Pop goes Premchand by artist Elena Banik

DELHI Why remember Premchand on his 125th birth anniversary? After all he does not represent any political constituency which could yield votes or a religious faction that needs to be appeased. That at least seems to be the view of the Ministry of Culture, which seems to have zipped its lips and its purse when it came to remembering one of the nation's finest Hindi and Urdu writers. And a secular symbol which a Hindutva-hating dispensation could flaunt.

While a request from Jamia Millia Vice-Chancellor Mushir-ul Hasan to create an archive for Premchand has still not made much headway, the ministry's attitude to sahmat's letter seeking help for their calendar has been met with bureaucratic stone-walling. But that has not stopped them from going ahead with the anniversary-which will kick off on January 1 with the release of a calendar and continue through the year (his birthday was on July 31) with seminars, film shows and readings.

The calendar is a work of art, featuring representations of Premchand's works by 12 artists as varied as Arpana Caur and Shamshad. All of them have chosen their favourite lines from the writer's many works and rendered it in their own imagination. From Elena Banik's pop art rendition to Gopi Gajwani's characteristically strong lines, Premchand gets a new lease of life. It is something his family thinks is long overdue.

Grandson Alok Rai, who seems to be as perplexed as the Uttar Pradesh Government about what to do with Premchand's ancestral home at Lamahi, near Varanasi, says at least it is something. "We have such precious few modern icons," he notes. While there has been much talk about converting the home into a memorial and some state Government representatives made appropriate noises on the occasion of Premchand's death anniversary (on October 8), little has happened so far.

The calendar may well turn the page.

-By Kaveree Bamzai

Broken Sword by Choyal

DELHI How does one commemorate a tragedy that continues? According to art critic Suneet Chopra, it is by remembering the victims. December 3, 1984, witnessed the world's worst industrial disaster. Twenty years on, Bhopal is still a pitiable story. There is no dearth of donations, but little percolates down to the victims. So Chopra hit upon the idea of an art exhibition where 30 per cent of the proceeds will go to the organisation which started the first clinic in Bhopal, hence "knowing first hand the deserving families".

The result is "Remember Bhopal" where 35 eminent and emerging artists have put up commemorative works. While Beohar Ram Manohar Sinha looks straight in the face of the tragedy, P.N. Choyal's Broken Sword explores the helplessness of society whose resources are destructed. Indravir's Smoke, on the other hand, reproduces Van Gogh's Sunflowers but with a glaring twist-the flowers are drooping, encapsulating the effect of the deadly smoke. At the Varalakshmi Art Gallery, till December 22.

-By Sushmita Choudhury

Shankar's take on the regime

DELHI A quarter century of domestic and international events recorded in cartoons by India Today Deputy Editor Ravi Shankar is on display at the India Habitat Centre.

Extricating politics from drabness, the cartoons on exhibit range from the ones drawn for the now-defunct Link magazine on non-alignment movement and the fall of the Janata Party to contemporary events like the 9/11 attack and Sonia Gandhi's ascent to power. Standing apart from the political lampoons is a separate panel on gender issues.

On till January 6.

VANITY FAIR Director: Mira Nair Cast: Reese Witherspoon, James Purefoy, Jonathan Rhys-Myers

Becky as Barbie

In the book on the making of Vanity Fair, director Mira Nair is quoted as saying, "I want everyone to want these clothes." By the end of the film, they do, especially the jamevars, the extravagant silks and the embroidered gowns, tightened just so to highlight the ladies' ample bosoms.

If only Nair had spent that much effort in making Becky Sharp less of a hero and more of the adventurer William Thackeray meant her to be. Nair suffers from an overdose of political correctness and it is evident in the way she treats Becky's character-after all, why would a big star like Reese Witherspoon compromise with her American sweetheart image? So what you have is a Barbiefication of Becky, with a little naughtiness, courtesy Farah Khan's slave dance and a Bollywood-type picnic. Nair is an acute social observer but perhaps she is a little out of depth with an experience more than a century removed from her own.

-By Kaveree Bamzai

RBY chair, picture from Goa

Petit Frames

MUMBAI Red Blue & Yellow goes black and white this month. Fram Petit is exhibiting a collection of his photographs at the stylised furniture store at Mahalaxmi. Petit's stark black and white images combine with the contemporary and minimalist lines of the furniture. "In the US and Europe there is an established market for photo prints. And more and more people today need art for their walls," says the lensman.

Petit, who specialises in interior and advertising photography, has put together the collection from his trek to Ladakh and visits to Goa. "The black and white medium is more about the feel and mood of the place," he says. Catch some remarkable images of a tall, white church against a dark sky and Ladakh's beauty highlighted in monochromatic images. At RBY for a month starting December 9.

-By Kimi Dangor

Multi-instrumentalist Joshua

DELHI Yatri is an inspired collection of songs that reflects Prem Joshua's love affair with India. It is an exotic blend of eastern and western influences. "I had been playing jazz and rock till I chanced upon Indian ragas. My real love is mixing these influences to develop something new," says the musician.

Joshua has used a wide array of instruments from the Indian sitar to the Indonesian gamelan to the Caribbean steel drum. Truly a mesh of disparate influences.

-By S. Sahaya Ranjit

Narayan

DELHI He looks a bit like a TV star, his shampooed hair falling carelessly over his leather jacket. But make no mistake. Kamal Sabri is a seventh generation sarangi player in a family of traditional musicians.

Under the tutelage of his renowned father Ustad Sabri Khan, Kamal was trained in the style of the Sainia Gharana (school) of Rampur, Moradabad. "I remember when I was four, I was given a small sarangi which had been passed on by my grandfather," says Sabri. He studied at the Anglo-Arabic School and DAV College. But the lure of the sarangi was too strong to resist. Now it seems so is the lure of movies. He has composed a 10-minute piece on the sarangi for The Big Question by filmmakers/actors Francesco Cabras and Alberto Molinari.

"Cabras wanted an Indian sound and the sarangi was the closest. He felt it has a spiritual element which was closest to the human voice," says Sabri who has also played in Sabiha Sumar's Khamosh Paani. Recently Virgin Records released his classical CD which features Raga Saugandh, Thumri and Tappa. "Though I do a lot of fusion work, I don't want to lose sight of my roots-the classical," says Sabri. With such deep roots, that seems hardly likely.

-By S. Sahaya Ranjit

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