‘Yeh Jo Chilman Hai, Dushman Hai Humari’: When The Curtain Draws You In But Keeps You Away

Chilman is Urdu for a screen, a curtain, that which conceals even as it promises to reveal. This simple thing, in all its sheer, clean, white mulmul glory has always been a fascination for me; curtains stretched across enormous glass windows and doors, swaying just a little in the wind can be such a tease!

This obsession started when I was living in Hyderabad and came across some very alluring curtains in the huge, isolated havelis of the Hyderabadi Nawabs. I was intrigued and hooked. What lay beyond these translucent expanses of cotton? What was it that the chilman masked despite promising to be see-through? What if someone inside the room was naked and playing a game of now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t with a viewer on the outside who was going crazy to know the answer?

I am that viewer. I am that voyeur.

Bio: Two Much Productions is owned by Inderjit Nagi & Syed Ali Arif, both artists, designers and photographers. Just as Inderjit likes to be behind the camera, Arif enjoys being in the front. Hailing from Nashik and Hyderabad respectively, both of them have been living together in Mumbai since 2007 on a journey of love, travel and art. They are always looking for people who are comfortable in their skin and have no inhibitions to show what they got.

 

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