Institute History
Description
The nimble fingers of a pickpocket, the sweet smells of a street vendor’s food, a tour guide’s speech—their stories weave together to reveal a side of New Delhi life that exists on its wits. When Patru, the pickpocket, decides to take tourists on alternative walks and show them the city’s underbelly, we enter the subterranean consciousness of the city’s migrant population. Dreamscapes come to life and are richly explored through playful, layered visuals that blend magic, realism, and documentary to deliver a rare vision of street life.
As if by compulsion, director Anamika Haksar’s camera draws down to the streets of the old city before it floats over moonlit roof tops, focusing on the forgotten fringes where life thrives amid concrete and smog. Haksar’s unique storytelling vision is devoted to seeing the ancient city through the eyes of the working classes. Recordings from real-life street characters form the backbone of this tribute to a beautiful city, its culture, and the ghosts of its history. Within it, we start to understand what a city loses when its heart succumbs to progress.