Analogue Natives

Directed by Bernd Lützeler

With Mayur Kakde, Satish C Ajgaonkar, Swapnil B Sarnaik, Jaganath S Rangdhol and Kishore Rathod

This experimental documentary circulates around interviews with four veterans who worked all their lives in analogue (=celluloid) film laboratories and animation studios in Mumbai, and who all lost their businesses and jobs around 2012–14, when the Hindi film industry went through a drastic shift to digital production. They reflect on the loss of their craftsmanship, but also on the philosophies of their handmade film practice versus readymade digital solutions. While the film drifts into various related and unrelated scenarios, shot on the streets of Mumbai, we learn about the art of living and working under precarious conditions in India and survival strategies in one of the most crowded and commercial cities in the world. Finally everything results in a futile collage of nostalgia and memories, mashed up with the absurd aesthetics of AI slop. An expanded multi-genre documentary within the constraints of the so-called Masala Formula, popularly known from Indian cinema.