5:30 mins, b&w, silent
Source : NAFC, film no. AS-89.2.3.
This film forms part of the Ananda Coomaraswamy Film Collection at the NAFC. However, although there is an opening title, there is no specific preliminary title indicating that Coomaraswamy was responsible for the cinematography, as there is in a number of his other films.
This film documents the gathering of large crowds of Muslim pilgrims for a holi spring festival near the city of Mathura, in Uttar Pradesh, in northern India. It includes a range of shots of people arriving, of ferris wheels operated manually, of a man playing a large drum, of dancing.
In contrast to the performances in Coomaraswamy’s formal dance films, this is an event that was clearly happening under its own impetus and the filmmaker was not able to control it. Perhaps for this reason, the camerawork is even less accomplished than in these other films.