The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Kala Mela, an enriching experience
By Ravi Bali

The Kala Mela of Shimla brought warmth of the chilling atmosphere of the hill town. The fair, inaugurated by Mr H.N. Kashyap, Municipal Commissioner, Shimla, was organised by Himachal Art Culture and Language Akademy.

The mela, which was held at YWCA and was the second since 1998, consisted of exclusive exhibits of reputed artists, including painters, cartoonists and photographers. The handicraft sector was also prominently displayed. Fifty artists from all over the state exhibited about 150 art objects.

The artists included renowned names like Om Sujanpuri, Anil Choudhary, Denny B. Singh, Jawahar Lal Sharma, H.C. Roy, Surjit Singh, and Sunita Walia. The other star attractions included the brother-sister duo — Him and Hema Chaterjee — and Ritu Arya, a deaf and dumb upcoming artist.

According to Parul Jhun-jhunwala, an art lover, who hails from Mumbai and visited the mela while holidaying in Shimla, said: “I have been coming to Shimla for the past two decades. It has grown haphazard and ugly. Coming across the Kala Mela was however a nice experience. It took me almost two hours to go around”. She was all praise for the Kangra miniature paintings and Anil Choudhary’s oil paintings titled, “Rocky Ooz” in which rocks were depicted along with cacti.

She, however, lamented that the space for the exhibits was less. It “looked suffocating” and gave the impression that the art exhibits could not breathe. “Moreover, I think there was lack of publicity also. Such fairs should be held in the open,” She opined Jagdish Sharma, secretary of the Akademy, however, said: “The weather of Shimla is unpredictable and such exhibitions cannot be held in the open”.

The exhibits of Himachal Emporium were elegant with exquisite craftsmanship. The “pullan” (footwear) made of woollen rope and priced at Rs 45 drew a lot of attention. Caps, socks and coats were also displayed. There were a variety of Himachal dolls representing various regions of the state, their costumes depicting their rich culture.

Om Sujanpuri exhibited about half a dozen of his paintings. The most appreciated piece was the painting of Lord Ganesha. The side face of Lord Ganesha in this painting and the earthern colour blend was a treat to the eyes.

The painting of Jawahar Lal Sharma depicting the Mani Mahesh Fair in which sun rays were shown falling on the corners of the hills on the day of the fair and people taking a holy dip in the river was a major attraction. Jawahar Lal has written many books on art and other subjects. He has the distinction of doing extensive research work on Mani Mahesh Temple.

Him and Hema Chaterjee were also the talk of the mela. They are children of Sanat Kumar Chaterjee, the world famous water colour and silk painter who has become popular on the national circuit for his special tribal heritage drawings. He also drew attention at the mela. His drawing titled “Chitterkool” looked very disciplined with black lines and the display of lighter shades displaying the feeling of freedom and joy.

Hema’s painting titled “In Search of Love” was also a masterpiece. The colour shades depicted a sandy evening.

Shilpi Dogra, who has done MA in geography and is now a student of fine arts and taking coaching from Sanat Kumar Chaterjee, has a unique style of painting. her painting of Goddess Saraswati was highly appreciated.

Danny B. Singh’s painting of flowers showed the flow of colours and depicted variety.

The works of Gitika depicting the Bhasoli Art Kangra miniature paintings showed refined craftsmanship.

The judges for the mela were Mr V.C. Ohri, a former Director of the Department of Language, Art and Culture, Himachal Pradesh, and museum curator of Shimla, Professor Chaudhary, Principal, Art College, Punjab, and Mr Vijay Sharma, a renowned artist of Himachal Pradesh.

According to Mr Ohri, the mela was a grand affair. However, he said, artists coming from remote areas of the state like Chamba and Kinnaur faced difficulties in carrying their exhibits to Shimla. He urged the state government and the Akademy to make nodal centres for the benefit of local artists so that they could exhibit their works.

