New York Based, Indian-American film director Ram Alladi, is set to release his Ra’s Metanoia - a story of the life of the legendary Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi).
Ra’s Metanoia is shot entirely in New York and New Jersey and is a combination of vintage film styling which is set on graphically generated setups to create Gandhi’s life based on Gandhi’s writings – of his memoir, Magic Spell Of A Book. This period drama takes the audiences through the key moments in Gandhi’s life - from childhood to his untimely death in 1948 in New Delhi.
Speaking to the Sunday Observer, the award winning director Ram Alladi said, “Ra’s Metanoia chronicles M.K. Gandhi’s extraordinary life with a combination of fact and fiction whilst encapsulating scientific concepts such as quantum mechanics, Einstein Rosenberg bridge and rare space elements. The film seamlessly weaves a tapestry of a richly narrated story with Gandhian principles,”
Experts of the interview:
Q: New York-based Indian American director/screenwriter Ram Alladi, is that how you like to be known by people?
A: Art has no borders. It has one universal language, that is creativity. As a personal choice I would like to be called as director / screenwriter.
Q:Your documentary Chiseled has won the ‘Best Historical Documentary Film’award at ONIROS Film Awards, Aosta, Italy and also ‘Best Documentary Film’ and ‘Best Music Score’ honours at Virgin Spring Cine Fest; and the ‘Best Travel Film’ award at Cult Critic Movie Awards. How did you get into making documentary movies? And why Chiseled?
A: I have always been intrigued by culture, architecture, and the heritage of Indian dynasties. This could also be because of the place I was born in, Warangal aka Orugallu. As a director, I am always interested in audience gasps when they see something out of this age and something built before 800 years and still standing, such as the Fort entrances forged out of a single stone, detailed carving of the deities and mythical animals, rain harvesting tanks and much more.
Ever since I began working on Chiseled, I dreamed of showing audiences the miracle of floating stones and earthquake proof sandboxes that would allow the audience to witness the engineering marvel of the Kakatiyas and their superior skilled building of the Capital city of Orugallu, which is unlike any other world heritage site. Chiseled is an ode to the architectural and sculptural achievements of the Kakatiya dynasty.
Q: Your way of intertwining music and technology in your work has been noted and it seems you are successful in doing that. The new movie Ra’s Metanoia which is ready to be screened on Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s birthday for the first time also embraces music. Is the combination of ‘music and technology’ your signature?
A: Yes.
Music has an incredible influence on movies. Even silent movies. Because silence is also a sound of music. In my opinion, the director should always consider narrating the story musically too.
In fact, Bapu himself was a great lover of music, though his philosophy of music was different. In his own words - “Music does not proceed from the throat alone. There is music of mind, of the senses and of the heart. Gandhi ji once said, “If there was no music and no laughter in me, I would have died of this crushing burden of my work.”
In Ra’s Metanoia most notably, the re-composed and re-imagined soundtrack features one of Gandhi’s favourite songs, Ekla Chalo which was written by the Nobel prize winner Rabindranath Tagore.
All of the music in Ra’s Metanoia is performed with authentic, acoustic Indian instruments in order to recreate the sounds that Gandhi loved so much. The film’s background score composer is the celebrated Bharadwaj V Komaragiri who composed Ra’s Metanoia’s sound effect design including the distinctive ticking sound of Gandhi’s Ingersoll watch.
Q: What’s it like to be a filmmaker while living in the east coast of America?
A: Well, the process of film making has become more easier than it was a decade before. Using technology and good home work one can make movies from anywhere in the world.
Yes, obviously being in America one can utilise a lot of resources of film making and promote it to galleries.
Q: You like people to dream big and be passionate about what they like to do with their creative work. What is the biggest obstacle you face when creating a film?
A: Blessed are the souls who have found their passion and strive to achieve it. My mantra to success is to work hard until my dream comes true. In the words of Theodore Roosevelt “ Nothing worth having comes easy”.
The biggest obstacle I faced is that the movie is based on facts with some fictional elements, and the biggest challenge was to seamlessly connect the facts with the fiction. We drafted the screenplay thoroughly visualising and imbibing both the aspects of the story so as to keep the audience engaged.
Q: What do you have to say about Ra’s Metanoia?
A: Inculcating technology and history, Ra’s Metanoia has been derived largely through the words of Gandhi himself and, Gandhism is the central theme of the film, despite its occasional fictional elements.
Having grown up paying tribute to Gandhi on national holidays, Gandhi amarrahe (long live Gandhi) was such a central theme in my life that I spent much of my childhood believing that he is still alive. I remember visiting the Gandhi Museum in New Delhi and wondering how I could remove the blood stains from Gandhi’s showcased shawl.
