Top Quark Films Private Limited

Makers of Documentaries, Poetry Films, & Commercials.

Of Buddha and Other Beings: A trilogy based on some great Haiku Poetry, made under the Sadho Poetry Films Project and premiered @ the 1st Sadho Poetry Film Fest 2007-08.

 

These Poetry-Films were inspired by the works of immortal Japanese poets including Buson, Issa, Basho and Kikaku. The chosen Haikus give us a good window into both the centrality of Buddha in the lives and time of these poets and into their relationship with organised religion. The films in the trilogy are:

The Haiku show the poets at ease with their faith.They are comfortable in appropriating the venerable and juxtaposing it with the prosaic or the profane in the short space the form of the Haiku allowed them. And they do this juxtaposition with the consummate artistry of a painter. Their message is poignant, and clear.

In a world torn apart by what our so-called leaders say is a ‘clash of civilisations’, Buddha’s middle path is the road to take. The Haiku also underlines the fact that a mature culture and civilisation is more open to what its poets and philosophers say about religion and God.

The visual elements for this film were shot at the breathtaking 1011 year old Tabo Gompa at Spiti in Himachal, at Kibber and Dhankar in Spiti and Tawang Gompa at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. Some parts have been shot at Kashmir.

This poetry film is based on Haikus by the great Japanese poet Basho (1644-94). The grass Bamboo runs as a common thread in the four Haiku, giving a distinct character to the film.

Basho’s Haiku are dramatic. He shows the insignificance of Man by pitting the human against Nature. Basho infused a mystical quality into much of his verse and attempted to express universal themes through simple natural images, from the harvest moon to the fleas in his cottage.

The three Haiku used in the film have a progression and talk of man’s journey through youth and old age to his death.

Inspired by Haikus of Issa and Masaoka, this film explores the  freedom of subject matter and dictation, and strongly stresses the use of realism in haiku, which was the single most significant break from the then conventional forms. Neither as at ease as Basho nor as composed as Buson, Issa wrote a more personal poetry of unadorned language, often using the local dialects and words of the daily conversations, moving steadily into a Pure Land Buddhist philosophy that expressed true devotion without getting caught up in the snares of mere religious dogmatism. Sometimes humorous or sarcastic, often of uneven quality, his poems are prized for their remarkable compassionate and poignant insight.

I Sit like an Old Buddha (4-min, English, Color, HDV, 2007)

Nights and Days of the Bamboo Song (5 min, English, Color, HDV, 2007)

O Autumn Winds! (5 min, English, Color, HDV, 2007)

Poetry Films