Events in a Cloud Chamber

Akbar Padamsee is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of modern Indian painting. The influential critic André Breton recognized the quality of his work early on, and introduced him to Paris in 1948. Today his paintings appear in historical reference works and sell at auction for millions. It is less well-known that in the 1960s, Padamsee also made two abstract animation films accompanied by a soundscape. Audiences were obviously not ready for the films, and were dismissive of the works. The most extreme of the two, Events in a Cloud Chamber, was lost after Padamsee lent out his only copy. Half a century later, Ashim Ahluwalia attempts to reconstruct this first step in Indian experimental film. Padamsee himself, now nearly 90 years old, tells the story, and archive footage alternates with footage from Syzygy, the film that did survive. These outlines form an impressionistic sketch of the lost work – and of the mind that produced it.