Art that articulates ecology
By Suraj Saraf
RAMNAGAR, a hill town and headquarters of the eponymous tehsil in Jammu province, has an artist sui generis who despite his 60 plus years has developed an eco-promotive art the echoes of which are reverberating not only in the hilly surroundings in the Jammu region but also in several other parts of the country where he is often invited to participate in crafts exhibitions.

A comedy par excellence
By Kanwar Yogendra
THE British Council, to celebrate 50 years in India, presented a play, “Let the Donkey Go” at Shimla’s historic Gaiety Theatre recently. The play presented by three actors, David Sant, John Nicholson and Javier Marzan of Peepolykus Theatre Company of Britain was a comedy par excellence.

Audioscan by ASC

• THE WAY WE DO IT
• LOLLIPOP
• NAINA

Art that articulates ecology
By Suraj Saraf

RAMNAGAR, a hill town and headquarters of the eponymous tehsil in Jammu province, has an artist sui generis who despite his 60 plus years has developed an eco-promotive art the echoes of which are reverberating not only in the hilly surroundings in the Jammu region but also in several other parts of the country where he is often invited to participate in crafts exhibitions.

The creations by this artist, Chetan Dhiman, speak volumes for his innovative inclinations and instantly rivet any viewer’s attention with artistic sensibilities and their novelty and curiosity value.

Since Chetan is inveterate ecology conscious, his artistic creativity has an aura of deep involvement with the whole life on earth, be it flora or fauna and he spares no efforts to inspire humans to take interest in learning about and protecting them.

His studio is just a room in his small house that he had devotedly reserved for his art opuses and for training the “unemployed” children in the area to enable them to earn their wherewithal.

His “studio” is littered with consummately done realistic forms of animals, wild or auatic, birds, plants, flowers et al. It is a mini zoo-cum-aquarium-cum-aviary plus an exotic garden.

Two features need be highlighted about Chetan’s exhilarating work. Firstly, all material used in his works is junk i.e waste timber scantlings scattered here and there in jungles (it may be mentioned here that Ramnagar has lush forests on hills as its backdrop).

He is virtually a rag-picker and any piece of wire, wood, cloth, paper threads etc that he comes across on roads he picks up and it becomes grist to his mill turning them into scintillating shapes. Above all, however, the core of his oeuvres is the pine cones the removal of which is essential to save the forests from serious fire hazard.

Secondly, use of this scrap or found material considerably reduces the cost of the resulting objets d’ art by his ingenious mind and deft hands. The things that he has to purchase from the market are some colours, most of which also he procures from vegetables and stones, and some glue to stick the pine cone segments on flat wood pieces.

With these scrap materials for which he has developed a genuine feeling, and dealing with which liberates not only artistic impulses within him but also carries him to innovative heights, he creates his wonder world of flora and fauna that his improvised unpretentious studio undoubtedly has become.

Another factor noteworthy about Chetan is that he is studiously engaged in spreading his love of nature and ecology to all those who come in contact with him whether as his customers or curious visitors or disciples to imbibe his unique art impulses.

He explains that while training the local unemployed lads and women in producing the jungle forms and shapes, he also tells them interesting facts about them (he is also a voluble raconteur and has an unending store of anecdotes, parables etc to interest any listener. Little wonder that he is frequently engaged by different organisations, especially for social causes, as a crowd-puller) and their significance for human existence. He is also a member of ICELA (J&K Chapter of Indian Council for Enviro Legal Action).

Chetan’s penchant for evolving new methods to train his wards, came to him from his life-long career as a teacher during which time he had earned name and fame for education “through environmental toys”. For a number of years he remained deputed with the J&K Education Secretariat “to prepare vocational syllabus and guidance work”.

He is a firm believer that it is only through technical education and by learning different skills that the problem of educated unemployment can be solved. Says he, “Education is the full development of innate powers of an individual. Education that pays full attention towards each individual for his betterment based on his interest and make him self-reliant, is the dire need of the hour. Hollow degrees won’t take the nation towards any worthwhile goal and the unemployment ogre will undo it.”

