INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE V O L U M E X X V
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Price Re. 1/- INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE v o l u m e X X V. No. 4 July–August 2011 condition of being an individual being and a citizen’. Bharat Mata Ki Jai A cavalcade of key figures through several decades ROSALIND WILSON MEMORIAL of history from 1857 onwards were selected to show LECTURE 2011: Mother India how effectively millions were mobilized at exceptional Speaker: Gopalkrishna Gandhi moments—Bahadur Shah Zafar, Vivekananda, Chair: Shri Soli J. Sorabjee Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar, Ramanujan, Aruna Asaf Ali, Tagore, Nehru, Aruna Roy, to name just Collaboration: Rosalind Wilson Memorial a few. Trust, July 28 Be that as it may, in contemporary times, the icon ‘Mother India/Bharat Mata’—religious motif, nation- needs to be honoured and rescued from ‘elitist alist icon and symbol of rights—is a volatile and escapism’ on the one hand and ‘narrow jingoisms’ incredibly complex subject at best, evoking a plethora on the other, making it more relevant—in terms of of strong emotions and national and territorial security, imagery. Unravelling its and the sacredness of the land complexity in his signature itself, not just as an asset but style, Gopal Gandhi’s talk much more, as heritage. He used drew widely from myth Mehboob Khan’s film, Mother and metaphor, modern India, to illustrate the inviolability Indian history, art, religious of a peasant family’s bond with iconography, literature and that land. film. Gandhi briefly touched on the Although an archaism Fatherland and Motherland for the modern urban conundrum—are we a female elite, the middle-class and country trapped in a male rural Indian, nevertheless, nation?—the status of Mother enshrines Mother India India’s daughters and its ‘ecological as a ‘living antiquity’, a dower’, and the public’s search for goddess-like figure who integrity in non-political public protects her children. The voices over issues of corruption concept sustains two related that speak for Bharat Mata assumptions: one is the in urban India, such as Anna Indian people’s bond with Hazare’s crusade. In an emotional territorial integrity; and, two, conclusion, the melodious strains the bond with the land— of Manna Dey’s song from zameen, mati. Gandhi stressed Kabuliwala filled the auditorium… that citizens in a nation-state need just such a resource ‘in Tere daman se joi ayiin un havaon ko terms of an idea, a belief… salaam … to hold onto the existential Bharat Mata by Abanindranath Tagore RITU SINGH documentaries and his struggle as a writer. The film also presents Tribute to Ajneya Ajneya’s literary place as seen by his contemporaries. FILM: Saarswat Van Ka Baawara Aheri In his interview, poet Girijakumar Mathur considers Director: Durgavati Singh Ajneya’s greatest contribution to be his poetry about Producer: Doordarshan, August 8 nature. On the other hand, Prabhakar Machave believes that Ajneya’s compositions are intellectual As the lights fade, a new life begins to acquire shape: ruminations that do not create an impulse. Noted a life of nature, of solitude and wanderlust. In short, critic Namvar Singh feels that Ajneya is a poet with it brings forward a man who was always fraught great loftiness, but has limited concerns. In his own with serious discomfort when investigating the inner words, Ajneya considers that the greatest concern of corners of the human mind. his poetry is to relate it to reality. As a centenary tribute, Durgavati Singh’s documentary In an era of limited technical facilities, the film showed an extraordinary writer-poet-philosopher, and with its awesome visuals, locates Ajneya’s writings a portrait of an aesthetician. Made for Doordarshan —particularly his poems—in the very surroundings almost three decades ago, the film itself can be that inspired their composition. So, while on one viewed as a long poem, and is an internal journey into hand the film enters into the dense backwoods, on the enigmatic poems of Sachchidanand Hiranand the other hand, it depicts the wider dimensions of Vatsyayan, commonly known as Ajneya. the flux and serenity of water. Here, the colours are Enriched by interviews, the film tells the tales of natural and vivid. As an effort to consider the most Ajneya’s birth, his memories of the revolutionary controversial poet of Hindi in modern times, the film movement of Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar is a commendable effort. Azad, his subsequent association with the British army REYAZ-UL-HAQUE meticulous in its historical details, and accompanied Tracing the Guru’s Path by the comprehensive visual documentation of FILM: In the Footsteps of Guru Gobind Singh Ji the sites gives us a complete document of the by Thakur Ranvir Singh, August 20 Guru’s life. Born in 1666, Guru Gobind Singh lived in times of Thakur Ranvir Singh’s docu-drama and