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Category: Arts & Culture

  • Shubha Mudgal: I make my little efforts to experiment

    Shubha Mudgal: I make my little efforts to experiment

    “In my opinion, a festival like Serendipity is of great importance as it is interdisciplinary and boasts of great diversity. It would be wonderful to have more such platforms and spaces in the country,” she adds…writes Sukant Deepak

    Registering her presence as a classical singer in the ’80s, Shubha Mudgal, who started experimenting with other forms including pop and fusion, in the ’90s surprised her listeners with ease with the way she negotiated the spectrum.

    This Padma Shri awardee (year 2000), who is known to be constantly innovating and experimenting, however feels that every artist is driven by an urge to do the same and she is not alone or rare in that sense.

    “I make my little efforts to experiment and also try and assess if they have worked for me or not. If I am convinced about something I attempt, I wait for an opportunity to share it with listeners. Once it is shared, there is a possibility that it may not receive a favorable response from some. This is something that every artiste has to be ready to face, and I too accept such challenges,” she tells.

    Even as the threat of the new coronavirus variant peaks, she feels nothing has been done to help artists recover from the losses they faced during the last waves of the pandemic.

    Campaign to support disaster-affected artistes.

    “There does not seem to be any plan in place for the future either and artistes have been left to sink or swim. I believe that it is artistes themselves who need to ask for this lethargy and lack of empathy to come to an end. Sadly, they too do not think of themselves as a fraternity or community and are busy lobbying for concert opportunities, awards, and other benefits. Thus, this situation where arts does not get the attention it deserves is likely to continue,” she laments.

    Attributing her success to the support she received from her parents and family, the singer remembers how they would constantly encourage her to engage with the arts and ensured abundant exposure to different art forms. “They made many sacrifices to enable me to learn music and pursue it as my life’s work, and were a constant support in the face of any challenge that came my way.”

    The singer, who enthralled the audiences with her performance during ‘Dil ki Baatein’ curated by Aneesh Pradhan at the recently concluded Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa, says that the challenge for her was to render love songs and love poems written by different poets, and interpret each in a nuanced way and with variety. Singing under the direction of the curator and the arranger Srijan Mahajan, the set included some songs written and composed by her as well.

    “In my opinion, a festival like Serendipity is of great importance as it is interdisciplinary and boasts of great diversity. It would be wonderful to have more such platforms and spaces in the country,” she adds.

    Someone who has been writing and speaking about musicians’ rights, anti-piracy, and insurance for musicians, says these issues are integral to the well-being and progress of artistes and to their livelihood. Even though Indian law is extremely artiste-friendly, she stresses that artists continue to be exploited and are not given their due. “Contracts and agreements that we are expected to sign are unfair and often strip us of even our moral and fundamental rights. I try and understand these problems and share my views with others by writing or speaking about them.”

    Talk to her about her stand on contemporary social and political issues including CAA-NRC, and Mudgal, who performed at Shaheen Bagh during the protests, says that being a responsible citizen social and political realities, problems and conflicts are of interest to her. “I have voiced my opinions publicly, and as is often the case, have had to face abuse, trolling, and worse. I try and face the consequences to the best of my ability, independently and without trying to garner support for my actions or opinions from any quarter.”

    With a robust concert schedule coming up in 2023 starting with a performance at the annual Saptak Festival in Ahmedabad in early January, she says, “Taking into account the threat of another wave, I hope we will all be safe and be able to travel and perform once again.”

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  • ‘My beginnings are slow…and my books come slowly’

    ‘My beginnings are slow…and my books come slowly’

    Talk to her about major Indian publishing houses working with Pakistani writers and she says that around a decade back, it was fashionable to say ‘Pakistani writing is cool’, but the first people who were publishing them were in India…writes Sukant Deepak

    She says a novel has a number of starting points, and for a long time she was been interested in the idea of childhood friendships and how they are so different. “In 2016, in America there was Trump and in Britain, Brexit. I started hearing a lot of people saying things, like ‘Oh! there are so many things falling apart and I cannot talk to them (friends) because they are on the other side… I found myself thinking about what can friendships survive,” award-winning British-Pakistani author Kamila Shamsie tells.

