Don’t ‘see’ music, listen to it: Bhatt
VIDEO music, the current craze among youth today, is spoiling the Indian culture by turning the “divine experience” into a “circus”, says international Grammy award-winner Padamshri Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

Harpal Tiwana died on May 19
Punjabi theatre loses a star
Pritam Saini

WITH the death of Harpal Tiwana, Punjab has lost a bright star in its theatre and film firmament. Born in 1935, Harpal was the son of the late Jagir Singh Tiwana, the famous hockey player of Punjab, who was also a distinguished police officer of Patiala state and a poet of the Urdu language. Harpal was studying in MA (English) at Government College, Ludhiana, when he got admission to the National School of Drama, Delhi. He was the first Punjabi student to join this course scholarship from the Punjab Government of late Partap Singh Kairon.

There he learnt the art of acting and directing under the guidance of E.Alkazi, world renowned teacher of drama. Like his teacher, Harpal too earned fame by staging plays in many states of India and in foreign countries like Canada, Russia, America, England, Lebanon, Kuwait, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria, Iraq, Syria and Jordan. Apart from social plays, he staged dramas related to the Sikh history, like Dr Harcharan Singh’s “Hind di Chadar” and “Chamkaur di Garhi” etc.

He produced and directed some Punjabi films. Among them, “Laung da Lishkara” and “Diva Bale Saari Raat” were very successful. “Laung...” was also written by him. This film, free from the vulgarity generally ascribed to Punjabi films, proved to be a box-office hit. It ran for 24 weeks and 25 weeks at Amritsar and Ludhiana, respectively. It was also shown to Indian and French film-goers with sub-titles in Hindi and French. Its cast included Raj Babbar, Om Puri, Mehar Mittal, Nina Tiwana, Nirmal Rishi, Gurdas Maan, Harpreet Deol, Sukhvinder Sohi and introduced Harpal Tiwana’s son Manpal and daughter Luna.

“Diva Bale Saari Raat” depicted the social problem of a Muslim family. Its cast included Girja Shankar, Preeti Sapru, Nina Tiwana, Nirmal Rishi, Mehar Mittal and Harpal Tiwana himself.

In film-making, Harpal was influenced by D.W. Griffith and Elia Kazan.

“Sanjhi Diwar” is Harpal’s first Hindi telefilm based on Santokh Singh Dheer’s famous Punjabi short story “Sanjhi Kandh”. Harpal Tiwana played the lead role of an elder brother in it. Dealing with a family feud, the film depicts the rural life in Punjab in its various aspects. It was telecast on the National Programme of Delhi Doordarshan.

Another job that Harpal took upon himself was to teach the new generations the techniques of drama and film. For this purpose, he had turned his residence (Jagir Estate) into a vast play-house and film studio equipped with the necessary apparatus. He taught his pupils stage and screen acting, direction and script writing. His wife Nina Tiwana assisted him in all this. His fondness for Punjabi culture is revealed to his visitors at home. His ‘play-house’ is not decorated with modern and sophisticated paraphernalia but with relics of an old Punjabi village life, like a cartwheel and churning pot etc. In this field, he was influenced by Dr M.S. Randhawa.

The list of his pupils is very long. It includes stalwarts of the Indian film screen Raj Babbar, Om Puri and Girja Shankar along with Desh Gautam, Nirmal Rishi, Sukhvinder Sohi, Mahindra Sandhu, Deepak Seth, Sailesh Prabhakar, Kuldeep Singh, Gurdeep Chauhan and many others.

He was very busy during his last days. After having staged the popular play “Ik Akkh, Ik Nazar” (related to Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s life and exploits) not only in his native land but also in England, Canada and America, he was turning the same into a movie now. The play is written by Kartar Singh Duggal, sponsored by the Department of Cultural Affairs Punjab and staged by Harpal Tiwana’s Punjabi Folk Theatre International (Regd). It was in connection with the shooting of this movie that he visited Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, and was involved in the fatal accident on the Jwalamukhi-Hoshiarpur road on May 19, 2002. He died at the spot along with an actress, Harpreet Kaur. His other two male companions sustained serious injuries.

His family, fans, pupils and the film and drama-loving public will miss this ever-smiling and dynamic personality. He had a discerning eye, high-pitched voice, heart of gold and zeal for living a happy and useful life.

He was awarded the title of Shiromani Film and Theatre Artiste by the Language Department, Punjab, and then became a member of its Advisory Committee.

He propagated the message of love, sympathy and unity in the world torn by hate, violence and sectarian trends.