Besides being invited to participate in handicrafts exhibitions from different parts of the country, many educational institutions off and on invite Chetan to impress upon young students the usefulness and importance of his skills in their future lives.

He has also good expertise in music and yoga which too, he employs in impressing the young minds. He keeps on writing to various education bodies about his ideas on vocationalisation of education. He had retired from the J&K Education Department in 1994.

About a decade back, while still in service in the J&K Education Department, he was invited by the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) “to give a demonstration of his teaching aids with simple materials.”

Later, in a certificate to him, NIEPA said, “He visited this institute at our request and gave a demonstration of teaching aids prepared with simple materials... each creation is purpose-oriented, simple and very appealing. Children derive immense pleasure and inspiration and very actively involve themselves in preparation of these very aids. They are relevant and local based, thus enriching the teaching-learning process. The cost factor is minimal. We are very impressed by his demonstration and the effectiveness of these aids.”

After retirement from service and settling in his home-town of Ramnagar, about 105 km from the capital city of Jammu, he graduated from simple educational toys to creating innovative art oeuvres. To meet the demands of his work for creating some novel effects like a garden in a bottle, he had to evolve distinctive and painstaking ingenious techniques.

A comedy par excellence
By Kanwar Yogendra

THE British Council, to celebrate 50 years in India, presented a play, “Let the Donkey Go” at Shimla’s historic Gaiety Theatre recently. The play presented by three actors, David Sant, John Nicholson and Javier Marzan of Peepolykus Theatre Company of Britain was a comedy par excellence.

They are “utterly mad, utterly original and utterly hilarious”, writes the British Press. “We have never seen such a play”, was the comment made by most of the theatre lovers in Shimla and even elsewhere in the country. “It was entirely different from what we expected”, they said.

The two shows in Shimla was their final performance in India on this tour. Before that they had travelled and presented shows in six other Indian cities — Goa, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Bhubaneswar and Delhi.

The trio left the audience shaking with laughter right from the word start. People were seen splitting their sides and tumbling from their seats. The uncontrollable chucking and guffawing went for more than an hour without a minute’s pause. Viewers of all ages were seen totally engrossed and concentrating so much so as not to miss a single line of action or dialogue by the actors. Any prompting or reaction from the crowd during the show was jestfully accepted on the stage and was made a part of the act displaying the height of wit.

“Imagi-native insanity”, as even the name of play indicates, is the specialisation of the trio who have gathered from three different parts of the world, it appears. They would use Spanish, English, French and even Hindi in between to the surprise of one and all. “Sun, suna”, “Kya bolti tu”... are some of the words used at appropriate moments to regale the audience to an unending hilarity. The insanity of idea touches the ultimate of madness and frenzy, but within the framework of theatre and completeness of art.

There is no special plot nor a lengthy script, but the Peepolykus actor’s abstract thought and imagination becomes so concrete and real in the end that it looks ideal and absolute. With minimum fixtures and simple settings on the stage, with apt insights in using cornflakes and biscuits, so much with so little is depicted that it touches the apex of imagination and creativity.

The facial expressions and verbalisations by John, fascinating narration and portrayals by David and physical gesticulations by Marzan in particular time and space, touches all-time heights of originality in theatre staging, situational and farcical comedy.

It was such a lavish and open entertainment to the art-loving gentry of Shimla which had never been enjoyed or experienced before. It should have been in bigger auditorium like the one in the university instead of the small theatre on The Mall where the entry was restricted and only a chosen few were invited.

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The way they do it!

THE WAY WE DO IT (SONY MUSIC; Rs 65): The way everybody is jumping on to the Hindi-pop bandwagon, the carrier is becoming very crowded. The problem is that most of the singers either copy Western pop unabashedly or present their own stuff in a highly undistinguished fashion. In this herd, one group that holds its own is that of Colonial Cousins comprising Hariharan and Leslie Lewis or Lezz as he is affectionately called. They mix Indian classical with pure Western to come up with excellent results. What should it be called? The singers themselves do not know.

