PICTURE SPEAK

Samba performer Cristina Works by Silveira

Curated by Alka Pande, the exhibition Brazilian Watercolours draws its title from a 1930s song that refers to the layered and multi-coloured character of Brazilian culture, much like the present festival itself. The exhibition presents works by two quite contrasting Brazilian artists: Regina Silveira and Aurthur Luiz Piza. Silviera, who has participated in the VII Triennale in India, has been celebrated for her fervently imaginative vision that seamlessly merges art with architecture, photography and video. Piza, who has been living in Paris since 1951, is a painter, printmaker and sculptor who employs a minimalist vocabulary, drawing from the industrial geometry of space and pure colour.

The amphitheatre at the centre will come alive for three days with performances by Teresa Cristina and her group. An impressive presence in the popular music space in Rio and through her music albums and performances throughout the rest of Brazil, Cristina is bound to make Delhi sway to her sensuous samba. Not to be missed.

-By S.Kalidas

PICTURE SPEAK

A still from the play Sone ki Machhali

-By Aditi Pai

Participants of the concert

Tickets available at all Levi’s outlets.

-By Nirmala Ravindran

PICTURE SPEAK

Bachchan and Tabu

Thirteen years ago, while scripting Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Aditya Chopra wrote a scene in which Raj would walk into a store to buy a condom. Later, he decided that this might be too risqué for the audiences and changed it to beer. Obviously, times and audiences have changed. In Cheeni Kum, Amitabh Bachchan walks into a store and sheepishly asks for a condom to which the salesman snidely remarks: chacha ko Durex chahiye.

Cheeni Kum brims with quirky, funny moments like this. Debutant director R. Balakrishnan builds up a spicy, affectionate romance between an attractive, intelligent woman and a bristling, sarcastic chef who happens to be 30 years her senior—actually he’s six years older than her father. Tabu and Bachchan hit all the right notes. But post-interval, the script and their romance collapse like an underdone soufflé. The girl’s father (Rawal in a woefully underwritten role), goes on a fast to prevent her from marrying and the ensuing melodrama deflates the film. Still, this one’s worth watching if only to see the still sexy Mr B in heat.

-By Anupama Chopra

PICTURE SPEAK

Works by Datta (above) and Krishan Khanna

-By Swagata Sen

-By Kimi Dangor

Sa Re Ga Ma Rs 295

In this album of a live recording, Abhijit Pohankar plays Hindustani classical music on the keyboard and succeeds in giving the traditional compositions a twist. Remember Piya Bawari and Sajanwa. Earlier, he called it the new-age raga and now the Urban Raga. A modern interpretation of traditional melodies, this album features his father, Pandit Ajay Pohankar too. He explores the alchemy between traditional Indian music and contemporary sounds, textures and music arrangement. The result of using a combination of modern instruments like the guitar and keyboard and traditional ones like the flute is a stunning tapestry of sounds. “I hope people will now connect with what I wanted to convey in my earlier albums in terms of the uniqueness of my approach. I have brought traditional compositions of Indian classical music to the uninitiated listener who always shied away from it,” says Pohankar junior. The highlight of the album is Pohankar’s rendition of Begum Akhtar’s immortal ghazal Ae mohabbat tere anjam pe rona aaya. The interludes on the keyboard are beyond imagination and add a new dimension to the song. Yet another piece of powerful rendition is Yaad piya ki ayee. A class apart.

-By S. Sahaya Ranjit

Index