Friday, July 31, 2015

The Kumbh Mela Experience

It is considered to be the largest peaceful gathering in the world but I perceived it as chaos gathering where stampede happens and then a breaking news. I was invited for a documentary "Conversations at the Kumbh Mela, Allahabad, 2013" Premiere by BlogAdda which changed my perspective.

The excitement took me along with my friend to Nehru Centre, Worli. We reached on time and found ourselves inside a exhibition where we got guided tour of the exhibit. The pictures were very lively and vibrant. Being passionate about photography, I  found it interesting.


We got a warm welcome from BlogAdda and finally sat inside auditorium for the movie to begin. Although the movie was a documentary, it was interesting. It was well edited and had a story. It was a whole new experience for us to know about Kumbh Mela.

Being naive to this Kumbh Mela, watching the movie was like experiencing it virtually.


The movie took us through interviews from different people. There were various shots like people pouring milk to Ganga, dipping one self in river based on some belief. The lost and found counter was doing a great job for people. Remembered movies from 80's. Other areas like sanitation, ambulance, police chowki were well taken care.

We were glued to the screens for 54mins. Later we had interaction with the movie crew members. It took around 6 weeks of video shoot. Editing and making of movie took around 2.5 years as the team was involved in other activities. Lots of questions poured in and the director Yashodara (Director of the movie) gave answers to all the questions.



Everyone appreciated the work and there were praises more than questions from the audience. Yashodara spoke about how they managed to take interviews. Their excitement to shoot, coincidence, luck, team work all helped them to complete the movie. It was supposed to be a planned shoot but happened to be a unplanned one as they just went with the flow. For them it was like going prepared for an exam and questions asked were all unread ones.

A quick snap with the team after the discussion :)



Movie in all has instigated us to attend Kumbh  Mela in person. And off-course await a second part to the documentary "Conversations at the Kumbh Mela, Allahabad, 2013".

“I am unraveling the mysteries of Kumbh Mela by participating in the #TheKumbhMelaExperience activity at BlogAdda in association with Anugraha"

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