Before his next film, director Chaitanya Tamhane wants to read your mind

Much before Chaitanya Tamhane made it to global attention and acclaim with his debut feature Court (2014), he was studying magic.

The writer-director, who has often spoken about how magic has influenced his filmmaking, will be holding his maiden public mentalism show, ‘While I Still Can: Mindreading, Wonder and other Lost Causes’, on July 3 at Mumbai’s 3 Art House.

Currently developing his third feature film, with two-time Oscar-winner Alfonso Cuarón on board as a producer, Tamhane, who penned the script two years ago under the working title ‘Who Is Metcena’, says that pivoting to mentalism fulfills his need for “more autonomy”.

“Filmmaking takes a long time — raising funds, making the film, working with distributors and exhibitors. I felt the need for something more immediate and autonomous, where I could create and perform entirely on my own terms… Magic has been a significant part of my life for nearly 20 years, and now I’ve decided to share that publicly,” says the 39-year-old director.

Mentalism, he says, is magic of the mind. “This involves playing with attention, perception and, moreover, storytelling, while using techniques  from magic. Intuition and psychology are also involved in creating this experience. In mentalism, I am not manipulating objects, such as cards or ropes, as done in magic but connecting in real time with people. Like every artform, it depends on the intent of the  performer. There is nothing psychic or supernatural about it.”

Tamhane has been conducting mentalism sessions for people from different walks of life in private homes for the last four years. His public mentalism shows have been only abroad, such as in Italy and France, as part of artist line-ups. “Nobody knew me there, which was liberating,” says Tamhane.

Mentalism allows him to erase the traditional boundary with the audience, he says. “People enter as strangers and often leave feeling connected. Unlike conventional theatre, where there’s a clear divide between performer and audience, here people become participants.”

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There is another thing that excites him about it. “Magic and cinema”, Tamhane says, are both devoted to the specific emotion of “wonder”. “Both are forms of illusion. In cinema, we’re asking audiences to believe something they know isn’t literally true. We build a suspension of disbelief in the service of a deeper truth. Magic does the same thing.”

And more. “Cinema has a screen between the artist and the audience. In magic and mentalism, there’s no medium. It happens live, in a shared space,” he adds.

Tamhane first started holding private shows after the Covid pandemic. “I was quite drained after The Disciple. I had spent too much time isolated. This became a way of reconnecting with people… I would travel to magic conventions, gatherings where magicians exchange ideas, perform for one another, and discuss the craft deep into the night. I attended the Blackpool Magic Convention in the UK, as well as smaller, more intimate gatherings such as Troba’m in Spain…”

Tamhane also credits magic with being “an art form that has protected my sanity, kept me curious, and connected me to an incredible global community”.

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Tamhane got associated with Cuarón as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative during the filming of the latter’s Oscar-winning Roma (2018). In 2020, Cuarón was an executive producer on Tamhane’s second film, The Disciple which, like Court, received critical appreciation. Both premiered at the Venice International Film Festival.

Tamhane will hold his mentalism shows, each 70 minutes long, accommodating 15 attendees each, from July 3 to July 31. The tickets, priced at Rs 499 each, are already sold out.

The filmmaker says he hopes his shows help him read “the dreams, fears and absurdities of the time we live in”. “We’re living through a period of immense uncertainty. We don’t know who will end the world first – the billionaires or the fascists,” Tamhane says. Earlier, he has done mentalist shows for artists and people from the social sector, among others, usually in similar-sized groups of 12-15 each.

“I want my shows to be more than a display of skill. I want them to reflect on what it means to be human in the age of AI (Artificial Intelligence), existential dread, and increasingly fragile human connections,” he says.

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“I believe that the future is in the present and live events. There is a fatigue with the screen and consuming content. When I’m on stage, I am responding to people in real time… It fills me with adrenaline, excitement, and energy.”

In one of his earlier works, a 2008 play called Grey Elephants in Denmark that he wrote and directed, Tamhane had explored the journey of an illusionist and mentalist.

Now, in his third feature, Tamhane hopes to explore similar themes. “The film isn’t about magic or mentalism, but the sensibility and themes that draw me to those art forms have definitely found their way into the script,” he says.

Ultimately, Tamhane says, “magic is still storytelling”. “That’s what connects it to everything else I do.”