Suchitra Film Society, in association with the Crafts Council of Karnataka, takes cinephiles on a nostalgic sojourn back into history to golden times of 16th century Vijayanagara Kingdom. The occasion is a nearly hour-long documentry that spotlights on the diminishing 400-year-old wood craft — Kinnala art form practised by a few chitragaar families of Karnataka.
Kinhal, located 13 kms from Koppal, in Bellary district of northern Karnataka is home to this unique craft form. There are approximately 30 craftspersons who practise this craft. Hereditary artisans called chitragaras. The art of Kinhal painted woodenware dates to Vijayanagar empire founded in 1500 and flourished due to the patronage of Vijayanagar rulers in whose reign the arts had reached their zenith. After the fall of Vijayanagar Empire in 1655, the artisans lost their patronage and moved away from Hampi to Kinhal, Kanakagiri, Harapanahalli and Kampili in Bellary district and Ananthpur in Andhra Pradesh. With declining royal patronage, the craft showed serious signs of deterioration. The Crafts Council of Karnataka is currently engaged in a project to revive the languishing craft of Kinhal painted woodware.
The documentary Glasgow Crafts Kinnala saw its germination following a chance sighting of a beautiful and exquisite Kinnal craftpiece at Mysore by Students Volunteers Abroad’s Tilly Gifford, who after learning about the unique craft, inspired her to motivate and kindle interest in five other students from Glasgow University to travel to Kannala village near Hampi in Karnataka to make an indepth study and learn the craft.
The feature film, by travel writers and documentary film-makers duo of Anand & Madhura Katti, is a live depiction of the sextet Scottish varsity students’ adventurous sojourn at the village while ingraining the intricacies of the craft from master craftsman Ekappa Chitragaar.
The documentary captures live their experiences of living in a small Indian village, for 8 weeks, their visit and attention it created in the region that resulted in renewed interest for the craft. Incidentally, the director-duo will be on hand at the screening to answer queries from the audience after the screening which is on Saturday, 6.15 pm at Suchitra, B V Karanth Road, Banashankari II Stage. Call: 26711785
