Jamshed Bhabha Memorial Lecture an Ode to the Arts
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August 2019 ON Stagevolume 9 • issue 1 Jamshed Bhabha Memorial Lecture An ode to the arts NCPA BANDISH A Tribute to Legendary Composers AUTUMN 2019 SEASON Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky Cover Final.indd 1 16/07/19 4:58 PM NCPA Chairman Khushroo N. Suntook Editorial Director Radhakrishnan Nair Editor-in-Chief Oishani Mitra Contents Consulting Editor Vipasha Aloukik Pai Editorial Co-ordinator 18 Hilda Darukhanawalla Art Director Tanvi Shah Associate Art Director Hemali Limbachiya Advertising Anita Maria Pancras ([email protected]; 66223835) Tulsi Bavishi ([email protected]; 9833116584) Senior Digital Manager Jayesh V. Salvi Produced by Editorial Office 4th Floor, Todi Building, Mathuradas Mills Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai - 400013 Printer Spenta Multimedia, Peninsula Spenta, Mathuradas Mill Compound, N. M. Joshi Marg, Lower Parel, Features Mumbai – 400013 Materials in ON Stage cannot be reproduced in part or whole without the written permission shine the spotlight on the legacies of the publisher. Views and opinions expressed 08 of two trailblazing artistes – Kumar in this magazine are not necessarily those of Reflections Gandharva and Jnan Prakash Ghosh. the publisher. All rights reserved. Statues of Limitations. By Anil Dharker We try to find out how both these NCPA Booking Office men had the impulse, as musicians, to 2282 4567/6654 8135/6622 3724 follow the heart instead of the rules. www.ncpamumbai.com 10 By Reshma O. Pathare A Commemorative Conclave Dr. Jamshed Bhabha’s life was one filled with and dedicated to the arts. Fittingly, the NCPA has decided to have an annual 18 lecture series on his birthday that focusses An orchestra for all seasons on art and culture. This year, we welcome The Symphony Orchestra of India is Jawhar Sircar who will discuss what, primed to give Mumbai audiences according to him, ails the arts in India. an exciting season of music this By Akshaya Pillai September – the first series of concerts on home turf after its successful tour of the United Kingdom this February. Zane Dalal provides an 14 overview of the repertoire – more The Gentle Revolutionaries exciting, ambitious and wide-ranging This year’s edition of NCPA Bandish will than any of the previous seasons. Contents.indd 4 16/07/19 4:00 PM 22 22 36 Mudras on screen, Abhinaya Performing Arts: 26 on stage Photography Mamata Shankar talks about A monthly column that explores dance and acting, and the any and every aspect of the interchangeability of the stage performing arts. This month, and the set. By Shayonnita Mallik amateur photographer Nameeta Prakash discusses why the urge to take pictures of everything might 26 not be a terrible thing. Women of Note This month, the tenth edition of Con Brio will shine a light on the 38 oft-overlooked works of history’s The East-West Theatre Encounter finest female composers. We When theatrewallahs from explore the lives of these path- around the world discussed breaking women who, despite creativity, commitment and possessing musical genius, were everything in between, and hardly celebrated in their time. presented performances just as By Beverly Pereira varied. 29 Concert with a Cause 42 Archives: Epic Variations Not every concert can change In the first installment of a three- lives, but WE can. part series, Dr. Suresh Awasthi discusses the various forms and styles of the Ramayana theatre 30 tradition in India and South- WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/FRANÇOIS DE TROY The Bawas Who Know Their East Asia Dramas This August, get ready for some Follow us on: good old-fashioned Parsi-panu 44 with two plays looking to deliver Programme Guide facebook.com/NCPAMumbai generous doses of wit and A guide to all the events @NCPAMumbai slapstick. By Benaifer J. Mirza happening in August at the NCPA NCPAMumbai 32 youtube.com/user/TheNCPAMumbai1 A New Way of Seeing 56 With an exciting film club in the What’s Next offing, lovers of good cinema in What to expect in the following We look forward to your feedback and suggestions. Please do drop us an Mumbai are in for a treat. months email at [email protected]. Contents.indd 6 16/07/19 5:06 PM Dr. Bhabha with Ravi Shankar A Commemorative Conclave Dr. Jamshed Bhabha’s life was one filled with and dedicated to the arts. Fittingly, the NCPA has decided to have an annual lecture series on his birthday that focuses on art and culture. This year, we welcome Jawhar Sircar who will discuss what, according to him, ails the arts in India. By Akshaya Pillai r. Jamshed J Bhabha was taken He got the best architect and acoustician on board to the very end of Nariman to build the Tata Theatre, and told them that every Point when he approached the whisper