Synopsis:

Around twenty years back, I had visited a Warli village barely a hundred kilometers from Mumbai and yet pristine in its self-containment. I stayed in the village for many days and recorded all sorts of stories, songs, as well as the rhythm of their daily lives. After all those years, looking at some of the finest Warli paintings brought back to memory the field-recordings, casting them in an entirely fresh light. Their simultaneous philosophical depth and acceptance of the evolving world, the equality of all life, and the celebration of small acts of daily life all became more evident and sophisticated as I layered over the paintings, the sounds and stories of the village I had gathered decades ago, walking side by side with the Warlis as they went about their daily chores, day after day, for many days. Animating them brought out the simultaneity of Warli space-time even more; gods and insects walked on the same plane as humans. The world of the Warli is exceptionally unified and simplified to allow room for every kind of time, space, and narrative to co-exist on the same plane as expressed by their art, which is now so iconic and instantly recognized universally.