Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Review - AAJ RUNG DE


“It is stunning, captures darkness and light, motion and stasis in accompaniment to music that is like breathing. Great.”

Watch AAJ RUNG DE on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Md3QkwrkQYY 

Reviewer -- Lalita Pandit Hogan, Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse; her most recent publication is “A Country Without Borders: Poems and Stories of Kashmir” 2Leaf Press (2017), distributed by the University of Chicago Press (2018).



Aaj Rung De, a Two Minute Film (direction, script and concept by Arin Paul) is a succinct capture of a moment that many can relate to. Cinematic time is built through a series of brilliant images that pack a lot of feeling and meaning. One of the film’s striking features is juxtaposition of images. In the foregrounding shot, an atmosphere of darkness spread over the railway platform is interspersed with lamp-light; this half-lit scenario is aligned briefly with an almost surreal image of a hearth-fire somewhere below, with vague outline of a figure in the posture of waiting. The fire image below, is then, juxtaposed with rising columns of smoke as a lone figure walks over to the tracks pushing a barrel. The train is, most likely, a coal train, not an electric train. As time passes, the train that slowed down on one side of the station before coming to a halt, departs. A fluid transition to a faster moving train on the opposite track highlights opposite side of the platform, different in its structure and ambience. It is now in full view: fully lit. This train too passes, and the movie ends with a clear sense of closure because semantic unity is achieved through non-diegetic music, namely, strains of a song by none other than the Sufi poet, musician and scholar, Amir Khusro (1253-1325): “Aaj Rang Hai Ri Maa.” Though the colors seen in the visuals are mostly of train tracks and the platform dressed in light and darkness, Khusro’s poem, at its literal level refers to “rang,” that is, “color.” As a viewer, I, at first associated “rang” and the refrain of “aaj rang hai” with Holi: colors of a jubilant festival in India.  However, Arin Paul, in a note, said he was not thinking of Holi, and this film’s visual content, in accompaniment to Amir Khusro’s famous lyric, is not about Holi.[1] Though an auteur’s aesthetic intention cannot subsume the meaning his movie will have for the viewers, in this case, the auteur is right. My mind had drifted to how the “aaj rang hai” refrain of Khusro’s poem is used in M. F. Hussain’s 2004 film, Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities[2] There is a flamboyant exuberance of color in that segment of Hussain’s film and the connection to Holi is explicit, as Khusro’s “aaj rang hai” line is grafted to a typical Bollywood song and dance sequence.[3] In contrast, Arin Paul’s film steps aside from mainstream cinema and establishes its own micro-genre of a film lyric. The conversation with Arin Paul made me realize that in Khusro’s poem, the word, “rang” does not mean color, even at the literal level. It means “jubilation” and it is a song celebrating spiritual union with Nizamuddin Aulia. That is, arrival of the sublime into life and art. The addressee in the opening line of Khusro’s poem is “mother”: real and symbolic, an attachment figure as well as life itself, the world, time and the self.  Unlike Khusro’s lyric, Arin Paul’s film lyric is not about a moment of jubilation; it is a meditation on the impermanence of life, its departures and the arrivals. A poignant, though meditative, journey motif is implied by the absence of a dwelling, a city street, a garden, a yard, with the universe being squeezed into a railway platform personified as someone marking time through the repetitive karma of arriving and departing trains. To this psychological reality, Arin Paul adds the enchantment of Khusro’s transforming poetry. The music is un-intrusive and blends with silence. In fact, it is more like silence, like breathing. In sum, Aaj Rung De is a beautiful film. Though not expressive of joy, rather somber in its mood, it elicits peace that comes from acceptance of life. The unhurried brevity of screen time stands in contrast to the interminable, unendurable lengths of social time in which dreams remain unfinished, and sleep brings unwelcome wakefulness.



[1] Arin, Paul, “It is not about Holi,” online conversation, August 17, 2018.
[2] M. F. Hussain, Director. Meenaxi, A Tale of Three Cities, Hindi, 2004.
[3] Lalita Pandit Hogan, “Color and Artefact Emotion in Alternative Cinema: A Comparative Analysis of Gabbeh, Mirch Masala, and Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities,” Projections, Vol. 3, Issue 2 (Winter 2009), 105-123.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Making Hope A Reality - Early Intervention

Early intervention is a collection of therapy and support services that are provided to children under the age of 6 who are born with disabilities or who are at risk for developing them. It helps to rehabilitate them in society while significantly improving the quality of their life and their ability lead a well-adjusted life in a community.
Watch The Film: https://youtu.be/igCJWx1YqgU (8 minutes 21 Seconds).
2 Minutes Version: https://youtu.be/K5uIPCWID90 .
HELP A SPECIAL NEED CHILD TO RUN: https://www.amarseva.org/blog/2019/10/mumbai-marathon-2020_charity-bibs .
#AmarSevaSangam #EarlyIntervention #ArinPaulProductions

Thursday, June 6, 2019

"Mission to Empower - Village Based Rehabilitation Initiative (2019)"

"Mission to Empower - Village Based Rehabilitation Initiative (2019)"
An Initiative by #AmarSevaSangam
WATCH || SHARE || SPREAD ||
#ArinPaulProductions
Village Based Rehabilitation Initiative (VBRI) is a model whereby differently-abled persons as well as the community own the responsibilities of rehabilitation, economic development, care giving and implement the initiatives.


Wednesday, June 5, 2019

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2019

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2019
Theme: Air Pollution.
Photo: River Subarnarekha, Ghatshila, Jharkhand.
#WorldEnvironmentDay #AirPollution #ArinPaulProductions


Sunday, May 12, 2019

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Saturday, May 4, 2019

Medical testing Unit, Amar Seva Sangam



#MedicalTestingUnit #AmarSevaSangam #Donate
Making A Difference - Medical Testing Unit, Amar Seva Sangam
Video: https://www.facebook.com/201245449949441/videos/615824432266613/
To Donate and Help Visit: https://www.amarseva.org/blog/2019/04/bangalore-marathon-2019
Amar Seva Sangam Website: https://www.amarseva.org

Video Credits:
#ArinPaulProductions
Visit: https://arin-paul-productions-mumbai.business.site

Thursday, May 2, 2019

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Ritwik Ghatak (4 November 1925 – 6 February 1976)



Ritwik Ghatak (4 November 1925 – 6 February 1976).
"Death anniversary of Ritwik Ghatak. A man deathless. A mortal beyond death."
Photo Credit: Shantanu Ghosh.
#RitwikGhatak #TheRitwikGhatakExperience

Monday, February 4, 2019

World Cancer Day, 2019


#WorldCancerDay #IAmAndIWill
Take Action, Visit: https://www.worldcancerday.org/
#ArinPaulProductions 


Thursday, January 31, 2019

Breaking Barriers - S. Sankara Raman


During the shoot of "Breaking Barriers - S. Sankara Raman". 2019.
#BreakingBarriers #BreakingBarriersSSankaraRaman #BehindTheScenes #SankaraRaman #AmarSevaSangam #AmarSevaSangamCampus #ArinPaulProductions