Figures of Thought (1990)

Remarkable documentary about the paintings of Bhupen Khakhar, Nalini Malani and Vivan Sundaram. The three artists had participated in the landmark show Place for People (1981, cf. Chronicle) which helped transform the notion of contemporary art in India. The film takes off from a mural they jointly made on commission from a Bombay industrialist and represents the paintings of the three artists, innovatively using reframing and lighting effects while interweaving shots of the artists’s working environment. Khopkar is well known as a teacher of film theory and an authority on Eisenstein.