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Postcommunist Aesthetics: A Conversation with Anamika Haksar
Arvind Rajagopal
The title of Anamika Haksar’s 2018 Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon (Taking the Horse to Eat Jalebis) comes from a line of dialogue in the film: when someone off camera asks a horse-cart driver what he’s doing, he replies that he’s taking his horse to eat jalebis, a traditional Indian dessert more popular with humans than equines. While the driver’s answer might seem sarcastic, it’s very much in earnest. With scenes like this, Haksar welcomes viewers to a world in which laborers speak and dream in ways that one might not expect, creating a realism that goes beyond standard notions of reality.
e-flux Journal
Posted: September 8, 2021
Category
Film, Aesthetics
Subjects
Experimental Film, Indian Subcontinent, Post-Communism, Postcolonialism, Cold War