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| CURRENT ISSUE MAY 28, 2007 |
| YOUR WEEK: ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT |
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| EXHIBITIONS | ||||||
| Notes of Colour | ||||||
KOLKATA Maihar is best known as the home of the late doyen of Indian classical musician Ustad Allauddin Khan. Here, he taught his famous students Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar, Annapurna Devi, Nikhil Banerjee, Aashish Khan, among others, who comprise the Maihar gharana. Once a tranquil green landscape that inspired sublime music, industrialisation has gradually clouded its very existence. But that is probably the reason why six artists each from Kolkata and Mumbai felt a moral responsibility to visit Maihar.
That this tiny Madhya Pradesh town can still inspire visual art as much as music is evident from the show at Gallery Sanskriti in Kolkata this month. The gallery has been conducting interactive workshops in Maihar since 2000, and last year, Kolkata artists Suvaprasanna, Ashoke Mullick, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Suhas Roy, Shipra and Dipali Bhattacharya, and young Mumbai artists Sanjay Sawant, Vanita Gupta, Ashutosh Apte, Rajshree, Prakash Waghmare and Satish Wavare stayed in Maihar for some weeks. The 48 works that resulted, reflect the rich history and the distinct simplicity of Maihar. Amongst these are Wavare’s abstract work inspired by rustic wooden combs and Sawant’s use of the industrial waste that threatens to spoil the atmosphere of the quaint town. Ambica Beri, who runs Sanskriti, says, “The workshop was not just an esoteric experiment but also firmly grounded on stark realities.” The bonus, all artists agree, was a special performance by the Maihar Band. The show is on at Gallery Sanskriti till May 26. -By Swagata Sen | ||||||
| MUSIC FESTIVAL | ||||||
| Mid-Summer Music | ||||||
-By S. Sahaya Ranjit | ||||||
| ART | ||||||
| City Lights | ||||||
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| FILM REVIEW | ||||||
| Urban Ballad | ||||||
Starring: Shilpa Shetty, Irrfan Khan, Kay Kay Menon, Konkona Sen Sharma, Shiney Ahuja Directed by: Anurag Basu Life in a Metro... is about the bruised souls of Mumbai and nine individuals interlocked in a convoluted dance of infidelity, incompatibility, insecurity and guilt. Flawed and floundering, they struggle with themselves and with this crowded, hyper, competitive city. Once when a boss advises his subordinate to slow down, he replies, “Sir, yeh race hai, koi morning walk toh nahin.” After angst, tears and some bloodshed, they all find, not happiness, but a semblance of peace. The multiple narratives are uneven—the charming Dharmendra-Nafisa Ali story is stretched to the point of tedium. But the film works. Writer-director Anurag Basu tells these stories of love and longing with affection and grace. His actors are uniformly good—Shilpa Shetty is wonderfully nuanced as the betrayed wife and Menon even better as the roving husband. But Life in a Metro... belongs to Irrfan Khan and Konkona Sen Sharma. Both playing emotionally clumsy, thirty-something virgins are absolutely electric. -By Anupama Chopra | ||||||
| Paris Postcard | ||||||
| PARIS JE T’AIME | ||||||
In Tuileries, the Coen brothers cross the Atlantic, retaining their humour and lucid characterisation. Gus Van Sant’s Le Marais has a thrilling ambiguity to it that lingers, while Cuaron’s Parc Monceau shows just why a man with a girl half his age need not raise eyebrows in Paris. Wes Craven has the ghost of Oscar Wilde playing cupid in the Père Lachaise cemetery, while the best part about Tom Tykwer’s Faubourg Saint-Denis is not Portman, but the well-scripted lines. Chadha’s Quais de Seine tries to transplant her filminess to the left bank of the Seine, but falls short of her illustrious company. The film ends with the bitter-sweet epiphanies of Payne’s 14ème Arrondissement. The only sore spot in this excellent film is Vincenzo Natali’s take on romantic vampires in Quartier de la Madeleine, which looks more ridiculous than comic. -By Gaurav Rajkhowa | ||||||
| MUSIC REVIEW | ||||||
| Lofty Journey | ||||||
After the success of Soundscapes series nearly a decade ago, Music Today presents a contemporary sequel. In this world music album, Rahul Sharma captures the sheer magnanimity of the mountains, so awe-inspiring, yet deeply rooted to the earth. From depicting the snow-covered peaks as the abode of Lord Shiva the Destroyer to showing their softer side as silent rivers wind their way through them assuming a road of their own, Sharma takes us on an adventure. Tracks such as Darjeeling: The Toy Train, recreate the sound of children. Sharma showcases mountain melodies that reflect various moods and emotions.
Rare Classics showcases Mehdi Hassan’s ability to compose and sing ghazals in a medium that appeals to all listeners across the subcontinent. The double CD set has a collection of 12 ghazals hitherto unreleased as a compilation with the maestro unleashing the vocal magic that only he can. Rare Classics presents this wizard of the ghazal in his element, putting his voice and melody to the works of noted poets like Hasrat Mohani, Hafiz Jalindhari, Muzaffar Warsi, Qateel Shifai, Tabish Dehalvi, Habib Jalib, Eima Irfani and Krishan Adeeb. Lata Mangeshkar had once said that Mehdi Hassan’s is the “Voice of God”. Indeed he is. | ||||||
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