The Seventh Walk

The Seventh Walk (Hindi: सातवीं सैर) 2013, 70 min. is an Indian film directed by Amit Dutta. Shot in super 16 mm, the film explores the works of the Indian painter of abstract landscapes Paramjit Singh. It was the closing film of Rome International Film Festival XXI.

Critical Response

Meditation on art and interpretation.

— The Museum of Modern Art, New York^[1]

…a true tour de force of color, structure, and rhythm developed out of contemporary artist Paramjit Singh's works in oil and charcoal, an amazing synthesis of painting and cinema.

— Olaf Möller, Film Comment ^[2]

The Seventh Walk is a wistful and beautiful voyage into the world of dreams and the creative process by experimental filmmaker Amit Dutta. It is set entirely in the popular tourist landscape of the Kangra Valley and based on the art of landscape painter Paramjit Singh. In fact, Singh appears in the film as a dreamer-artist whom we follow ever deeper into a forest. What we find in the forest with Singh is a place where time operates differently; in the midst of nature, mythical time reigns and storytelling is the act of dreaming.

The Seventh Walk is simply magnetic and mysterious in its dream quality, like a song with its tonal highs and lows, and resists easy categorisation of documentary or fiction. It more than expresses why Dutta is considered one of the foremost filmmakers working in experimental cinema today; it convinces us.

95/100 ~ AMAZING.

— Rowena Santos Aquino, Next projection^[3]

Dutta has never before given such attention to the process of artmaking, and it’s likely that watching Singh at work has helped to expand his cinematic vocabulary. His camera is looser, freer, and more curious than it has been since Ramkhind, but with the subtler eye for the texture, shading, temperature, and distribution of light that he has acquired in the dozen years since. More radically, in the mesmerizing final ten minutes he takes the fusion of film and the artworks it depicts further than he ever has before: Singh’s finished paintings take over the film, first filmed straight on and then bent, refracted, and layered (in some cases by the superimposition of multiple paintings upon one another, in others by the application of kaleidoscopic visual filters to individual works) until they start to take on a kind of natural pulse.

— Max Nelson, Cinemascope ^[4]

Indian director Amit Dutta's The Seventh Walk may have wildly different mise en scene than Emigholz's documentaries, but their basic principles of decoupage, of the way a scene is broken up into different shots and camera movements, appear similar: observant, possibly discontinuous, contemplation and arrangement of objects in screen space. The trees and forests of the Kangra valley in northern India are Dutta's objects and space in this part documentary, part naturalist fantasia based the Indian artist Paramjit Singh and his paintings. Dutta poses him walking through the thick green landscape around his house, as well as exploring Singh's house and the artist at his table and easel, and the film weaves these oblique, semi-staged records of the artist with a camera separately but interrelatedly exploring the surroundings.

The camera’s movements are active, supple and grandiloquent, improbably resembling both Apichatpong Weeresethekul's mystically ambient creeping camera dollies and the flourishing crane movements of Delmer Daves' late 50s and early 60s Westerns and melodramas. In fact, the camera is almost always operating at a Scorsese-level of constant activity, only its motion is tranquil, roving freely without an invasiveness of nature or a film production. It arcs above and around the artist and his walks, freely imagining his dreams—or Dutta's dreams of the painter's dreams—and his small encounters with objects and others. Eventually we see more and more of Singh's abstract paintings—etchings that resemble the density of the jungle, but also stark, fully colored abstract landscapes—that surprisingly seem to have little beyond object-traces to do with Dutta's cinematic vision. Thus each kind of artistry seems a certain kind of imagining, and one that overlaps in the landscape through which the artist moves and works and within which Dutta's dextrous camera-eye roves.

— Daniel Kasman, Mubi ^[5]

I dislike using the much-used “innovative” and “avant-garde” to describe the latest by Amit Dutta, but in this case, it is appropriate, particularly the latter. An oblique meditation (also overused, but in this instance absolutely true) on the painter Paramjit Singh and the bucolic Kangra Valley, this film takes us into the heart of the creative spirit and into the of mysterious workings and sources of inspiration and of nature on an artistic (sub)conscious.