	US festival features Mira Nair’s films By Niraj Trivedi A film festival in New York, described as the largest showcase for non-fiction films in the USA, features a retrospective on award-winning filmmaker of Indian origin, Mira Nair. Nair’s newest film, “The Laughing Club of India,” was among the 10 features and documentaries on South-Asian subjects screened at the 2000 Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival which began on November 3. Two documentaries, one chronicling the history of the prestigious Doon School in Dehra Dun, and the other on the healing powers of India’s laughter clubs, are also premiered at the event. In all, 90 films from 35 countries were screened in five theatres in New York over nine days during the festival, founded by the American Museum of Natural History in 1977 to honour anthropologist Margaret Mead. The festival each year receives more than 700 submissions, which are then reviewed by festival planners who create themes from the strongest submissions. In 1992, the festival wove video into its programming. Nearly half of the submissions now are in video format. Each screening is followed by a discussion with the director, and symposiums are held in conjunction with New York University’s Department of Anthropology. Among the works screened at this year’s festival were “Doon School Chronicles,” “Portraits: From Manipur and Mexico,” “Seven Hours to Burn,” and “Orchids of Manipur.” Films by Nair included “The Laughing Club of India,” “India Cabaret,” “Jama Masjid Street Journal,” “Children of Desired Sex,” “Salaam Bombay” and “So Far From India.” Nair’s “The Laughing Club of India,” is about what is described as a new alternative health trend. The 35-minute film follows people from all walks of life engaging in spontaneous, uninhibited laughter as a means of reducing stress. — IANS
	Rahman in a new avatar By ASC ZUBEIDAA (Sony): One perennial charge directed against A.R. Rahman’s film music, ever since he did ‘‘Roja’’ eight years ago, is that he takes recourse to frenzied instrumentation leaving little scope for lyrics. As if to prove his critics wrong, he has given an altogether different music in this album, which is a sea change from his trademark songs. In fact, he has rendered some tunes to noted auteur Shyam Benegal’s film, which are a fallback to the ’50s era, the period in which the story about a princely state is set. The entire album is full of slow, lilting tunes which are rarely heard in films these days. These are embellished with Javed Akhtar’s poetry. To make the experience all the more memorable, he has Lata Mangeshkar singing two of the songs. It is a formidable combination and the trio weaves pure magic. One is a ‘‘lori’’ number which seems set to stay with us for long. Even Kavita Krishnamurthy and Alka Yagnik work wonders under the maestro’s baton. The former’s Dheeme dheeme … is remarkable and so is Yagnik’s Mehndi hai rachne wali …. Rahman is known for giving a chance to singers who have little film playback experience. Here he offers the mike to Richa Sharma in the classical Chhodo mori baiyyan … AKS: LOOKING BACK; LOOKING AHEAD (Sony): You have to hand it to Lucky Ali. He is not over-eager to cash in on his success. So he does not rush to the market with new offerings easily. And two, he does not cut corners. The hard labour that he puts in reflects in the quality of his new songs. Each of the 10 songs he has presented here is carved out in detail. Music (his own) is well delineated. He is a lyricist himself, but does not mind sharing credit with others, to enhance the quality of his songs. For instance, the opening song, Tere mere saath …, has been penned by Aslam, Mehboob, Amol, Akki, Tanvir Shah, Mehboob (another Mehboob?), Sandesh, Aijaz and Arshi. Phew! You have guitars and flutes singing together. Most of it is refreshingly different. The only shortcoming is the use of the Ae aiyee o … tune made famous in ‘‘Kaho Na Pyar Hai.’’ The recording has been done in the UK, New Zealand and India. The quality shows. HEER (SMW Production): Waris Shah’s Heer is well known not only in Punjab, but all over the world, thanks to the respect shown to it by Bollywood film producers. But in the face of crass commercialisation, its shape has changed beyond recognition. But this album by a little known Delhi company, Sarthak Music World, presents the traditional music in an unalloyed form. The immortal ballad has been sung by Irene Parveen, Zakir Ali, Muneer Hussain, Inayat Hussain Bhat, Mohini Hamid, Sharif Gaznavi, Mumtaz Begum, Shaheen Akhter, Shaheen Mehboob, Tahira Syed, Batish, Reshma and Mehmood Ali Kadri. Pakistani singers present a study in contrast.
