Lights went off and in the next few minutes scenes of women floating tiny paper boats down river Mahanadi were projected on a white screen. This was a special screening of the documentary, ‘The Pride and Glory of Bali Yatra’ by filmmaker and photographer Sudip Sen at Mayfair Hotel as part of the three-day festival dedicated to the maritime links of India and Bali. The festival kicked off last Monday.
Starting off with the depiction of Baita Bandana, the film presents how women in Odisha mount wishes for the families on paper boats during the annual riverside ritual and watch them earnestly floating down the stream. The film progresses from scenes of river Mahanadi dotted with these paper boats, each containing lamps, to images from Bali. The documentary, thereafter, explores the impact of Indian tradition and culture on the lives of people in the far away island of Bali in Indonesia.
The film shows how temples dominate the Balinese landscape, like in Odisha. It has scenes of Balinese people offering their prayers to the deities in a similar manner as people in Odisha. Colourful and vibrant images of the Besakhi (the mother temple of Bali), Lakshmi temple at Bedugul (in Bali) and other temples at Uluwatu and Ubud form a major part of the film’s content.
“Like in Odisha, caves are sculpted into places of worship in Bali. Most of the temple walls have been engraved with similar images of Gods and Goddesses, including that of Lakshmi, Vishnu, Ganesha, Saraswati, among others. Devotees in Bali seek salvation in holy springs as in India. The traditional Balinese tapestry have been drawn from mythological epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata,” said the filmmaker. One of the scenes from the film shows a Balinese woman weaving Ikat fabrics, representing further similarities in the art and culture of both the lands. The film ends with the image of modern-day Paradip port
Bali for Indians
According to the Ministry of Tourism Indonesia, the inflow of Indian tourists to Bali has increased between 2013 and 2017. A data by the Ministry states that India ranks third in the list of countries from where tourists visit Bali every year. As many as 267,300 tourists from India visited Bali till September, this year. The officials of Indonesia’s Tourism Ministry claimed that Indians prefer Bali as a wedding destination, for spa and Yoga activities.
A multimedia project to link South Asia
The Bali Yatra festival is a part of an initiative by Resource India: Roots and Revelation in collaboration with The Embassy of The Republic of Indonesia in India and the country’s Ministry of Tourism. The project was initially flagged off during Bali Yatra in Cuttack in 2013 and then travelled to New Delhi, Kolkata and Bali. The project is driven by the glorious maritime history of India.