Other films about artists tend toward fiction-esque (Pollock, My Left Foot), or an epic/biopic (Gerhard Richter Painting, Ai Wei Wei:Never Sorry) which are filmed from the outside; the artists is the object and we see the external forces which shape his/her legacy, whether politics, movements or domestic drama. The Seventh Walk is absolutely filmed from the inside—the subject is the object of the gaze and his objects frequently become subjects. To be sure there are some sequences of his sketching and painting (the sound of the charcoal against paper and his knife against the canvas was delightful—the aural equivalent of a close-up). But mostly it is as though we are behind the painter’s eyes and in his memories. The camera, the sound design, and the poetry titles guide us through the textures of bark, the movement of leaves, the passage of water, the soft murmur of farmers gossiping, shadows in a cool home; in some surreal tableaux, where he/us imagine(s) a house in the crook of a tree, or a rock levitating, we can begin to grasp the inner workings of our collective, creative, mind. We can even imagine the levity inherent in a dense rock. To convey the utterly complex world of sensory reception, inspiration, and art is an interesting challenge which the filmmakers take on successfully.

What was also striking is the film’s strong aural component, which is almost a sly counterpoint to a very visual medium (despite its elegance). There is the often-surprising score by Mandar Kamlapurkar, which sets the meditative tone, particularly in the beginning. But there were also the myriad sounds of walking, wind, water, trees, shuffling, scraping, painting and much else which I think inflamed the imagination and added to the richness of the visual – particularly as the sounds were not perfectly-timed to the visuals. Even as we are transported to the metaphysical, this actually approximates the sensation of being in a forest, where sound and image don’t always match up. Toward the last of the poetry titles, some audience members were reading it quietly in their own voice, adding yet another surprising layer of sound.

— Catherine Nueva Espana, Leonine Films ^[6]

Deftly blending sound, image and text, this subtly hypnotic film meditates upon the figure of Singh commingled with surreal tableaux inspired by the artist's paintings.

Dutta masterfully weaves these iconic passages together with Singh's painterly technique, merging the still and moving image into an impressionistic assemblage that pays homage to the legends, folk traditions and artistry of this unique corner of India.

— Paul Meyers, San Franscisco Film Festival ^[7]

Led by mysterious sounds and footprints, a painter wanders within a surreal space of the forest, his own paintings and oneiric spaces. Exciting cinematic approach, poetic and metaphysical, by one of the best-known Indian art-house and experimental filmmakers.

Mixing dreams, desires, imagination and reality, the filmmaker provides for his main hero an oneiric milieu where transposition from one world to the other is easy and inspirational. Provoked by inviting sounds and unidentified footprints, the painter wanders along mysterious paths in a forest, meeting characters from his own dream. Dutta’s associative narrative and innovative cinematic approach opens up an intriguing space for viewers to contemplate and find their own interpretations.

— International Film Festival Rotterdan (IFFR) ^[8]

An essential and vibrant genre in the early half of the 20th century, painters now have abandoned landscape—it forms the background. Among the seniors, Paramjit Singh seems to be alone, stubbornly devoting his life time to mastering the richness of textures, colours and forms found in nature. This is one reason why the film by Amit Dutta fascinates us in bringing us close to appreciating nature and, in the second half of the film to Paramjit’s commitment. He appears 30 minutes after the opening, moving silently through the forest.

The film is long, 70 minutes, intriguing us with its title The Seventh Walk. This documentary proceeds without explanations, sans words or dialogue throughout 70 minutes; we hear only sounds of the wind blowing through trees, of water dancing, the rustle of leaves, the songs of birds, and yes the scratching on paper of pencil and crayon as Paramjit works in his studio at Andretta. Since he is a man who speaks very little, this seems entirely appropriate. The silence and sounds from nature fill us with wonder and suspense. What will come next?

