Price Re. 1/- Volume XXXII No. 4 July – August 2018 sari. It was just this nostalgia that the recent exhibition by Of Designs and Motifs Bengaluru-based Vimor reached out to. Established in 1974 EXHIBITION by Chimy Nanjappa, Vimor focusses on reviving traditional weaves and designs; and often, the founder’s daughter, The Story of Vimor Pavithra Muddaya, does a bit of creative tweaking. She 12 to 17 July 2018 also documents designs, motifs and weaving techniques. Her children—Arup and Vipra—too have become the third After the 1960s and 70s, those who wore saris to college generation to be involved in this unique venture that has were soon to become part of an extinct generation—at helped weavers become successful business persons. least, among certain social groups in the big metropolises. On display at the exhibition were 56 saris, a few In those days, it was not unusual for Indian girls to cycle with the well-worn original displayed, along with the around the streets of Oxford, hanging on to pleats, lest contemporary weaver’s version. Some were Pavithra’s these got entangled in the wheels. It is also a generation adaptation and revival of local saris, as well as those from that has moved on to comfort clothes for daily wear—but Assam and Rajasthan, and the delicate chanderi from one that also harbours a great fascination for a beautiful Madhya Pradesh. This sari, named Bangalore Nanjappa Sari by textile aficionado Martand Singh, is a temple sari in interesting hues and the diamond weave design. The pallu combines variations of this weave and, according to Vimor, it is `the subtle progression of that element in the weave that makes this a master piece’. There was no shortage of masterpieces at Vimor’s tastefully curated display, the gorgeous magenta with unusual fish and paisley motifs being another. Brief notes on the saris provided an appropriate history and contexts for these beauties of our textile wealth. ■ MALAVIKA KARLEKAR Bangalore Nanjappa Sari 1 known—captured at various places in India formed part Celebrating the Past and of this series. The week-long exhibition entitled ‘A Dancer Looks Back: Sharon Lowen’s 45 Years in India’, curated Present of Indian Classical by Sanjit Devroy, was inaugurated on the first day of the Dance festival by Ashok Lavasa, photographer and Election Commissioner of India. FESTIVAL Seminars were simultaneously held on all three days Manasa—Art without Frontiers to discuss various aspects of continuity and change 25 to 27 July 2018 in the domain of Indian classical dance. The panels were designed with utmost care to make sure that they True to its name, the main vision of the festival ‘Looking were reflective of the various dimensions of the field— Back to Move Forward’—the ‘Manasa: Art Without be it performance, distribution or reception. Eminent Frontiers’, was to look back to the past of Indian personalities, stalwarts in their own fields, were selected performing arts, to study how it has been and can be to represent their respective areas as part of these successfully transmitted to subsequent generations. The panels. Among them were Pt. Birju Maharaj, Raja Reddy, event, which ambitiously put together performances, Karnalim Dutt, Rupi Mahendroo and Justin McCarthy, to seminars, workshops, photographic exhibitions and a film name a few. The brilliance of these sessions was further screening, saw an impressive turnout of both performers enhanced by the presence of deft moderators who and scholars alike. The list included big names in the managed to keep the discussions compact and pointed. world of Indian performing arts, as well as academia. Each day ended on the grand note of dance The diverse group was assembled in such a fashion, performances—traditional, contemporary or a mixture that the discussions would inevitably veer towards of both—by dancers from India and abroad. On the first enabling intersections between the different art forms— evening, there was a Mohiniattam performance by Brigitte visual and performing—in both the traditional and the Chataignier from France; the second evening saw the contemporary format. coming together of a group of young classical dancers The event showcased some 60, rare, never-seen-before including Carolina Prada (Chhau), Divya Dikshit (Kathak), photographs of Indian classical and folk dancers, clicked Vasudevan, Katyayani (Bharatanatyam), and Purva by renowned Odissi dancer and guru, Sharon Lowen, Dhanashree (Vilasini Natyam); and on the last evening, on her Nikon camera during the 70s and 80s when there was an Odissi recital by Vishwanath Mangaraj, she was in India as a Fulbright Scholar. Photographs of Nitisha Nanda, Arunima Ghosh and Madhur Gupta. dancers/dance-forms—both well-known as well as lesser ■ ANURIMA CHANDA surviving remnant of ancient Sanskrit theatre is not able A Remnant of Ancient Sanskrit to command even on its own soil of Kerala, with mostly excerpts of plays presented from time to time. An ancient Theatre theatre form, but with actors of a contemporary world, PERFORMANCE notions of tradition/ modernity are thrown