BENGALURU: The city’s housing structure has an interesting mix of old Chettinad architecture, British architecture and quintessential local styles. But as modern architecture seeped into the city, there came a pattern of houses built with granite stones. The main men behind the idea are Shankar Kanade and Navnath Kanade. Teepoi Production’s latest documentary Kanade, is based on these architect brothers.
The Kanade brothers are the brains behind the architecture of some iconic landmarks like Jal Bhawan, Jal Vayu Vihar to name a few. Content and research director Karishma Rao says she had always heard of the Kanade architects. “Many of the mentors from the industry also guided us in the project. They told us to capture the Kanade wisdom in some way or the other because they were very instrumental in the buildings of the ’80s and ’90s,” says Rao, who, along with his team met Navnath Kanade for the first time at the Wadiyar Centre of Architecture, Mysuru in 2016.
In the architecture world, Kanade’s wisdom holds a significant role in the changing landscape of Bengaluru. “That was a time when there was the rise of the middle-class. The idea of abundance was not there. They were catering to the middle-class group, so they really wanted something economical. There were many who were open to it,” says Rao. Their works are considered as landmarks. “For example , Jal Vayu Vihar is one of the largest projects they worked on. That is an iconic project where they used the ‘chapadi’ style which they are known for,” adds Rao.
Although originally from Maharashtra, they realised that chapadi, popularly known as granite stone, is widely available locally. They even used it for the walls. “They used the material extensively till the chapadi itself became expensive,” says Rao. One of the other factors that makes their work exquisite is their use of corridors, along with a modular format.
The idea of documenting the lives of the Kanade brothers came from the team. “We are a small team of filmmakers and architects. We are constantly in search of stories which are about art and architecture. For us, it is important to interact with people for the subject matter of the film to become richer,” says Rao.
The 50-minute-long movie is currently being played in different architectural institutes and at private screenings as a case study. “Due to Covid, the screening of the movie got delayed. We didn’t want to release it in a hurry. So for one year, we are going to screen it privately till we send it to different film festivals,” says Rao, adding that those interested can get in touch with them for private screening.
For details, email kanadefilm@teepoi.com