Aesthetics of Silence in Indian and International Cinema

Abstract

While extensive research on film sound has undertaken the study of formal and informal structures of silence, the aesthetics of silence in film deserves greater exploration. This article pursues the origination and design of silence amid diverse contexts and varied forms, namely in the spectre of the acousmetre, the gesticulation of the mute character and in the discontinuities, ellipses and gaps that are characteristic of the European modernists. In the interrelation between cinema and modernism, the concept of silence is of critical consideration. Silence is fundamental to the emergence of histories, theories and practices of film sound. The aesthetics of silence enables the movement of the artist’s work beyond linguistic expression and linguistic consciousness towards an enlightened state of pure contemplation, wherein the perceiver indulges in self-forgetfulness. The use of suggestive emptiness through de-articulation positions the message at the fringes of language, meaning and clarity allowing a trans-linguistic, liberated interpretation and an enlightened conscious experience. Silence is evoked through a rhetoric effect, as it does not occur in its objective sense. The determination of silence comprises the form that composes it. It enriches character and narrative and bestows a spiritual quality of silence upon modern living. The aesthetics of silence is studied in Indian classical and avant-garde films and compared to trends in world cinema to assess how this methodology transcends linguistic consciousness and allows a studied interpretation that can be diverse, universal and unifying.