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| ARTS TRIBUNE | Friday,
March 23, 2001, Chandigarh, India |
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In the footsteps of the master SIGHT &
SOUND AUDIOSCAN
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A salute to Bhakhle’s memory Doyens of Indian classical dance and music are set to enchant art lovers of Chandigarh at the 31st All-India Bhaskar Rao Nritya and Sangeet Sammelan being organised by Pracheen Kala Kendra from March 23 to 25 at Tagore Theatre in Sector 18. Among the eminent performing artistes who will perform at the show are Grammy award winner Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and his son Salil V.M. Bhatt, vocal jugalbandi Pt Ajay Chakrabarty and Kaushiki Chakrabarty, noted exponents of Kuchipudi Kaushalya Reddy and Padma Bhusan Raja Radha Reddy and Bharatnatyam dancer Saroja Vaidyanathan. The annual Sammelan is a salute to the memory of Maharishi Bhaskar Rao Bakhle, a giant amongst the finest exponents of classical music, who contributed so significantly to the enrichment of the cultural heritage of the country.Recognising his contribution to the field of music, the kendra decided to dedicate the annual festival of music and dance to him 28 years ago, and ever since has been organising every year a national-level concert of Indian dance and music. The sammelan this year which opens today with a vocal recital from Pandit Chakrabarty, one of the leading lights of Patiala Gharana. If Ajay has the privilege of consolidating the tradition set by his father, Pt Ajit Chakrabarty, it is only in the fitness of things that his daughter Kaushiki has followed the footsteps of the father. Kaushiki will present her first-ever vocal recital in Chandigarh on the opening day itself. On the second day of the sammelan on March 24, city audiences will have the chance to witness the Kuchipudi dance by three representative performers of this art form — Kaushalya Reddy, the rising star on India’s cultural horizon. Her performance would be followed by well-known husband wife duo Raja Radha Reddy, an incomparable pair of stylists who have given a new dimension to the age-old art of Kuchipudi dance. For the concluding day, the artists include winner Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt who has made his mark for his Mohan Veena in the international music circuit. His son Salil Bhatt who has also created a name for himself as an able heir, will also be performing during the concert. Well-known Bharatnatyam dancer Saroja Vaidyanathan is also scheduled to present her dance on the concluding day. Carrying forward the tradition of honouring artistes on the occasion, this year too, the kendra will honour a few eminent personalities from the fields of performing arts, literature, media and so on for their outstanding contributions. Giving this information to the media, the kendra Director M.L. Koser said the process of shortlisting names of artistes to be honoured was on and would be announced soon. The first two days of the sammelan is
scheduled to be held at Tagore Theatre in Chandigarh here while the
concluding day function will be held at Yavanika Open-Air Theatre in
Panchkula . |
In the footsteps of the master Organising workshops is now an integral part of teaching at the Government College of Art, Chandigarh. Professor and professionals have always differed on the form and content of art education. The effort should be to minimise the intensity of this dissent. Professors work within the ambit of the academics whereas professionals have no such hold bars. In order to have the best of both worlds it is imperative to have a regular interaction between the two. It is a step in the right direction. This is what distinguishes the Chandigarh College of Art from other institutions. The situation becomes all the more interesting when a professor after retirement turns into a professional. Kanwal Nain Kotra is one such professor/professional who was recently invited by the college for an interaction with the aspiring artists studying at the foundation level of their respective courses i.e. applied art, graphics (printmaking), painting and sculpture. The workshop focused on still life. A still life is a painting or drawing of an arrangement of objects such as flowers or fruits. Though it sounds very simple, yet it requires keen observation, skilful drawing and, above all, a creative imagination. The last one aspires you to look at objects with your own eyes, meaning thereby that no one else had seen it that way before. And to learn all this what better artist one could find than Kotra who has studied under great teachers like Nand Lal Bose, Ram Kinker Vaij, Benode Bihari Mukherjee and Nana Lal Bose’s son Visabh Bose and daughter Gauri Bose. This was when galaxies like Jaya Appasamy, Mrinalini Sarabhai, Sankho Chaudhary, K.G. Subramaniam, Dinkar Kaushik, Soma (who later married Benode Behari Mukherjee) and Nandita Kripalani (niece of Rabindranath Tagore) were his class mates. The workshop gave the young and aspiring artists a chance to work under the master. Gurpreet Dhiman feels it has strengthened her fundamentals. For Rajni Ajmera it has imbibed in her the spirit of discovering one’s own individuality through it. The creative presence of Kotra has instilled in her a new faith and hope of becoming an artist. Reena seems philosophical when she says Kotra’s workshop was like a candle in the dark that illuminates the room and makes the darkness go away. "We are like trees. We must create new leaves, new directions in order to grow," Pooja Jain observes. Others felt privileged and found the workshop highly gainful in setting the course of their artistic journey. On the other hand Kotra was quite
impressed by the keenness among the students. The understanding of
fundamentals, according to him, is a must. He, however, advised them
to consult the library. The reading habit would inculcate in them an
interest for analytical studies which in turn would bring in them the
clarity and dispel misconceptions about art. |
SIGHT &
