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2025, Illuminated Storytelling
GULSHAN-E-ARMAAN
Gulshan-e-Armaan is the story of the Sufi saint, Shah Inayat Shaheed, of Thatta, Pakistan, I worked on this story as an Art Director, putting together and mapping this story in visuals. Shah Inayat was a farmer, a dreamer, and a revolutionary who emboldened farmers with the phrase 'Jo khede so khae' (He who sows shall eat). We brought it to life for the Ajab Gajab Bazaar in 2025 with seven large panels lit up bit by bit, following a wonderfully narrated audio story. To call it a light and sound show feels like an injustice, hence the term - illuminated storytelling.
It is a tale that encourages us to imagine different, beautiful worlds, or gardens that we cultivate with love. Even if these gardens are destroyed, the effort to cultivate a dream is victory enough for those who love. The team of Shabad Shaala certainly tended to this garden with great love and toil.
We are still devising ways to tell this story outside of the Bazaar. In the meanwhile, here are some glimpses:
Team: Shabnam Virmani (Concept, Writing, Narration), Alafiya Hasan (Art Direction) Kartikay Khetarpal (Writing, Narration), Shreeparna Mitra (Research), Shubhangi Bansal (Sound )
process
The storyboards mapped each moment of the audio narrative to a visual anchor in our storyboard sketches, working out the panel sequence and the geographical logic that lets the installation speak across its full width. This is where the story became a space.
We wanted children sitting down on mats to be able to experience all the rich details in the artwork and made both the blooming Gulshan (right) and the desolate farms (left) visually distinct since a lot of the audio story is a conversation between a suffering mother and her son who joins Shah Inayat. We mapped out which portions of the story would open when and spaced out these elements accordingly, keeping in mind that we only had two light facilitators who would need to move between the panels in time.
I kept the style and color scheme of this artwork saturated and distinctly outlined so that all elements would be clear and easy to read as when we changed the lighting. Tests were done with gateway sheets to see how colors and layered sheets would work.
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