Andretta is a village in the Kangra valley where I once had bought a little land and dreamt of building a house. Others too had this dream but few fulfilled it. Arpita and Paramjit did, and he would draw and paint there in the 1980s looking out from his window and his vision opened to fields of long grass, tall trees, golden paths winding through forests, a little blue rivulet suddenly—all that we have around us but forget to see! When I walked after this film I found myself looking with wonder at the colours and forms of palm fronds, peepal leaves, mango blossoms.

— Geeti Sen, the Week ^[9]

The Low Down: The film version of that ancient Indian poetry class you were too intimidated to take.

Our Take: Almost completely bereft of any words, The Seventh Walk follows Indian painter Paramjit Singh as he wanders an idyllic forested valley, painting what he sees. Sharp, gorgeous cinematography and surprising fairy tale appeal reward audiences, but you've got to exercise patience.

Best Reason to See It: It will make you feel like you have awesome taste in both movies and abstract art.

— Adam L. Brinklow, San Francisco magazine ^[10]

The Seventh Walk Amit Dutta provides an aesthetically rich trip through Northern India's gorgeous Kangra Valley that is blissfully subtitle-free.

— David Lamble, The Bay Area Reporter ^[11]

In Saatvin Sair, the Indian director continues to explore a theme that has distinguished his production since the very beginning, the relationship between film, painting and music. In the film, Dutta tells the story of a wandering painter who heads into a forest after noticing a strange footprint and hearing a strange melody. This walk into the depths of nature will lead him to face his most intimate self.

— Rome Film Festival ^[12]

Un uomo cammina. È un pittore che vaga nella foresta e vi si addentra attratto da una misteriosa e seducente melodia. Si riposa sotto un albero e vede se stesso camminare e dipingere. Un frinire di cicale quasi ininterrotto.

Un film immerso in una natura prepotente dove i pochi edifici sono dismessi e fatiscenti, in mezzo ai boschi, con le crepe ai muri, corrotti dalla natura, dalla vegetazione che vi si è infiltrata. E le immagini sono alternate a inserti di prosa, frasi scritte che hanno la musicalità e la poetica degli haiku. «La fotografia scaturisce dal disegno e viceversa» dice uno di questi, che rappresenta il senso di quest'opera che si fonda su una continua oscillazione tra natura e arte figurativa, cinema e illustrazione, realtà e rappresentazione, movimenti della m.d.p. e tavolozza dei colori, interno ed esterno, colori e bianco e nero, vuoto e pieno. Un'opera dai cromatismi prepotenti. Che inizia con immagini di muschi e licheni che conferiscono una rugosità alle superfici che rivestono, un'asprezza, la compromissione progressiva di un'estensione liscia, che si avvicina all'immagine di un quadro astratto. Amit Dutta sembra voler rovesciare, o porsi in posizione complementare, a quella che è un'opera seminale sull'arte, vale a dire El sol del membrillo. Se Erice sembra sancire l'impossibilità della raffigurazione pittorica della mela cotogna, nel continuo, e sterile, tentativo del pittore di rincorrerla, qui siamo di fronte a un passaggio e uno sconfinamento continui tra natura e pittura, un circolo vizioso, una transustazione biunivoca dell'una nell'altra. Natura che si cristallizza in natura morta, architetture stilizzate da pittura metafisica, immagini riflesse, riverberi di luce fino all'immagine della bambina che diventa come un quadro di Gauguin.

— Giampiero Raganelli , Uzak ^[13]

È un percorso sempre più votato all’astrazione quello che caratterizza l’ultimo lavoro di Amit Dutta, che prosegue il suo sguardo immersivo fra le pieghe della relazione fra pittura e cinema in un abbandono del reale a favore di un'atmosfera a metà fra sogno e contemplazione.

