Delhi Of about five new albums released every month these days, at least one is a chant album. Jagjit Singh chants Om Sai Ram and Mantra Shakti is chanted by Suresh Wadkar.

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While devotional music is a sure winner in the Indian market, chant music is more diverse: it can be heard in clubs and in cars, and strikes a chord as much with the young and trendy lounge-lover as with the spiritual housewife. Singers such as Shubha Mudgal and Pandit Jasraj have done chants. "Chanting helps in meditation by making the thoughts focus on the inner self," says Dhrupad singer Ramakant Gundecha.

The new company Silk Road has released Shankara based on poems by Adi Shankaracharya. The album is an explorative journey and the compositions are in raga Charukeshi, Lalit Dhwani, Swar Samir, Shuddha Kalyan and Bairagi. What makes it different from other chant albums is the contemporary and modern treatment and an attractively packaged booklet.

Sea Records has also released four mantra albums. They contain the powerful Pratyangira and Durga mantras from Vedic scriptures, said to bestow power and protect against negative influence. "It is said the sound vibrations from the Sanskrit mantras are enough to reap the fruits of wisdom," says Pandit Chhannulal Mishra, whose Ramcharitra Manas is always in demand.

Music Today's Bhaktimala series, Morning Chants, Bhagwad Gita and Mantra Shakti are still favourite among listeners. "Mantras are evergreen. They don't fight for space with other genres," says Gurmeet Singh, business head of Music Today.

The cost of a mantra music album is lower than other genres, but the concept has to be strong to attract listeners. After the Indipop bubble burst, devotional music has been the best business strategy. What makes it easier to produce is that there is no copyright for religious lyrics or texts. The Gods are running the music industry.

by S. Sahaya Ranjit

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The films present insiders' viewpoint

delhi Conflict is often the midwife of exciting art. The Northeast is beginning to do that to a few artists. This place, they say, is not a playground for men in camouflage costumes or a receptacle of ethnic bric-a-brac. These artists insist on an insider's point of view. nid Ahmedabad graduates Mriganka Madhukaillya and Sonal Jain, born and brought up in Guwahati, have made experimental films on the region, showing rare and sometimes shocking footage of events, like when Manipur was under siege last year, protesting against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.

Collectively the videos are called "Notebook of Geography (ies)". One of the videos intersperses bits from Hindi film Tango Charlie, a confused jungle drama labouring under derisory misapprehensions. The videos also show mock body searches, scenes from the first Assamese film and the moss-covered megaliths of the Khasis. Of course, there are gunshots in the background. The videos are on view at Khoj Studios, Khirki Village.

by Anshul Avijit

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The Festival serves variety

kolkata Twenty-six years ago, the first International Children's Film Festival and Fair was organised, only to be discontinued. Now the festival has been revived.

Finding Nemo is the only Hollywood film. Indian films include Satyajit Ray's Hirak Rajar Deshe and Vishal Bharadwaj's Makdee. Some others are Spain's Don Quijote and El Bosque Animado, and Russian Golden Horns and Father Frost. May 23-27.

by Dipannita Ghosh Biswas

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NETAJI SUBHASH CHANDRA BOSE Director: Shyam Benegal Cast: Sachin Khedekar, Rajeshwari Sachdev

First up. Sachin Khedekar is lucky Netaji is not as documented as Gandhi and Nehru. He can get away with a performance that is not a facsimile. Where he falters is in not even trying to channel his spirit. And where Shyam Benegal errs is in trying to portray Bose as too much of a Renaissance man. Yes, we know he was a politician, a warrior and an adventurer but must we see him as a great romantic, staring moony-eyed into his German wife's angelic face? That apart, Benegal manages to keep the pace taut when he follows Bose's footsteps in his last five years (that is if you believe he is dead).

It is a mammoth enterprise, shot energetically by Santosh Thun- diyil with some stirring music by A.R. Rahman. Benegal almost pulls it off. Almost.

by Kaveree Bamzai

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REVENGE OF THE SITH Director: George Lucas Cast: Christopher Lee, Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid

The last instalment of the space opera ends with a whimper. Great battle sequences and special effects but ultra cheesy dialogue and a ho-hum plotline. It's darker and better than the two prequels, but that's not saying a lot.
Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker is seduced by the Sith, the dark side, and resurrected as the Nazi-helmeted Darth Vader. But the final revelation is for audiences mesmerised by Emperor George Lucas' earlier Star Wars films-he isn't wearing any clothes.

by Sandeep Unnithan

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Vagina Monologues performance

It raised the hackles of the moral brigade, was rejected by most arts centres in the country and banned in Chennai. But despite all odds, Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal's adaptation of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues will complete 100 shows on May 27. Mallika Sherawat will perform the monologue My Short Skirt. Proceeds will go to charity. At Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai, May 26-29.

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Ustad Asad Ali Khan

A spic-macay convention dedicated to Kuvempu and M.S. Subbulakshmi. Catch the overnight performances: N. Ramani (Carnatic flute); T.N. Krishnan (violin) and Ustad Asad Ali Khan (Rudra Veena). On from May 24 to 29 at Manipal, Karnataka.

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