It was in 1992 that they formed a band. Two years later, they had a name and a recording contract. That is when they had received a fax from Warner Bros., which read: Beautiful music, extremely well produced but what is it? The question is still unanswered, although they have had the honour of becoming the first Asians to perform on MTV Unplugged, besides winning the MTV Viewers’ Choice Award., Channel V Awards, and Billboards Award.

Two years later, they are back, with even more vocal fusion. The Indian-ness of the music is more pronounced than ever before. Jaa re jaa bhanwra… could very well be an Indian song but for the Lezz lyrics and Andy Whitmore programming. The “alaap” of Hariharan dovetails excellently with the “Western” instrumentation of Lewis. It is not possible to mark out any one or two songs out of the 12 for special mention because each of them is unique in a particular way, using techno, blues, rock and folk beats. They have merged different art forms like ghazals, classical, Rabindra sangeet and pop.

An interesting sidelight is that Birju Maharaj and mandolin virtuoso U. Srinivas stepped out of their classical worlds to join with Hari and Lezz on this “pop” album. The duo also give credit to Javed Akhtar for creating “poetic images” of their songs. Javed has been credited with the lyrics of one song, Dekhoon main jahaan… while all others are by Lezz.

Music of their third album — their first with Sony Music — of course is by Hariharan and Lezz. Recording done mostly in the USA is excellent.

NAINA (Virginia Voice; Rs 50): Guitar cries out. Drums create a ruckus. And then the song comes in smooth and clear: Mai kya janoo kya jadoo hai in do matwale nainon mein …. No, that is not K.L. Saigal at all, but Sudesh Bhosle “paying a tribute” to the immortal singer.

Remix is now the done thing. Even Asha Bhosle says this is the only way to bring the old songs to young people. If you can bear it, the attempt by the man who has so far been known for copying the voice of Amitabh Bachchan and others has not done such a bad job on Saigal. It is just that the style of singing of Saigal is such that anybody trying to do the same thing sounds rather comic.

Music has been arranged by Kishore Sharma in a professional manner.

Twelve songs are included in the cassette. These are Mai kya janoo kya jadoo hai ... (“Zindagi”), Gham diye mustaquil … (“Shahjehan), Kya humne bigada tha … (“Bhanwara”), Ae quatib-e-taqdeer … (“My Sister”), Kaheko rar machai … (“Lagan), Diya jalao …(Tansen) and Ek bangla bane nyara … (“President”), Jab dil hi toot gaya … (“Shahjehan), Diya jisne dil … (“Bhanwara”), Karun kya aas niraas bhayee … (“Dushman), Do naina matware … (“My Sister”) and So ja rajkumari so ja … (“Zindagi”).

LOLLIPOP (Magnasound; Rs 60): Magnasound people are becoming quite adept in marketing non-film cassettes. This one does not boast of either outstanding singing or music but seems destined to have a fairly decent run thanks to concerted marketing and its inherent simplicity.

Tanzania-born Bina Mistry was a manager in a merchant bank when the music bug made her chuck her job. She dabbled in radio and television announcing. Then she came into music shows herself. She teamed up with Bali Brahmbhatt for a number of years and they cut their first album, “Cha Party” in London which was one of the first remixes to come into the marketed. Her first track, Hot hot hot … was a big hit. So was the Dhola from the album “A Reason to Smile”. That success has encouraged her to present her first Hindi album, “Lollipop”.

Lucky mascot Dhola ... is included here as well. Title song Lollipop ... is foot-tapping with simple, straight-forward lyrics. Rootho na …is a Hindi rendition of a John Lennon hit, “Imagine”. Hungama is Hindification of Macarena ... while “I should be so lucky” has become Tum ho.

She has collaborated with Preet Nihal and Gulshan ul Amin in writing the lyrics. Music has been credited to India Beat Corporation.