This ambiguity in the message is deliberate and something Pinckers has developed through his use of colour and still lifes. “It’s difficult on a visual level to know what is actual documentary and what is created or staged by me. So I chose the shots of the Love Commandos to be in the blue space of the Delhi headquarters. On top of that there’s the religious, the romantic and the escaping aspect of the story. But it’s important that the viewer is able to see what is the Love Commandos and what is not.’
To this end, Pinckers has added more abstract images – a picture of spilt milk references the Bollywood use of milk to symbolise sexual climax; watch Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr frolicking in the waves in From Here To Eternity and you find exactly the same thing.
“Including more abstract images such as spilt milk as a suggestion of a spicy scene gives the viewer space to see that there is a lot more than just a depiction of facts,” says Pinckers. “It’s good to leave room for interpretation and for the viewer to know that the story is going somewhere.”