Don’t ‘see’ music, listen to it: Bhatt

VIDEO music, the current craze among youth today, is spoiling the Indian culture by turning the “divine experience” into a “circus”, says international Grammy award-winner Padamshri Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

The video music, flooding satellite TV channels, is forcing audience to “see music” instead of listening to it, Bhatt, who was recently conferred the Padamshri, told reporters here recently.

Even the official media — Doordarshan — relegates the programmes on classical music to midnight slot, he said.

However, the world-famous Mohan Veena player felt that the current era was the “golden period” of Indian classical music and the artistes had never had such a good time. “They now have money and recognition”, he added.

The myth that classical music is only for classes has been exploded and musicians are now discovering huge audiences all over the country.

However, he added that Indian music was not only for entertainment. It is to “experience the divine” and is akin to going in a trance and offering prayers to the Almighty, he said. PTI

SIGHT & SOUND
Naseeruddin Shah: actor and gentleman
Amita Malik

AS the war clouds hover over us and politicians, defence analysts, political correspondents, not to forget Vajpayee and Musharraf, dominate the small screens, ordinary people, who are non-political but the ultimate sufferers and losers from war, are trying desperately to keep normal, mourning the cancellation of the ODI’s in the West Indies, wondering at the unending gush of Simi Garewal, losing count of how many panelists and retired generals, politicians and journalists have featured within minutes on the same sort of talk shows by Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt. But as I have said before, even in the midst of extreme gloom on the small screens we stumble on to programmes that lift the heart and soothe the senses.

I have so far watched three editions of “Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai”, featuring Shah Rukh Khan, Karisma Kapoor and last week Naseeruddin Shah and found them most enjoyable. Its one jarring note, in an otherwise perfect production, is a female sub-anchor whose purpose seems a complete puzzle to me. She simply name-drops, flashes her teeth, speaks in an artificial voice which comes from the throat when it should come from lower down and flaunts fancy dresses when everyone else in the programme is relaxed, natural and poised. There could not be a more self-sufficient, elegant and assured anchor than Faroque Sheikh, which is why the female side-kick seems so redundant.

The edition with Naseeruddin Shah last week was just fabulous. As Faroque Sheikh said so aptly, Naseeruddin is not only a great actor but also a great human being. This came out amply in his modest and warm response to all those who took part in the programme to pay their tributes. No one was missing. His school teacher Father Frederic came from Australia; his old teacher E. Alkazy came in from Dubai; Om Puri spoke from abroad; Meera Nair came and gave him a huge hug; Gulzar, Shabana Azmi, Deepti Naval, Naseeruddin’s entire charming family — one simply lost count after a time. The programme genuinely springs surprises which leads to tremendous spontaneity and at one point, when viewing a touching excerpt from “Monsoon Wedding”, there were tears in Naseeruddin’s eyes. A moving and well-deserved tribute to a fine actor and a great human being.

When, a few months before he died, I interviewed Dr John Grierson, the father of documentary, he remarked that India has the most beautiful and the most intelligent children, but no one in the Indian cinema, except Satyajit Ray, has made proper use of them on the screen. I think same applies to the television. Week after week, I switch off in disgust as I watch them performing filmy songs and dances, some ties with offensive adult movements of the sexy king. But I find even worse the quiz programmes for little children the sole purpose of which seems to be make fools of children so that the audience can laugh their heads off. Even (Uncle) Anupam Kher, whom I know to be a very sensitive human being, adopts a very patronising attitude to the children, making them look funny so that the audience dissolves in laughter. I saw the worst programme of the kind in “Bol Baby Bol” on Sony, which was sort of quiz programme for children of six, with three adults choosing the ones to answer questions. Please note the question put by a very fat uncle, whose judgement was certainly open to question. He seemed to have an obsession with medical science: What is an injection, temperature, measles, infection, immunity and soon. The children did their best. One little boy pushed up his shirt sleeve and showed how a sui (needle) is pushed in. He got zero. Another little girl defined temperature as when it is hot or when it is cold. Zero again. And of course the quiz master sneered and the audience sniggered. It needs child experts to plan, produce and present programmes with children. The present lot gets zero from me.

But when it comes to the Cadbury Quiz, I rate it next to Mastermind India. The O Briens, father and sons, are past masters at quizzing and when the Cadbury Quiz went to Sri Lanka’s beaches, with schools from Chennai, Kolkata, Indore and Dehra Dun competing, the way the programme was conducted by O Briens was as much as of a joy as the response of the children and the scenic background, Sri Lanka at its most beautiful. This programme with children certainly gets top marks.