    Her latest novel ‘Best of Friends’ (Bloomsbury Publishing), a book about friendship, power, morality, and loyalty, follows its title characters from their Pakistani girlhoods to their adult lives in England. She adds that in friendships, one may choose to just ignore the points of difference and focus on the similarities — but what happens if that source of difference cannot be ignored anymore? “So it started in that way and it was more abstract. And then, I was writing an article on Pakistan’s women’s cricket team, and I felt this tingling in my fingers, and strong memories hit me. It was such a crucial point and I had the idea — It must begin in Karachi. So I suppose all those things came together.”

    The author, who won the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction (‘Home Fire’) and has to her credit novels including ‘In the City by the Sea’, ‘Salt and Saffron’, ‘Kartography’, ‘Broken Verses’, ‘Burnt Shadows’, ‘A God in Every Stone’ and ‘Home Fire’ says that something she is just not interested in deciphering which characters in her works share similarities with those in her life. “Because when I start associating that, they become someone else, and it’s very hard to see them as people. In the back of my brain, I am using my life experiences and the people I have met as inspiration, and it’s not just from one person. While for some people, the joy of writing comes from real-life people who they take their inspiration from, in my case, I am still that child who wants to make things up.”

    Shamsie, born into a family of intellectuals in Karachi – where everyone read, wrote and talked about books, something she took to early on, remembers, “Books were as much a part of life as food was. When you learn that early on, it sets in on you. Now, we are lucky that there are a lot of young writers coming out of Pakistan and it (writing) is one of the things you might want to do with your life. Growing up, it was very different. There were very few who would write in English and they seemed like an exception. That I had a mother who would sit at a desk and write sentences made me think — this is something I can do with your life.”

    Talk to her about major Indian publishing houses working with Pakistani writers and she says that around a decade back, it was fashionable to say ‘Pakistani writing is cool’, but the first people who were publishing them were in India.

    “And it makes sense of course as we are tied to each other in so many ways. It is hard to get across the border and novels became a way to know each other. A lot of the infrastructure was created due to Indian publishing which I think is wonderful.”

    Now living in England for a long time, does the distance from Karachi, where many of her works are based, helps her understand that city by the sea better? She asserts, “To write about Karachi from this distance, and in 2022, I do not think I am in a better position than someone who is physically there. Time does something interesting, and I can look back at Karachi in 1988… The interesting thing is the distance that comes with time rather than a sort of a physical moving away.”

    Talking about her mentor, Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali, who she studied from both as an undergraduate and graduate student, she remembers, “After his death, there’s like an internalized version of him who tells me — ‘Okay, you have written a bad sentence and need to delete it, erase it from your memory’. When I took some poetry classes with him, that freed my prose. I learned to pay attention to every word. An important thing he taught was to read the writing out loud.”

    For her, a book ‘comes’ slowly… she comes to a point where she has not written for some time but then there is an inkling. And then months go by when something very slight forms. “I sit down and I am stuck for a long time. My beginnings are slow because I do not know what I am doing at times. And then, five days in a week, I am at my desk for hours. The deeper I get into a novel, the more it flows,” she concludes.

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  • New books for year end reading

    New books for year end reading

    The Holidays are here… and while its fun to catch up with friends and family, it’s also the perfect time to pick a book to read over your New Year vacation or if you’re home, curl up to in front of the fireplace. Check out these new titles:

    All The Right People

    Priyanka Khanna held a preview for her first book- All The Right People in Worli, Mumbai on 28th November, 2022. The preview was attended by Karan Johar, Kajol and Ananya Panday amongst other celebrities.

    Tamil Actress-fitness icon Ramya Subramanium’s first book, Stop Weighting

    Ramya, the confident influencer of today, was once a naive and self-conscious teenager, who suffered bullying and body shaming. Just as any other insecure adolescent would, she began a long and tortuous journey to become ‘thin’. Ludicrous crash diets, intense workouts at the gym and an all-pervading sense of inferiority afflicted her for nearly a decade.

    In the midst of this, Ramya was catapulted into fame at an early age when she got her first break as a television anchor. But with the media attention came all the toxic side-effects of being a celebrity. Until she decided to take back control over her life. Today, Ramya is healthier and happier than she has ever been. In Stop Weighting: A Guidebook for a Fitter, Healthier You we find out how she achieved this.

    Pico Iyer’s new book- The Half Known Life

    After half a century of travel, from Ethiopia to Tibet, from Belfast to Jerusalem, Pico Iyer asks himself what kind of paradise can ever be found in a world of unceasing conflict. In a spectacular journey, both inward and outward, Iyer roams from crowded mosques in Iran to a film studio in North Korea, from a holy mountain in Japan to the sometimes spooky emptiness of the Australian outback.