	The unmasked actor By Suparna Saraswati One hardly realises the price that any performing artist has to pay for excelling in his or her talent. Especially if it happens to be a theatre actor. The glitter and glamour lasting for a brief time often intoxicates the performer but leaves painful and harsh memories that haunt the actor much after ‘the show is over’. It is rarely that the actor and the individual get differentiated in the whirlpool of life’s situations as there is a transparent line separating the two. Where one ends and the other begins remains an unsolved mystery. Strangely, in an attempt of giving a convincing performance to an always expectant audience, the individual within the fold of an actor gets completely marginalised. What remains is a mere rating of how well the performer delivered and not what the actor went through for the applause. It might be unfair to console oneself with the philosophy that life is a compromise and it comes in certain packages for each one of us. The actor knowingly takes the plunge however much he might lament uncontrollably at the calculated risk he took for the sake of self-gratification and easy returns. Neelam Mansingh’s recent production ‘An unposted letter’ showcases an accurate juxtaposition that is dormant in an actor’s life. There is an ‘Amrita’ in every artist hence the stereotype image coupled with an undulating graph of an actor’s experiences is the subsequent outcome of his struggle. Be it a ‘Sardari Begum’ or an ‘Umrao Jaan’, the once celebrated performer gets shadowed in the dust of time.
	Breezes from far South By Amita Malik ONE can certainly give credit to Doordarshan for one thing: It keeps whatever good programmes it has as secret as possible. It is difficult enough to get its News Channel — I have mentioned earlier that not one of my colleagues or friends is able to watch it, either because they have not heard of it, the cable operator does not give the channel or its programmes are not published in the papers. Even for its other 24-hour channels, DD’s printed programmes stop at midnight. Which is perhaps why it is by sheer accident that I stumbled on to what seems to be an interesting new programmes at midnight while channel surfing over the US elections. Called South File, there were my colleagues, N. Ram and Sashi Kumar discussing the Veerappan episode in fascinating terms, followed by an in-depth insight into industry in the South and the programme of information technology in Kerala. And earlier, a real political romp with Cho. I have a special soft spot for Sashi as a media man because it was in 1975, when I was in then Madras on a UPSC board, selecting people for the IAS, IFS and allied services that I found young Sashi Kumar reading the news in English with verve on DD Madras and wrote him up. Soon he was in Delhi, reading the national news, then on to PTI TV, founder of Asianet and heaven knows what else. What a delight to find him back where he began, in the studios, assured, professional and giving the South the kind of airing it needs on North-orientated DD. Because next to the North-East, as that politically volatile and culturally challenging part of India is dubbed, the South also features mainly in DD’s disaster news and political news. Fortunately the South has come right into our TV rooms in Delhi with the 70-odd channels now available. And the one I find most rewarding is DD Malayalam. All the South Indian channels also give due space and respect to serious music, unlike the filmi-obsessed Hindi channels. On Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. I found out of this world a small orchestra, with typical South Indian instruments and percussion, such as my favourite the ghatam, in a brilliant recital which reminded me of the late Dr Narayana Menon’s national orchestra on AIR. I feel very inadequate being unfamiliar with South Indian languages, but visually and sound-wise, I find their channels fascinating, at times very amusing with all that blood and thunder on the Tamil channels and some very beautiful girl anchors. Zee News is perhaps the only channel which has attempted a political cartoon to end its Morning Zee programme. This is by Irfan and I watched it for two mornings. The trouble with it is that it flashes by too quickly to register and the lengthy written text is difficult to follow at such speed. I suggest it is taken is taken a little slowly and held long enough for one to read the captions. Incidentally, the music session that morning was repetitive and went on for far too long. It looked like padding. All sorts of unexpected programmes are coming on unlikely channels. SAB TV has a chat show anchored by Priya Tendulkar where she has shed the haute couture modern Ms image, she cultivated from week to week in her Star Plus chat show. Here she looks more like Priya Tendulkar, which is good enough. What is more, she is back to her Rajani persona, grilling a hapless official about Bombay’s water supply with the aid of a seasoned panel of Mumbaites such as Gerson da Cunha, looking as grim and threatening as he often does on the stage. P.S.I. found out, equally by accident, that the programme South File, which was so interesting, had been telecast earlier at 6 p.m. and then repeated at midnight. Perhaps it is time DD’s PR department issued a press note about such good programmes because the type of viewer which likes these programmes is unlikely to monitor DD’s programmes from morning till night to find announcements, if any, on DD itself.