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1Shanthiroad studio/gallery

Cuisine – (Ootada Kathegalu Project- Food Stories)

An anthology of short films

Curated by Archana Hande and Bharatesh GD

This project will look at the relationship the city of Bangalore has with food and the importance food plays with respect to Bangalore’s own identity, the different neighborhoods, and its occupants. We will aim to look into different communities and the food cultures from native Bangaloreans, colonial food histories, and migrant citizens, many of whom built this city and influenced its corresponding cuisines. Food chronicles from oral histories, true-life stories, personal diaries, and notebooks will be sourced. The goal of the project would be to then collaborate with artists, filmmakers, and writers to put together 6 short films on food or recipes related to the city. The films can be a fictional or non-fictional film in nature with a large focus on the different communities of Bangalore and their rich food cultures, different personalities, and their own personal associations with food/recipes. The project encourages our selected artists and collaborators to use these films on food to also make commentary on certain pressing political and social issues facing these communities, especially in the city of Bangalore. The short films will be 5 to 7 mins in length and will be showcased during a public event featuring screenings of the films made, and artistic kitchen, an exhibition around cooking, and its appropriation in artistic practices and writing.

The film project aims to investigate the socio-political and cultural landscape through food and its effect on city behavior, tracking these changes, which resulted, in a fast-growing cosmopolitan metro city. We wish to investigate the claims, allegories, and tales of the city through its food and culinary evolution.

Over the years, the inhabitants of Bangalore have grown used to colloquial nomenclature and claims given to or about the city’s various identities. Such claims, stories, myths, urban legends, and oral narratives are ubiquitous among local histories and common know-how about the city.
We envision this project to be in the form of a film using references from the existing materials (found footages) as well as newly created images.

The narrative will be drawn not only from the city’s factual history but also from the myths, the claims, and other orally narrated stories that have been passed on through generations. These narratives are not to lay claim on any authentic dates or facts, but rather as a continuous narration of the city, emphasizing the discourse around these stories, food, and histories.

The keyword for the film project is – Cuisine of the city, Recipes of communities, caste, and religion. Through the stories of different aspects of recipes, we would like to map the idea of the present fast-growing city Bangalore looking at the anthology of the process and the city.

It’s Here Now by Umesh Maddanahalli

The Mythical Sachin Lasagna by Falah Faisal