Mutton, parottas and movie-making

What does it mean to do work you love Like all love it is equal parts difficulty exhilaration and selfdiscoveryI spent all of last week in Madurai shooting for a documentary film It has been 13 years since I last made one having spent this time on other thingsmdasha digital platform writing television though in my head all of those were just some version or other of the documentary arts Itrsquos a strange profession It defies categorisationmdashbeing at once art politics pamphlet meditation poetic prosaic challenging openended in possible forms it can assume as many forms as there are people and realities reallyIn Madurai temples are everywhere their varied surfaces teeming with mythical creatures and uncompromising gods It is only by looking at each for a while that the carnival of forms reveals the underlying dynamic the thematic relationships that binds the profusion As plentiful are the kinds of parottas and mutton curries you encounter in countless messes The parottas are pliable puff pastries their many layers overlapping So are the spices in the curries their individual natures discernible but their heat compacted and muscular like a mythical being gradually manifesting from a fire For North Indians used to ldquopure vegrdquo temple towns this bubbling world of the devi is a revelationI am not sure why I asked one lawyer I interviewed for the film why he became a lawyer Perhaps it was just to set him at ease perhaps I wondered about something in the air around him perhaps those layers overlapped For a split second he was perplexed I guess no one asks lawyers or doctors or engineers this questionmdashthe way they do with documentary filmmakers Those things seem selfevidently useful and practical He replied ldquoactually I was forced to become one But now after doing it for so many years it has become a passionrdquo Later he mentioned he had actually wanted to be an English professor but because his family was embroiled in a dispute his father felt there should be a lawyer in the family Love is just a poetic relationship with reality however prosaic it seems to othersGoing back to documentary work with a team of colleagues each onersquos perspective overlapping is a chance to be present in the world with a deep physicality This physicality reveals its spiritual significance in our very digital times One must be constantly attentive and engaged with the reality you step into without assuming you can ldquocapturerdquo itYou must abandon your preconceptions both about yourself and others and allow meaning and understanding to unfold like spices in curries It is indeed a chance to love the world to agree and disagree with it to struggle physically intellectually and emotionally with it all yet remain curious and accept some notknowing It is a chance to love yourself too to be curious about who you have become in the 13 years you were doing something else What a relief it is to be in this unfolding engagement with the world which our digital existence constantly broken into bitsconstantly in a rush to decide know opine define to controltightly disallowsWhat does it mean to do work you love I guess itrsquos always surprising like eating a parotta soaked in curry and letting it bite your tongueParomita Vohra is an awardwinning Mumbaibased filmmaker writer and curator working with fiction and nonfiction Reach her at paromitavohramiddaycom