The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

CULTURE

ARTSCAPE
An exhibition that redefines the role of history
Garima Pant

It is like walking through time and feeling the aura and enigma of that era. It is a walk through yesteryears, living up the glorious position our country enjoyed at that time. It is an opportunity to feel the presence of some great leaders like Jhansi ki Rani Lakshmibai, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and so on. Presented by Osian’s and titled, ‘A Historical Epic - India In The Making, 1757-1950’, it is much more than an exhibition at The Art Today and at The British Council. From surrender to revolt, swaraj to responsibility, it uniquely expresses the history of India’s quest for independence and freedom. It includes rare engravings and lithographs featuring many famous battles, rare books, photographic collections along with an array of modern and contemporary art to the more insurgent works of Chittoprasad, depicting the nationalist struggle of the Indian subcontinent during the 1940s.

The exhibition is arranged in such a fashion that more famous film posters vie with classic works by not much well-known artists (from a layman’s point of view) so that a common man’s interest is sustained. These film posters were made part of the exhibition to make one look up to difficult artworks. Cinema art has finally reached a wider audience. This work of art has redefined the role of history and the way we identify with it. It has merged the history of the country with that of art. It takes forward the concept of how the Indian struggle for independence proceeded.

Osian’s is an integrated, unique and self-generating infrastructure without any government patronage. For any kind of art to grow, it has to build its own infrastructure. An individual vision that has been transformed into a national vision — this can be aptly said about Mr Neville Tuli, curator of the exhibition- cum- auction.

Danseuse Madhumati

Madhumati strikes a pose during an Odissi performance.

Looking alluring, she dreams about reaching new heights.

She is an Odissi dancer and a senior executive in a leading telecom firm and has a passion for interior decoration. Her house is a perfect blend of authentic Indian culture and tradition, with each room distinctively designed and furnished. Meet Ms Madhumanti Sengupta, a perfect amalgam of art and knowledge. By profession she is Vice-President, Accounts Management, Siemens. But it would be better to say that she is more of a dancer than anything else. She has a passion for Odissi dancing, which she has been learning from a very early age. She has performed almost all over India and also abroad. This includes a performance at The Royal Albert Hall in London.

Hailing from Kolkata, she began to learn dance since the age of three. Her inspiration from the very beginning has been her father, Mr K. P. Sengupta, who was a very talented and versatile person. He was also a freedom fighter and had great academic credentials. He is the person who directed her at every point in her life and made her give precedence to dance out of all other hobbies she had. He was a person with a firm belief in the all-round development of an individual.

She has gone through many ups and downs in life. But she has never been unduly perturbed by them. The struggles only added to her strengths and made her look at life in an altogether different fashion. She feels that her passion and profession are complementary to each other and a perfect balance exists between the two. Complexities and the stress which is a natural corollary of one’s profession get subsided by getting involved with one’s passion. In her case, it happens to be dance. Both her mind and body get proper exercise through her indulgence in both the fields. But that also makes way for some hardships. She has had to make many sacrifices to achieve the highest in both the fields. She gets up early to practise dancing. She hardly socialises and rarely invites anybody home on weekdays. Her spare time is consumed up by studying for her profession. She prefers reading newspapers as it exercises the brain and is more interactive.

She is extremely proud of her culture and heritage. According to her, “India is like a mine of gold, lying unutilised.” Her house is like a window to our rich ethnicity with each room depicting the mores of different states, with a different theme. She cooks only Bengali food as it reminds her of her roots. She tries her hand at different recipes whilst trying to bring out the Indian flavour in them.

According to her, she is a dreamer. She is not very ambitious and takes things as they come in her stride. Her biggest strength, she feels, is the fact that god gave her ordinary looks and average intelligence. “Too much of everything makes you complacent and proud and you tend to lose the vision of your life.” She adores her Guru and idolises President Abdul Kalam for his humble and caring nature and uncomplicated life.

A strong individual, who believes in setting trends and being compassionate and humane, is a living example of grit and determination and an inspiration to many women. For her, life is an ongoing learning process.

For story lovers

It is a collection of 18 stories featuring some of the well-known names in Punjabi literature. Writers like Amrita Pritam, K.S. Duggal, Ajit Kaur, Kulwant Singh Virk and others provide a deep insight into the rich culture of the state of Punjab and the lives of the people there. Through their powerful and sensitive writing styles, they try and bring out images of the conscientious, hardworking people living in the blessed land of Punjab. Themes range from mythology to depiction of a mother’s eternal love for her child. The stories move from a typical household in a village in Punjab to life in the city. The women protagonists in many stories are torch-bearers of liberalism in society much against the traditional meek and docile image of a typical Punjabi woman. The fear instilled in the hearts of ordinary men during the time of the 1984 riots or the faith and love, which a mother instills in her son (in the story “Maa”) are a few of the emotions brought out in a very powerful way which truly touch the heart. A must-read for all short story lovers, the book is priced at Rs 195.

Place of ghazal

“The realism inherent in their words as well as the manipulation of people’s dreams in the form of great lyrics is the actual influence that draws me to ghazals”, says Richie, a college student.

Tanushree, a student, also adds to the sentiments shared by Richie and says, “Ghazals seem so real that you can actually identify with them. They don’t leave you in a dreamland and are able to stir your soul.” Who says the upcoming generation is forgetting their culture and shying away from traditional art forms? Ghazals have always held a special place in the hearts of people from all age groups because of the peace and calm they are able to provide through their soothing, meaningful yet melodious music.

Ghazal originated in Iran in the 10th century AD. Ghazal denotes a prosaic genre although in India and Pakistan the term implies the musical form in which it is rendered. As a lyrical genre, it has its roots in classical Arabic poetry. Ghazal is an Arabic word, which literally means talking to women. Although the ghazal deals with the whole gamut of human experience, its central concern is love. It grew from the Persian qasida, which in verse form had come to Iran from Arabia. It came to India with the advent and extension of the Muslim influence from the 12th century onwards. The ghazal is said to have begun with Amir Khusro in northern India and Deccan in the south was its real home in the early stages.

Ghazal always opens with a rhyming couplet called ‘matla’. The rhyme of the opening couplet is repeated at the end of the second line in each succeeding verse, so that the rhyming pattern may be represented as aa, ba, ca, da and so on. With the initiation of the recording industry in India in 1901, ghazal popularity increased to a large extent. After the arrival of sound cinema, ghazals accounted for a large portion of music in Hindi cinema, more so in the early decades. As it got transformed into commercially popular music with majority appeal, film ghazal undertook inevitable changes that brought it in line with conventional film music as a whole.

The film ghazals sung by Talat Mahmood, Lata Mangeshkar and others did maintain some of the exotic and romantic associations of the courtesan world and of Urdu verse in general. But the singers that followed them could hardly match the set standards of ghazal singing. It started becoming more and more commercial and lost its original melody.

However, some consolation was given by singers like Begum Akhtar, Bade Ghulam Ali, Farida Khanum and so on, who continued singing in the light classical ghazal form. They did and still do enjoy a stable yet limited degree of popularity among connoisseurs of classical music and Urdu poetry.

Surprisingly, in the time of rap, pop and jazz, today’s generation is showing great interest towards ghazal. As it was found that a majority of them listen to the veteran ghazal singers like Ghulam Ali, Mehndi Hassan and Farida Khannum. The new genre of ghazal singers still do not enjoy that much of popularity. But singers like Pankaj Udhas and Jagjit Singh still manage to stir quite a few souls. No matter how many sacrifices and compromises this music form has been made to undergo, one thing is for certain that it is here to stay and keep the souls of people of all age groups moving and inspiring at all points of time.