should find its way even to the last row. In government of Maharashtra for 1980, he invited the then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi land to construct a centre for to inaugurate the theatre. On the opening night, performing arts. As a joke, he after the performance of The Barber of Seville, her was shown the sea, and very favourite Italian opera, she told Dr. Bhabha that this candidly, he is said to have taken the offer. This is still does not qualify as an opera house. Dr. Bhabha, Dhow Dr. Bhabha, who grew up idolising Ludwig van known for taking things in stride, immediately got Beethoven and reciting lengthy Shakespeare verses, down to building another opera house which is now went on to build the National Centre for Performing called the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre. Arts, one of India’s premier institutions to foster art and culture, all on land reclaimed from the sea. Looking back A noted philanthropist and lover of opera, Dr. It is here, decades later, on Dr. Bhabha’s birthday, Bhabha is known to have detested microphones. that former civil servant, noted intellectual and 10 • August 2019 NCPA JJB Memorial Lecture.indd 10 16/07/19 11:29 AM public speaker, Jawhar Sircar will wield a mike, broadcasting (I&B) of newly independent India, who find a way to continue Dr. Bhabha’s legacy and was at the helm of All India Radio, decided to ban all contribution to the arts and deliver the first in a series film songs. Keskar had decided that the information of annual lectures on art and culture. Revered for and entertainment lifeline of the nation would not his outstanding contribution to history and political air Bollywood songs as he thought of them as vulgar thought, Sircar will deliver a speech on what ails the and westernised, and hoped instead that his country arts in India. would begin to appreciate highbrow classical music. Sircar believes that the visual arts are thriving. This is when Binaca Geetmala came up as a metaphor “It’s a rich man’s paradise,” he tells me, his voice of revolt. The legendary musical countdown would exhausted and strained after a 12-day lecture-cum- tour of central Asia. Instead, he wants to draw Dr. Bhabha (right) with the limelight to the quadrangle of music, dance, his parents and brother theatre and performance art; delve deeply into the Homi Bhabha (left) structure policies and discuss how India determined its cultural policies without much thought. On his journey to Moscow on the Prime Minister’s private plane along with five senior secretaries in December 2009, he recalls how the team kept discussing serious matters of the state, but on the way back from Moscow they all resorted to the same topic: Bollywood. It was the foreign secretary who mentioned how her Russian driver had spoken about Raj Kapoor and Mera Naam Joker. This was followed by accounts wherein they realised what Russia really remembers is Bollywood. “This is With wife Betty Irene what lasts between countries. Time marinates these cultural associations. And India will forever be the land of heroes and songs,” he says. And it is in such a country, in the year 1952 that B.V. Keskar, the minister of information and Sircar wants to draw the limelight to the quadrangle of music, dance, theatre and performance art With Indira Gandhi and JRD Tata NCPA August 2019 • 11 JJB Memorial Lecture.indd 11 16/07/19 11:31 AM forms like Bharatanatyam and Mohiniattam, how this led to the evolution of the current costumes. For instance, Manipuri dancers used to wear a ghaghara traditionally.” Sircar has written over 100 articles on various cultural aspects of India, and to him, this lecture is a comprehensive 300-, if not a 360-degree overview of his career-long efforts. “Normally people would have a short span of attention, but here at the NCPA, I believe I will be blessed with the ideal audience for this topic,” he says when asked why he chose to talk about what ails the arts in India. The Antiquities Act and the plight of Government- run museums is another subject he wants to explore during the talk. “India doesn’t preserve culturally. We don’t know the art of preserving the dead. We consider even the clothes of the dead impure. This is why our people can’t run a good museum, and places like the Victoria Memorial often end up being called a Bhoot Ghar.” Sircar has always been vocal about the lack of control the broadcasters have on the news they “Dr. Bhabha’s abstract paintings stunned me and then I discovered his charcoal paintings which were a masterpiece in accuracy” Jawhar Sircar present, and the government interference in it. He is air on Radio Ceylon, a show entirely dedicated synonymous with his bold stand on autonomy and, to Indian film songs hosted by the ever charming in his lecture, he will also be shedding light on the Ameen Sayani.