SOUND In some ways, what followed on the media after the first stunning blow of the Tehelka tapes was even more intriguing. Everyone, from political parties to those mentioned in the tapes hurriedly started taking sides. And some were quite puzzling, like Karan Thapar not only feeding sympathetic questions to George Fernandes in BBC’s Hard Talk but even helping him out with his answers. The same tendency was seen in Thapar’s DD chat show with a young audience, Thapar himself doggedly following the same line with leading questions. So Fernandes cannot really complain about the media. He still has friends there. I found much more fair and balanced two other programmes on "Tehelka. Rajdeep Sardesai, in his Talking Heads on Star News with George Fernandes, asked some pretty sharp questions, based on solid research and certainly wore down even the old veteran debater without shouting or ranting. Fernandes looked very tired and characteristically dishevelled throughout as compared with his for once unrumpled kurta and neatly combed hair in Hard Talk with Thapar. One of the most stimulating programmes was We The People, this time anchored with maturity and no cross-talk by Barkha Dutt. If Jaya Jetley was at her most brazen and seductive best and put Aniruddha Bahel, minus false moustache and baby cap, a little on the defensive, Vinod Mehta paid a spirited and deserved tribute to the role of the media, and particularly Tehelka’s intrepid reporters and said what had to be said about the absurd motives, including political, being attributed to them. Defence experts in the audience, such as Air Chief Marshal Sareen and many concerned citizens who ably voiced the outraged feelings of the public, made this one of the most wide-ranging post-mortems on Tehelka. In Surya Prakash, Zee has found a solid unpretentious, reliable interviewer, rather on the lines of Prannoy Roy Guha Thakurta who did not get over-awed by Amartya Sen and once or twice put even the always-confident Arun Jaitley on the defensive by being deceptively under-stated. A pity that he spoilt both occasions by asking at the end, like a teenager on Channel V, let us know if you liked the programme. In the middle of all this, DD more than lived up to its continuing reputation as a sarkari channel. It missed out on the visuals of the Tehelka tapes, which were riveting stuff on all other channels and certainly top news, which is unforgivable on a TV channel. Just having discussions, and that quite often with non-critical people and giving prime and prolonged time to all the pro-government statements (which is fair enough provided you give the other point of view equal time) is only showing it up in a sorry light. One can be almost sure that DD has not always done it under pressure but chooses to be His Master’s Voice, as it always does, no matter which government is in power. I remember that when Indira Gandhi lost the elections after the Emergency, DD kept it a secret as long as it could and continued putting the Congress, no matter what its score, at the top of the scoreboard. Its reflexes are always predictable. For instance even when a new I and B Minister has been sworn in at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the cameras keep focused on the old one from long habit. Fleeting CEOs and DG’s from the IAS are not even aware of all this, naturally, otherwise they should surely instruct DD News and its more loyal than the king heads of news to at least try and be a little more discreet. I remember I once asked Rajiv Gandhi
about over-exposure on DD when PM..And he replied plaintively: "
What can I do? I have asked them not to do it. But they don’t listen
to me." Which just goes to prove that the only occasion when DD
dares defy a PM is when they want to give him publicity which even he
does not want. And when it comes to choosing between starring the PM
and the I and B Minister, when they both come in the news, it is
always the I and B Minister who wins. DD certainly has its priorities
worked out. |
AUDIOSCAN ALBELA (Tips): Govinda’s films are normally full of "tapori" songs. This one happens to be a pleasant exception. Here the majority comprises sweet, hummable love songs. Music director Jatin Lalit lay greatest stock by Pyar ka jadoo... done once to open the album by Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan and then presented in the instrumental form, but this may not be the one to make it to the hit parade. There are other dark horses that may pip it. Among the potential winners are Sar se sarak gayee teri chunri... (Alka Yagnik and Babul Supriyo) and Dil hamara hua hai kisi ka... by Alka Yagnik and Kumar Sanu. The latter is the only song penned by Rani Malik while all the others are by Sameer. Babul has given good account of himself in the other song he has rendered, Hai mere dil tu... with Alka Yagnik. It is not as if "ho-halla" songs have been kept totally off. There are two of them. One is Hato tum baju..., in which Sonu Nigam is decidedly off colour. Alka Yagnik, Kumar Sanu and Udit Narayan are more in the mood while doing Haiya ho kya masti.... DUUR (Magnasound): Strings is a Pakistani band which has been on the scene since it hit the big time with Sar kiye ye pahar.... It disbanded in 1992. Now it consists of two members out of the original four. They are Faisal Kapadia; the voice of Strings, and Bilal Maqsood, the brain behind it. Faisal is now working as a production manager and Bilal as the creative director in a leading production company. Rafiq Wazir Ali, the hip-hop techno oriented musician and Karim Bashir, the man with the rhythm in his fingers, have parted from the band. Lyrics have been penned by Anwar Maqsood (Bilal’s father) and Zehra Nigah. The title track is a love song, and the video was shot in a picturesque locale near Baluchistan, at Gwadar near the Pakistan-Iran border. They have also done an upgraded and rearranged version of Sar kiye yeh pahar. Faisal specialises in slow songs and music dominates. All songs have been sung by Faisal except Anjaane... and Khirkee... sung by Bilal Maqsood. Maqsood is the composer as well. Why did they opt for Magnasound, instead of going to any other label in some other part of the world? Replies Bilal: "There are two reasons. One is that India is a big market for our kind of music. If our album does well here, we have a chance of making it big in other regions. Secondly, Magnasound is basically a non-film music company, which understands the pop-rock market." The duo has been touring India to promote their album. The response has been good. MERE WATAN HINDUSTAN (Tips): There was a time when nearly every film had a patriotic song. No longer (shadow of constant scams?). Whatever the reasons, they are rarely heard in films these days. There are exceptions, though. And
these have been compiled in the album. The problem is that it is very
difficult to accept Dhuan dhuan.... from "Mission
Kashmir" as a patriotic song. And since when has the National
Anthem (Jana Gana Mana...) become a film song? |
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