Space for the like-minded

The idea of space in a city like Mumbai evokes several layers of thoughts depending on your social and economic position. But in the populous city, several art lovers, entrepreneurs, friends of artists and thinkers are offering spaces for some ‘meaningful’ conversation on various subjects. Spade, a Not-for-profit platform, was founded by a group of architects, designers, writers and entrepreneurs to initiate serious discussions on everything design. Currently, with an idea to open up to more young guns of the city, the team has organised six lecture series based on the theme “Where the Real World Lies”. The second chapter of Spade Talk, saw the renowned filmmaker Ketan Mehta and theatre director and documentary filmmaker, Sunil Shanbag share their creative process and their idea of designing and space in their work.  

The evening was titled Theatre and Cinema and the two stalwarts gave the audience a glimpse into their medium. Fashioned in the form of a good ol’ master class, the two artists showed clips and images from their previous work. “All art is a way to experience reality in a heightened form,” said Ketan Mehta, whose debut, Bhavni Bhavai, was quickly put in the canon of classics of contemporary Indian cinema. Speaking on the idea of space and its relation with cinema, he said, “In cinema, we don’t just have space but we have time-space and the whole idea is to create the right ambience and illusion of space. But ultimately we are trying to create a mind-space inside the head of our audience.”

Sunil, who had his early education in theatre from several masters including Satyadev Dubey, added that in theatre, the idea of space is specific to a site. “One important element of space in theatre is that we do not have the luxury to play at the same space throughout, so in a way we have to make the best out of every given space. For theatre, space is a living entity,” explained Shanbag. The hall inside Tranceforme Designs at Mahalaxmi transformed into a mini lecture hall as the two artists kept the audience enthralled with their pearls of wisdom.