes the practice of the diary film, at once observational and reflexive, and draws power from its twin strategies of frugal economy and long duration.
The film was awarded the John Abraham Award for Best Documentary, at the Signs film Festival, Kochi September 2017, invited for the Yokohama Triennale 2020 and premiered at the Artist Cinema Section at the Kochi Muziris Biennale, India 2016.
