Poster Design for the film, ‘The Train Leaves At Four’.
This docu-fiction film, written and directed by Antariksh Jain was shot with a family belonging to the ‘Baiga’ tribe, living in remote Madhya Pradesh and has been selected for screenings at the 14th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF), 2016 and 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, 2015.
This film was made with the tribals as much as it was made on them. I had detailed conversations about their life, the making of the film and the director's insights before designing the poster. He shared many anecdotes about them – from the mundane housework, to the exciting hunting trips and village gossip. Subtly hidden in them were the essence, identity and the answer to what it means to be a tribal in modern India.
What seemed integral to their lives was a sense of change and movement – an unsettling alteration to their lives brought by the trampling wheels of urbanisation. Rollers that had been set into motion and were crushing their identity as they set out to achieve what modern societies consider progress.
*Tsk... Does the poster remind you of Matisse?!* :-)