asunder in this A Kutiyattam Performance—Surpanakhankam spectacular language of theatre, where one chosen verse from Saktibhadra’s Ascharyachudamani from the Sanskrit text can unfold in multiple layers of interpretation through the actor’s elaborate language of COLLABORATION: Sahapedia; Parekh gestures and facial expression. Immersed in a world where Institute of Indian Thought, CSDS; and Seher the tyranny of the clock has no meaning, in the non-linear 16 to 21 August 2018 narration with a back-and-forth of past, present and future not existing in independent time zones, the actor moves Watching a complete rendition over six evenings of a between being a narrator and/ or representing a special Kutiyattam performance of Surpanakhankam, the second character, frequently switching gender roles. A minimal act of Shaktibhadra’s Sanskrit play Ascharyachudamani, tucking up at the waist, of a side rim of the skirt turns the by Kerala’s Nepathya Theatre, was the rarest of rare performer into a female character, and the knotting up of experiences. The dream-child of Sudha Gopalakrishnan the tasselled uttareeya in front signifies reverting into a of Sahapedia, enabled what this still miraculously male character. With complete interpretative freedom, the 2 actor’s improvised narrative comprises dramatic devices like Nirvahanam (retrospective or recall of the past), and prakaranatyam, wherein the actor takes on several roles: male and female. The constant co-travellers on the actor’s journey are the brilliant Mizhavu (copper drum with ox-hide top base) players (Kalamandalam Manikantan, Nepathya Jinesh and Nepathya Ashwin), seated behind the actor, providing the rhythmic pulse for the performance (one providing the basic beat, with the other the fillers), and also evoking mood build-up in masterly fashion, through myriad drum resonance tones. The actor’s space is just a small square in front of the Mizhavu and Edekka players. Demanding lung power and breath control, the stylised sing-song recitation (called raga) of the to-be-interpreted Sanskrit verse is by the character actor, or in a Nirvahanam, by the female cymbal/ talam player seated at the side. The strong contemporary resonance differed from deified Valmiki Ramayana characters. Rama (different actor each evening) is vulnerable, making a plaything of Surpanakha, sending her to Lakshmana after refusing her advances, with an untruth that the brother unmarried is available. The Nepathya team head Margi Madhu, in a retrospective as Lakshmana, building with myriad details the Parnasala; and the amazing power of his Ninam Artist applying makeup scene as the mutilated Surpanakha, entering splattered in blood and gore, evoking mixed disgust and pathos, young Sita) stood out. So too, the Uttara Rama Charitam were unforgettable. Wife Dr. Indu’s abhinaya depth and Nangyar Koothu, when Indu, visualising Sita, tenderly brilliance as Lalita in the Nirvahanam on the fifth evening interacts with the baby elephant and peacock. Nepathya (Nepathya Yadukrishnan as Rama and Anjana Chakyar as Rahul Chakyar as Lakshmana, tempted by Lalita’s beauty till good sense prevails; Vishnu Prasad recapturing the grief and sorrow of Dasharatha ‘s arrow shooting the young boy of blind parents; Nepathya Yedukrishnan’s exchange as Rama with Sita; and above all, the young master Srihari Chakyar as Rama in the first scene conversing with Sita, and on the last evening as a feisty Lakshmana showed himself as a great hope for the future. ■ LEELA VENKATARAMAN Kutiyattam being performed in the Fountain Lawns 3 Raagas. Ustadji gave concerts till he was 105 years Travelling Film old. Hearing him sing some of his own compositions on camera as a centurion, one is moved by their profound South Asia—2018 aesthetic beauty. Popli must be thanked for recording FILM FESTIVAL this valuable part of a great master’s life, albeit, its last decade. DOCUMENTARY BEARS WITNESS: Travelling Film Southasia 2018—A Festival Of South Lock and Key (Director: Shilpi Gulati) is also worthy of Asian Documentaries Organised with Film attention. It is a quiet, compassionate record of victims of drug addiction in Punjab, the concern and support of Southasia, Kathmandu; and in collaboration their respective families, and the doctors and counsellors with New Imaginations: Jindal School of at the rehabilitation centre where they are treated. The Journalism and Communication, O.P. Jindal interviews with all the parties concerned express their Global University, Sonepat fears, hopes and aspirations. 1 to 4 AUGUST 2018 There was an onstage conversation on ‘Documentary as Protest’ between filmmakers Pankaj Butalia, Sanjay Kak, Each year, Travelling Film South Asia brings a set of very Vani Subramaniam and Nakul Sawhney.The problems interesting documentary films.Amdavad Ma Famous by of making documentaries relating to the burning issues Hardik Mehta, a 30-minute short, manages to convey the of the day, like communalism or any other, inimical to passion and total commitment to kite-flying of eleven-year- the current political dispensation, were highlighted.