When Mohanty bought a professional video camera, he thought that he could bring his emotional word and video closer together by always having his camera with him. The video 'Home' is the first result of this. 'Home' is in Calcutta but, apart from one night view of the streets, we get to see nothing of the city. We are made none the wiser by the interior shots of Mohanty's house either, for, because of the limitations of the frame and the (partly) out of focus, close up shots, they are often made abstract. The sounds actually provide the most information; out of shot we can hear a floor being swept, a child playing, cutlery clinking on a plate. But all these things emphasize the deafening silence of the house. A woman's face completely fills the screen and resignedly stares forwards for three minutes. The contrast with the streets sounds that sometimes drift in unexpectedly, is great: it is teeming with life there. The oppressive atmosphere makes you wonder what is going on. Is Mohanty perhaps lying confined to bed, ill, unable to get up, but for the rest clear enough to study from boredom the smallest details? The open window and the birds flying by look so attractive. Or is the oppression the result of a quarrel, so that they no longer speak to each other and both are waiting for something to break through their solid entrenchment? The very loud, violent noises of plates and dishes in the washing up sound liberating.
– Lies Holtrop
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Sound Vikram Joglekar, D. Wood, Mohamdas, Editing Amitabh Chakraborty, Thanks to Kuntal & Nita Bhogilal, B. Kailasam, Mahmooda & Munir Mohanty, Sudarshan Shetty
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