Private Project

Rasakrida: Essence of Play (Work-in-Progress)

Rasakrida will be a film dedicated to sacred imagination, and meditation on Indian devotional culture. Currently in late postproduction, it awaits its final mix in Dolby Atmos.

Cinema is made of light. This film returns to that truth. Krishna is placed not on a manufactured stage but in nature — the original theater — where light moves freely. Every frame in slow motion becomes a meditation on how light moves through time.

Working with executive producer Godfrey Reggio, I moved beyond analytical cinema into pure appreciation. It is the difference between seeing someone truly at rest and seeing someone perform rest. Rasakrida seeks to be such a resting place — a refuge through direct experience.

The music will become the film’s voice. When I sought a recording by Amelia Cuni, I learned she had passed away. Her voice, ethereal and irreplaceable, will guide the visual journey alongside ambient work from Alio Die and Aglaia — three artists who make prayer in sound. Flute and vocals by Vasudev Chakerra carry a devotion meant directly for the picture and its audience. Into this soundscape, soft and earthbound at once, the film now welcomes its maha mantra — a chant to hold the frame’s light like an inner fire.

  • Param Pavel Tomanec
    Director
    Rasa Yatra, Gotipua Krida, Sangama
  • Param Tomanec
    Writer
  • Neeraj Kapoor
    Producer
  • Nagesh Chhabria
    Producer
  • Pavel Koran
    Producer
  • Godfrey Reggio
    Producer
    Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqatsi, Naqoyqatsi, Visitors, Once within a Time
  • Manju Elangbam
    Key Cast
    "Krishna"
  • Sarju Lamabam
    Key Cast
  • Princy Kshetramanyum
    Key Cast
    "Radha"
  • Hemlata Khuman
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short, Other
  • Genres:
    Romance, Dance, Meditation
  • Runtime:
    27 minutes 27 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 15, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    120,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    India, Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Param Pavel Tomanec

Rasa Yatra
Gotipua Krida
Sangama
Rasakrida (forthcoming)
Prakasha (forthcoming)

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

RASAKRIDA is a twenty-year devotion to the act of seeing and hearing.

Working with Godfrey Reggio, I understood something I couldn't have been told: there is a difference between a person at rest and a person performing rest. You feel it immediately. The whole project became an attempt to find that quality in cinema — not to demonstrate stillness, but to actually be still.

The music arrived the same way. When I wrote to Amelia Cuni asking to use her recording, I learned she had died. What began as a rights request became something else entirely. Her voice is in the film now as presence — alongside ambient works by Alio Die and Aglaia. Vasudev Chakerra's vocals and flute carry a South Indian devotional current that runs in transition. Crystal bowls and healing instruments by Naida, a nomadic Italian sound healer, breathe through the remaining frames. I didn't compose this soundtrack. I found it. The editing is slow. Light changes.

I made Rasakrida for people who are dying, or who know they will, which is everyone, though most of us forget. I would like it to be the kind of film that, when the moment comes, helps them leave without looking back.