Kahn’s Tiger City through the lens of Sundaram Tagore

We present to you a two-part series about the 2019 documentary film ‘Louis Kahn’s Tiger City, review done by Vineel Bhurke. The Part-One elucidates the life and times of Louis Kahn, and what went into making the personality and fine artist Kahn was. The film by Sundaram Tagore, a veteran Art historian, gallerist, and an award-winning filmmaker was screened at NGMA in Mumbai, earlier this month. The Part-Two of the article lists his contribution to the field of art and the architural marvels created by him not only in India, but across the globe. 

I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive screening of the 2019 documentary film ‘Louis Kahn’s Tiger City – The making of his magnum opus’ at the NGMA, Mumbai. This is a beautiful feature length documentary film made by Sundaram Tagore, a veteran Art historian, gallerist, and an award-winning filmmaker. A descendant of India’s beloved poet and Nobel Prize-winner Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Sundaram promotes East-West dialogue through his contributions to numerous art exhibitions as well as through his contemporary art galleries and their multicultural and multidisciplinary events. This film tells the story of globally acclaimed American Architect Louis Kahn – The man, his philosophy, and his professionalism. Tagore has made this film by following the footsteps of Kahn into one of his greatest creations – ‘Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban’ – the National Assembly building of Bangladesh, located at Dhaka’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagor, popularly known as the ‘Tiger City’. The screening was followed by a brief interactive session with Sundaram Tagore conducted by Nandini Somaya Sampat, Principal Architect at the SNK Consultants. The event was organized by ‘Avid Learning’ in association with the Kala Ghoda Association, National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai, and Ministry of Culture, Government of India. 

A brief biographical account of Louis Kahn

The film lets us explore a brief biographical account of Louis Kahn through personal recollections, memoirs, and historical references. Kahn was born in 1901 in the Baltic Russia (Now, Estonia). His family moved to America during his early childhood days which were spent in extreme poverty. The struggles formed his personality in many ways. During childhood days, he accidentally burned himself while handling coal which left permanent scars on his face and hands. Very early on at 16 yrs, he already knew he wanted to become an architect and studied architecture at Pennsylvania University. Kahn had the quality of absorbing the local culture and therefore his designs reflected his deeply sentimental nature. He was an idealist too.

As we get to know his various creations through the film, we tend to marvel at his deep philosophical thinking which went into his designs. Despite such qualities, he got his first professional recognition only after the age of 60. His first project outside of USA was at the IIM Ahmedabad campus in 1961 – which changed his life in many ways. What followed was a series of architectural marvels including Tiger City project in Bangladesh in 1962. Incidentally, Tiger City project went on for 12 long years until 1974 and proved to be his last project. Kahn was a professor of architecture at the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania from 1957 till his death in 1974. 

About the documentary – Contents, Techniques, and Impact

Sundaram Tagore had mentioned in an interview that he spent many years researching for this film; spent another two years scripting it and seven years in making the film. He has painstakingly traced back every possible location he could visit and every possible person he could interview. Each conversation that he has picturized throws light on not just the making of the magnanimous structure of Tiger City but also reveals the unique characteristics of the persona of Louis Kahn – as a professional, as a philosopher, as an artist, as a teacher, as a father and as a human being.

The film has been shot in 14 countries, spanning Estonia – the birthplace of Kahn to his many workplaces across the globe and to the Tiger city project in Bangladesh, and collecting important architectural references from India to Rome to Greece and parts of Europe and America. Tagore used drone in making this film. The film is cerebrally stimulating and captivates the audience throughout the length of the film. Kahn’s character appears as a real-life hero who speaks and lives his philosophy. 

Tagore’s uniquely engaging style of presentation

The film very skillfully brings out the core character of Kahn’s architecture, via an engaging exploratory journey, through his quotes and by bringing in references that describe his style of work. Throughout its length, the film keeps churning out facts about Kahn’s thought process and philosophy. Tagore has very cleverly woven the archival footage of Kahn and the freshly taken interviews. Kahn was also known for his one -liners like – 

“Every building must have its own soul.”

“Louis Kahn’s architecture is architecture of silence and space.”

“The occupants of Kahn’s buildings experience transition from silence to light, and light to silence”.

That’s how, every byte of each interview shades light on Kahn’s persona, his philosophy and his personal qualities.

How the story unfolds 

The story opens with a rather disturbing scene of Kahn’s death and thereafter starts unfolding backwards in a conversation. Tagore assumes the role of a facilitator for the audience while the audience gets the privilege of listening directly to the key persons and finding out the nuances of the architecture of the Tiger city through Tagore’s insightful conversations with them.

Debra Winger, American actress and friend of Sundaram Tagore becomes his partner in discovering the splendor of Tiger City. They together note the likeness of the light coming in from various openings of the building to the divine light permeating from the Greek Pantheon. Thereafter, Tagore takes us on an insiders’ tour to reveal some of Kahn’s charismatic design creations. He further takes us through the archival footage of Kahn where Kahn mentions how he used concrete and marble contrast to accentuate certain aspects of the historical influences in Bangladesh.

We get to hear from people’s leader Enayat Khan – a Freedom fighter of Bangladesh, who provides the historical account of the country prior to getting freedom. He mentions that Dhaka was the textile capital of the world, which got devastated during British rule, and is now being revived. He categorically mentions that the Parliament building of Bangladesh should be such that it should convey to the world, “Bangladesh has arrived!” Such impactful personal quotes make the viewing quite engaging.

Sajib Wazed, the grandson of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – the then President of Bangladesh narrates the situation during the making of the Tiger city. He tells that the first choice for this project was none other than the globally renowned architect Le Corbusier, but he refused as he was busy with building Chandigarh city. 

Lear Levin, acclaimed documentary maker mentions a heart wrenching incident he witnessed during the Bangladesh independence war. He narrates the horror of seeing a man who had lost his whole face in the war. One could imagine the courage and steadfastness of Kahn who continued building his Tiger city project even during the height of Bangladesh war, without knowing which government (East Pakistan or Bangladesh) would pay him his professional fees! He would simply state that when the new country would be born, they would need a new parliament and that’s what my job is! Such awe-inspiring incidents build Kahn’s persona to the grandeur befitting his architectural genius. 

Another Sundaram Tagore aphorism (Shall we say, Tagorism?) comes in at this point: “Every fairytale needs a castle and Kahn designed one for Bangladesh.” 

Landscape architect Harriet Pattison, who became Kahn’s life partner narrates that Kahn wrote to her about his first visit to India and Bangladesh. She mentions that in Kahn’s Parliament building design, there were 50 different forms of openings. This makes us wonder about the depth of Kahn’s vision while he researched and created multiple design possibilities for the structure.

Nathaniel Kahn, son of Louis Kahn and Harriet Pattison has shared his personal memoir too. “My father’s visits were the bright spots in my childhood.”, Nathaniel remembers. Kahn’s ongoing projects throughout the world and his teaching assignments always took the highest priority on his time. 

……..to be continued

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– Vineel Bhurke 

The author is a self-taught artist and student of Art.