And/Or

And/Or

More Connections…


Anand Patwardhan, Filmmaker

I was a squatter at FTII, never a student. But my memories of it and of the wisdom tree in particular are probably as fond as that of any student.

In the early 80s we were documenting the lives of Bombay’s slum-dwellers. I had recently bought a second hand CP 16 camera and an old Nagra III but was still learning how to use them properly. Ranjan Palit and Inderjit Neogi freshly graduated from FTII and Pervez Merwanji from an earlier batch came to my rescue. They shot and recorded for me as well as helped to overcome my technical diffidence so I could fend for myself in the absence of a crew.

We now had the means of production to shoot, but where to edit? At the time FTII had a rule that current and ex-students could use their post-production facilities at relatively low rates. Ramesh Asher and Sanjiv Shah assisted me with editing and students like Amit Tyagi helped surmount the bureaucratic blocks that often came in the way. Invaluable feedback from many students enriched the whole process. This was how Bombay Our City was born.

And the wisdom tree? That is where we went every evening to hang out, talk cinema, philosophy, politics, smoke, eat, drink (the canteen was across the street), play music (a staff member or student had kept a sound system in the room nearby and we would all bring our favourite tapes) and generally unwind and expand.

We were sure we wanted to make films that would change the world.

We may not have succeeded but I do pray that the wisdom tree continues to inspire this desire.

Ashutosh Gowarikar, Actor and Filmmaker

When I first heard the term ‘wisdom tree’ I was intrigued. I instantly deduced that it must belong to the life of Buddha. But then someone mentioned that the first scene of the film was going to be shot at the wisdom tree, I realized it was not something that belonged to the past. It was something that was now and nearby, in terms of its geography.

This was way back in 1983 when I had come to the FTII to act in my first feature film, sorry first film of any kind – Mr. Ketan Mehta’s Holi.

There was a mixed bag of actors, some from professional theatre and others who were first timers. I belonged to the latter group. All the actors had assembled here from Bombay and Ahmedabad. None of us had any experience in film and most of us were new to the FTII campus. I for instance, believed that the Acting Course was yet functioning when actually it had been wrapped up a few years ago.

The only actors I knew were Neeraj Vora, who was from my college – Mithibai, Aamir Khan who was from the rival NM college and ditto Amole Gupte who was a senior actor as far as the FTII Diploma Films were concerned.

So Neeraj and I were informed the previous night that we had to report to the ‘wisdom tree’ the next morning. Both of us were very excited as this was going to be our first film experience.

As I looked over and over at the tree the next morning, for the life of me I could not figure out why it was given such a profound name. It was an ordinary tree, with a medium spread like any other tree in the campus with a circular cement and brick platform around it.

Well…so here we were, both Neeraj and me and the other actors, all made up and costumed, going through our lines, while sitting under the wisdom tree, waiting for the shoot to begin. Nothing seemed to be happening. A tempo drove in and halted a little way from us. Some workers started unloading some kind of long pipes, which were connected by wooden planks in between. There were other workers who started joining the pieces together. They even removed a cart and placed it on the parallel pipes.

Then a couple of guys stood on the cart and started moving along the rail. I was wondering what they were doing and for the life of me I couldn’t understand why they were setting up all this equipment so close to our shooting spot. I was discussing with Neeraj whether these guys knew that we were going to be shooting and that they were going to be a nuisance. Also why wasn’t anyone from the shooting team objecting? Neeraj didn’t have any answers. Just then, the camera arrived and it was mounted on to that very cart, which I was worried about.

I vaguely remember a leaf, gently fall on me!

I excitedly told Neeraj that I knew what the cart was all about. I reminded him of all the camera moving shots that we’ve always seen in movies. I explained to him that all those moving shots were actually taken with the help of equipment like this one. I remember Neeraj looking at me with awe and admiration and thankfully we have not lost this intrigue, excitement, awe and fascination till date.

The wisdom tree with all its shape and branches and leaves and its spread suddenly grew for me day after day. After that I got my share of wisdom like many others during those 40 days of Holi and six years later in the form of the Film Appreciation Course in ’90. And since then I’ve sat under it for hours, sometimes just hanging out, sometimes listening to music, hearing a script, narrating a script. I’ve sat under it when I was melancholic, happy or sad…or plain waiting for inspiration for hours, which is hard to get in Mumbai.

These articles have been taken from the ‘wisTreefest Bulletins’ that were published daily during the Wisdom Tree Film Festival, Pune 2003.