È un percorso sempre più votato all’astrazione quello che caratterizza l’ultimo lavoro di Amit Dutta, che prosegue il suo sguardo immersivo fra le pieghe della relazione fra pittura e cinema, iniziato con Nainsukh e proseguito con il corto documentario The Museum of Imagination. Ma se nel precedente film la ricerca di una corrispondenza fra miniatura e realtà si risolveva in una meravigliosa successione di tableaux, la scelta di spostarsi dal passato alla contemporaneità, prendendo a spunto la pittura di Paramjit Singh, fa sì che il viaggio cinematografico di Dutta si abbandoni a se stesso per entrare nella contemplazione dell'immagine in sé.

Fin dai primi momenti, i fluidi movimenti di macchina che caratterizzano il lavoro del regista indiano fin dai primi lavori sono utilizzati per un’esplorazione dell’ambiente, la stessa Valle di Kangra già protagonista di Nainsukh, dove si viene a creare un dialogo fra ogni elemento presente dentro e fuori dal campo visivo. Pietre, fili d’erba, radici e corteccia, sono tutti attori che sfilano pacifici sullo schermo, e la cui immagine compone un gioco d’incastro con il fitto lavoro sonoro che spesso devia dal realismo per portare verso altre vie lo spettatore. In questo perdersi all’ombra della sola potenza del paesaggio, Dutta ricorda quel magnifico film del’abbandono che è Dhrupad di Mani Kaul, dove l’immagine è sottomessa in un complicato gioco di schiavitù con la pura colonna sonora, che riempie le inquadrature che si lasciano trascinare dagli archi

infiniti degli edifici illuminati al tramonto. Allo stesso modo, The Seventh Walk sembra spesso favorire questa musica del tutto extradiegetica, salvo poi recuperare la forza dell’immagine e crea un onirismo immobile, momenti senza tempo dove il reale è inglobato dalla convergenza centrifuga dell’immagine, che sdoppia e triplica le figure, proiettandole fuori dallo schermo senza l’ausilio della tecnologia ma solo grazie alla costruzione di un’atmosfera distante e trasognata, cioè sognata nel mezzo fra la contemplazione e il sonno. Non vi è paura di abbandonare quella purezza visiva dei precedenti lavori, quello scorrere liscio delle immagini come lo srotolarsi di una pellicola infinita, vi sono anzi numerosi inserti, frammenti stonati che interrompono questa fluidità assoluta e aumentano lo straniamento verso ciò che (non) accade sullo schermo. Osserviamo da vicino i mille tratti che compongono i quadri di Paramjit Singh, piccole sferzate di colore, impressioni dai colori violenti di paesaggi incomprensibili, e ci perdiamo con la macchina da presa entro questi solchi. Poi, dietro la tela, il muro bianco.

— Renato Loriga, Sentieriselvaggi ^[14]

References

1. "MoMA Film" (PDF).
2. Möller, Olaf. "Festivals: Rome, December, 2013".
3. Aquino, Rowena Santos. "MoMA Documentary Fortnight 2014 Review: The Seventh Walk (2013) – NP Approved".
4. "Dreams of Light: The Cinema of Amit Dutta".
5. Kasman, Daniel. "Rotterdam 2014. Deep Breaths".
6. Espana, Catherine Nueva. "SFIFF 57: The Seventh Walk by Amit Dutta".
7. Meyers, Paul. "The Seventh Walk".
8. "Spectrum 2014".
9. Sen, Geeti. "Taking in the landscape".
10. Brinklow, Adam L. "Every San Franciscan's Guide to the San Francisco International Film Festival".
11. Lamble, David. "International perspectives".
12. "Rome Film Fest".
13. Raganelli, Giampiero. "Saatvin sair (The Seventh Walk) - CinemaXXI Fuori Concorso".
14. Lorgia, Renato. "The Seventh Walk, di Amit Dutta (Film di chiusura CinemaXXI)".