Synopsis

Yellow Meanderings is a documentary film on the town of Jaisalmer Rajasthan which has grown around travellers. First, the trade routes gave it a mythical status. Then as trade routes changed, the citizens fled the dying town. Finally the desolate town was discovered by a new breed of travellers - tourists. Its splendid monuments and architectural legacy become visible once again. The tourists are no longer a small privileged group of wealthy travellers, but a vast army of people travelling for pleasure in their ever increasing leisure time. The experience at Jaisalmer shows that an air of strangeness defines the transaction between tourists and residents.The effects of tourism on culture and values of the local population, especially in areas of heavy tourist inflow go much deeper. It is fast displacing all the other economic activity resulting in a precarious ‘single-crop’ economy. The film juxtaposes details of life in Jaisalmer with a broader perspective on how new attitudes are forming. How does the lived space - the old being redefined by the new, the historical space in the context of commercial hoardings and an overload of visual imagery - indicate the direction in which people’s lives will move? How does their interaction signify a fast changing environment and culture?

I was a tourist to Jaisalmer more than once. But my curiosity grew and I decided to make a film on the town as my diploma film at the National Institute of Design. Each time one went to Jaisalmer, the number of curio shops, hawkers, hotels and restaurants only increased in number. The yellow sandstone of the numerous havelis and houses slowly disappeared behind the shop exhibits and hoardings. One felt invited in Jaisalmer. There was an air of the exotic which lured the visitors. And the local people in Jaisalmer and those residing in nearby villages saw a new source of income in the harsh desert terrain. I realised how heavily the town depends on these visitors. While these new influences were transforming the social fabric; the crafts, the music, the new architecture, all seemed to be frozen in a certain notion of the past.

What seemed central to Jaisalmer was the fact of its economy being essentially based on tourism-"a single crop economy." The fort town stood not merely for a mythical past, but for a living present being continuously redefined by tourism. The people would also be no longer merely the resident Indian population, but on the other hand include the tourists as well.

Yellow Meanderings addresses the idea of leisure and tourism, which are fast becoming an increasing preoccupation of societies. Aspects of this are reflected in the manner in which tourists and local people interact. By and large the impression that one had of tourists was that of a large group of people from an alien culture ‘float past’, without being affected, in any significant manner, by the world they pass through. However the constant movement of these visitors seem to leave a strong mark on the landscape. It could be through the mere fact of the constant presence of tourists through the presence of certain sections of the local people who take on certain roles and through the architecture which seeks to camouflage behind old styles.

In short, in an economy centred almost completely around tourism, the idea of the ‘image’ starts becoming more and more important. Various activities surrounding tourism itself (and the idea of leisure) involves the consumption of the image - the camel safaris in the sand dunes, the imitative artifacts and the romantic dinners.

During the making of the film, I realised that while each aspect may have multifaceted sides to it, it was imperative that one forms a certain view about it, without necessarily being dogmatic. Being with a camera again brought on the issues of who was looking and who was being looked at. Some men and women refused to be "looked at", to be photographed; it was an intrusion of their privacy. A direct fallout of the tourism industry. There were a few who were a little more practical about it. They would pose for a small fee.

Finally, my efforts in the film were directed towards an interrogation which would raise certain questions, and provide a perspective about the changes taking place in a town such as Jaisalmer. As an activity tourism seems to be an inevitable phenomenon. But the constant conflict between promoting tourism and dealing with its after effects on the architecture and the local residents seems to find no solution here. A planned effort on part of government bodies and planners would make a world of difference.

We experienced the vulnerability of the situation when our shoot got delayed because of heavy rains. The result was sudden flooding of the town. It also brought down a part of the fort wall already endangered by inappropriate disposal of waste water due to the numerous hotels it houses.

Anab Jain, is a graduate in Film and Video Communication from the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, India. She studied Video Art and Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Her first documentary film at NID, Another Twilight, is about the increasing fascination with images which not only seems to characterise urban leisure spaces, but also the idea of leisure itself. This film was screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival for Short, Documentary and Animation films - 2000. Yellow Meanderings is her second film, her diploma film at NID. It was recently screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival - MIFF 2002.