labour of love great historical turbulence, an age where he faced the traces the life and tumultuous times of the tenth Sikh hostilities of both the Mughal rulers and the Rajas of Guru from his birth in Patna to his final departure at the Shivalik. The film takes us through the different the age of 42 at Nanded in Maharashtra. Himself a places and sites, now memorialized as Gurudwaras, non-Sikh, Ranvir spent four years and traversed eight with interesting legends and nomenclature. These thousand kilometres across eight states, filming the include Gurudwara Handi Sahib at Danapur near sixty-one Gurudwaras associated with the Guru. The Patna, where the Guru and his entourage received project—in his own words, a kar sewa—is a cinematic food from a small handi, and Gurudwara Tibbi Sahib pilgrimage, entirely self-financed and a first of its near Muktsar, where this hill (Tibbi), was used by the kind to limn the Guru’s life. Guru for self-defense. Interspersed with the actual Operating within the genre of the docu-drama, the footage of sites are paintings and re-enactments film uses re-enactments with actors, juxtaposing that that flesh out the story, though one wished that the with paintings and illustrations to drive the narrative voices were not dubbed in English. At 150 minutes, forward, with a voice-over in the background and one could complain of it being slightly long, but a smattering of interviews. The script, penned superficial and cursory it is surely not. by eminent Sikh writer Kartar Singh Duggal, is AJAY JAISINGHANI 2 diary music professional flourish lacing her performance with a Varied Fare gamut of behlavas, simulating the shringar or romantic PERFORMANCES: Monsoon Festival, mood of the Purab-ang thumri style. The characteristic July 25 and 26 strident quality of the classic kajri performer came off in an accomplished and confident style in her This two-day dance and music festival featured performance of the evening. musician Savita Devi and Odissi dancer Kavita Dancer Kavita Dwibedi knitted the dance bhava of Dwibedi. In a riot of monsoon melodies and a selection her compositions into a close relationship with the of poetry presented in the Odissi dance format, the presentation merged the age-old celebratory mood rains. Her technique remained purist but the numbers of the monsoons in a creative overlay. were selected from classical to contemporary, where the poetry of Kalidas’ Meghdoot and Amrit Barsha were As the music of the rains is best presented in the light interpreted amicably. The instrumental accompanists classical genre, Savita Devi mapped out a concert on the flute, sitar, and vocal support alongside, of rain melodies around the styles and dadra, kajri enhanced the bhava enunciated on stage, with their instead of giving audiences a strictly solo rendering, clear diction and appropriate musical score. The she had the vocal support of her disciples singing final reference point of theRaas Leela as the ultimate the refrain of these numbers in a choral rendering. realization of the divine in a garb of the symbolic Her accompanists on the tabla, sarangi provided professional support to the vocal rendition, giving rainbow above the rain-drenched earth, concluded a fullness and volume to the singing. In her role as the evening on a serene and melodious note. the lead singer, Savita Devi gave the music a perfect SUBHRA MAZUMDAR rich Dharwad region, the birthplace of this gayaki, Amalgam of North and South and how it has been an amalgam of Carnatic and MUSIC APPRECIATION PROMOTION: Kirana Hindustani music. In response, Mevundi rendered Gayaki – Innovations in Traditions, August 26 a couple of compositions in Raga Puriya Dhanashree, echoing his unmistakable resemblance to the voice The IIC’s ‘music appreciation and style of the late Pt. series’ presented a unique Bhimsen Joshi, a doyen of this programme recently when gharana. Jayteerth Mevundi, the gifted The audio clips of immortal vocalist of the Kirana gharana, voices like Ustad Abdul Karim not only performed but also spoke Khan, Abdul Waheed Khan, about ‘Innovation in the Tradition Sawai Gandharva, Ameer of Kirana Gaayaki’, discussing the Khan, Roshanara Begum, salient features of this venerable Suresh Babu Mane, Hirabai tradition. Mevundi regaled the Badodkar, Saraswati Rane, invited audience and all those music lovers across the Firoze Dastoor and Pt. Bhimsen Joshi et al were world who may have watched the event on the web, an added treat. Comparing their musical nuances, thanks to the Centre’s recent initiative of webcasting Mevundi explained how each had a separate identity; special events. Here was a practising musician who establishing the fact that innovation is possible within could demonstrate while analyzing the music of the tradition, if one is groomed in the Guru-Shishya great masters of his tradition, played as audio clips by Parampara. Jayteerth Mevundi’s melodious rendering Praveen Shevade, who was in conversation with him.