The Imagination, the Conceptualization & his Upbringing
#UpliftDocoTraces - behind the scenes
written by cathy chen
Osama arrives last night to join the crew for a day. Throughout the shoot, Osama has been sharing his childhood stories, implementing a bare bone imagination of his village. The imagination shift as he narrates different stories: childhood wheeling game, mango hoarding, tree climbing, and many more. Now we are on the ground.
Discarding one of the locations due to traffic jam, we have the entire afternoon with Osama at his upbringing environment in West Champaran, a place that shapes him; an environment that forms the basis of his childhood personality.
We get out of the car. He points to the right. This is it. A rectangular building, beige and light brown concrete walls and couple barred windows.
He walks around the corner: “This is the front door, the entrance of the house.” We all follow. First sight in the building is a pile of ginger. A big pile of ginger, drying. Strolling deeper inside the building, Osama enthusiastically describe each room; the placement of things, the incidents about how he got the scar on his forehead.
The building is in its decay, slowly cracking; dust, weeds and grass invade the space. A tree persist on growing through the roof, engaging its charm within the building. It has been at least thirty years since Osama was back here last time. Images and memories twirl and sink into Osama; he spits out moments in every corner of the room.
We head upstairs. "This is where I used to sleep, and my uncle sleeps there.” Osama reflects. Maubeen captures Osama’s illustrations with his gestures. The excitement in his tone rumble through the narratives. His laugh draws out the playing and freedom of his childhood; the wonderland in his inner child.
There is a big dent, sloping down to a hole. Some greens sprout out and fill the hole. The part of the roof seems like it can collapse any moment. We walk around the rim, avoiding the sloping concrete and head to the other end. There are strips of dried and long-shaped plants lying gently on the roof. Rohit breaks free one of the leaves, and splinters the seeds out; he rolls them on my palm. These are mustard seeds. If you add oil onto it and cooks it a certain way, it becomes mustard spice. An old guy, Osama’s distant relative, steps on the mustard strips, crackle the mustards. Osama follows and stomps. Apparently, this is the way you’re supposed to do it. Alternatively, you lay them in the middle of the road, allow the passing vehicles be your free labour, and you can collect the seeds afterwards.
Listening to Osama describes without physically being there allow us to freely form mental images of the environment. Seeing the building overrides that imagination. Seeing the building and listening to him narrates enlighten you to his memories and feel the slight despair on this fragile building. This time, we reform the image with his stories and the once revitalized building; another type of imagination linger.
The crew is concerned about the electricity issue in the village for Osama’s interview; so they plan out when to use certain camera and how to keep the batteries for the important scenes.
As the perishing image do not resonate metaphorically with Osama’s work and hope, the crew scout for another location around the the village; somewhere shady, somewhere the movement of the sun cannot interfere, somewhere that depicts something about Osama’s vision and we find this. Something that grows fast, penetrates strongly, and persist extensively; the scenes is accompanied with a path that continues and leads somewhere — “down the path.”
Andrew and Osama have a lovely conversation about the complexity of Indians’ mentality, the dependency within the culture, the value of local and global consumerism and the multitude of the Indian culture; all the meandering themes and stories that emerge and thread through this documentary. The interview lasts for one hour and five minute, and the stories continue.
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