Tears of Dancing letters

Tears of dancing letters is a documentary film produced by Journey of a film. Calligraphy is an ancient art form of writing which came to India with Mughals. Calligraphers were among very influential people in kingdoms and given the very important work of writing biographies of kings along with miniature artists.

Time changed but this art form continued to exist, calligraphers were then decorating books by their unique strokes. Later, the printing technology took over this manual work of handwritten text books. Calligraphers were still important due to their marvelous expression of each stroke which no printing machine was able to do. Later on with the arrival of computers, many calligraphers were struggling to find a livelihood.

Many calligraphers remain witness to the glorious days of this art form. Decades later, the apathy towards calligraphy does not provide the slightest of motivation to keep crafting beautiful letters. The early signs emerged from within their own household when children refused to appreciate let alone learn the intricacies of the art. The advent of computers and graphic art served as another severe blow. And if that was not enough, calligraphy as a subject was dropped from various fine art colleges.

In current times there aren’t many patrons of this art but in all the invitations cards, pictures and books to which they lend their beautiful letters, the love of calligraphy keeps inspiring them to produce more art. This documentary is an attempt to sensitize people towards calligraphy and an effort to revive and preserve this rich tradition of writing.