Sensation, affect and gestural: the cinematic objects in Mani Kaul's USKI ROTI

Deleuze's conceptual experimentation with affect necessitates a dynamic understanding of the body unmediated by culture or language. What he brings into question is the representational, nature- driven marking of sentiments, pinioning them to an inherent nature that is fixed. His proposal of affect being a sensation, which is connected with the fluidity of becoming ( rather than being or a form) is discernable quality that Mani Kaul’s USKI ROTI, a film on objects ( and not concepts); where the movements carve out sensations, tones, that are undifferentiated,  un defined and unprecedented. Mani Kaul divorces himself from the conventions of the narrative film making : non dramatic, non representational - emphasizing the duration and experiences. This is evident in Kaul’s filming style as well: “ What needs to be determined by the director and the cameraman is the act of making the shot: attention being that aspect of time that deeply colours the emergent feeling in a shot ” ( Mani Kaul). I propose to analyze this film within the larger framework of Kaul’s work and aesthetics which are influenced by the ‘perspectiveless’ Mughal miniature paintings, classical theories of Indian Aesthetics based on the non representational, non linguistic paradigms and most of all on Deleuze and Guattari’s formulations on sensation, affect and ecology of sensation. I will use film clips during my presentation.