BENGALURU: Ever wondered what a day in the life of a graffiti artist is like? Bengaluru-based filmmaker Karim Poocha’s latest short movie shows you just that and more. Titled Free World Order, the eight-minute film shows Chennai-based artist EPOC and his expeditions in Bengaluru, starting from the Metro station at Trinity to spots on MG Road.
The video, which premiered last week, merges the art forms of music and film-making, and aims to give an honest and raw insight into the life of a graffiti artist in India. The project was a spontaneous idea that came about when Poocha met Bengaluru-based musician Arshaq Malik and EPOC. “In the video, one can spot an artwork that’s easily visible if you take the Metro from Trinity to MG Road. I tagged along with EPOC to spots on MG Road where he painted graffiti art, all of which was captured in the video,” says Poocha, adding that the whole proceedings were shot in a day.
Risks are an inherent part of the job for a graffiti artist and Poocha was adamant on including these “lesser-known aspects” in the video.
“There are a lot of artists in the city who tag their name along with the art. Most of these artists have a professional job but this is a lesser known side. Luckily, we didn’t run into any trouble,” he says.The video, set to music by Malik, also acts as a viewer’s guide to this kind of street art, which one can find by hopping on the Metro from Trinity to MG Road. Malik’s music portrays various moods in the sonic aspects with the video having four breaks starting from elements of funk to rhythms on the heavier side, expressing the emotions that follow.
“We wanted to make it a documentary but with just music and without any dialogue,” says the musician, who worked with the footage he received to make the composition. “If you observe the second track, it has a lot of red and blue siren-like colours and if you see the ending, the shots are grainy. So the music was custom made according to each scenario,” he explains. Poocha and Malik have previously worked on the single You and Your Gods and have more projects in store together. Speaking about his experience collaborating with EPOC, Malik says, “He recently painted a whole building in Chennai. For an artist to travel across India and keep painting is insane. And for us to document that within Bengaluru was unique in its own sense.”