    At every stop, he makes connections with unexpected strangers – mystics and taxi drivers and fellow travellers – and draws on his own memories, of time spent in a Benedictine monastery high above the Pacific, of regular travels with the Dalai Lama, of hearing his late mother speak of sunlit moments in pre-Partition India.

    By the end, he has upended many of our expectations and dared to suggest that we can find paradise right in the heart of our angry, confused and divided world.

    Aruna Gopakumar and Yashodhara Lal’s book- And how do you feel about that?

    For too long, therapy has been seen as taboo in our society and is shrouded in myth–it’s only for the weak or ‘crazies’, it’s just blaming your parents, a therapist ‘only listens’ and so on. In this book, Aruna Gopakumar and Yashodhara Lal bust those myths and show you how therapy actually works.

    With decades of combined experience in the field, these two therapists share fascinating stories based on their practice. You’ll meet the woman who sends secret messages to her husband during arguments; the towering tattooed man who realizes he can’t save his sister; the teenager whose life is revealed in the tale of a lonely bear; the divorced man angry with his ex-wife for starting to date again; the fiery gay young man impatient to change the world; the lady who won’t relax until her daughter is perfect; and many more.

    In this collection of fifty stories, readers can get a fly-on-the-wall perspective on what takes place in the intimate setting of the therapy room. Inspired by the conversational yet reflective style of internationally recognized works like ‘The Examined Life’ by Stephen Grosz and the recent bestseller, ‘Maybe You Should Talk to Someone’ by Lori Gottlieb, this book is a powerful contribution by two Indian therapists to the much-needed conversation about mental health and the role of therapy. The range of issues in the book include everything from the challenges of being gay, dealing wth divorce, perfectionism, overly strict parenting, troubled relationships with food, repetitive conflict in long term relationships, issues of anger, anxiety, low confidence and more.

    Both the authors are IIM graduates, about a decade apart from the same campus IIM-Bangalore, and share the commonality of having several years of corporate experience before making the unusual decision to turn to the field of psychotherapy.

    3 Tips by Meera Gandhi

    3 Tips: The Essentials for Peace, Joy and Success by global philanthropist and the Founder of The Giving Back Foundation, Meera Gandhi covers several topics related to mental health and wellness.

    The book breaks down complex issues into 3 simple tips for each subject which anyone can pick up and implement into their own lives. Anyone feeling lost or in need of guidance can easily dive into the many subjects covered and find themselves gently nudged into a direction that brings them a greater awareness and clarity of their present situation in the context of a greater spiritual perspective.

    This book is a continuation of Meera’s focus on creating highly accessible and practical resources in the mental health, wellness and spirituality space. In fact, supporting mental wellness initiatives is the third pillar of The Giving Back Foundation.

    India in search of Glory by Ashok Lahiri

    India and Indians have made some progress over the last seventy-five years since Independence. The literacy rate has gone up. The Indians have become healthier, and their life expectancy at birth has also gone up. The proportion of people below the poverty line has halved in number. But the shine from the story fades when development in India is compared with that in the Four Asian Tigers and China. It looks good, but not good enough. India looks far away from the glory it seeks. This is the core subject matter of India in Search of Glory.

    The book tries to argue why India could not achieve more since Independence and what all it could have achieved. It paints a picture of its possible future and highlights the areas that need immediate attention.

    The Classic Indian Guide To Citizen-Craft, Translated For The Contemporary Reader by Nitin Pai

    Nitin Pai, co-founder and director of the Takshashila Institution, an independent think tank and school of public policy, translated the manuscript of The Nitopadesha that came to his hands. It is a unique blend of fables and stories that covers politics, economics and philosophy. Published by Penguin Random House India, it is scheduled to release in January, 2023 and is currently available for pre-order.

    In the distant land of Gandhara, there once was a janapada called Chakrapuri. Its elders were a worried lot. Their children were uninterested in the welfare and upkeep of the janapada. Most of them were consumed by self-interest and avarice, seeking personal gains, even at the cost of their fellow citizens. Realizing that the young must learn the arts and crafts of citizenship, the Sabha of Chakrapuri decided to employ Nitina of Takshashila, whose wisdom was said to be unparalleled, to teach their children. So it came to pass that the unconventional scholar was entrusted with the charge of these boys and girls for the next ninety days.

    Thus begins the Nitopadesha. A labyrinth of stories in the style of the Panchatantra and the Jataka tales, this is a book about good citizenship and citizen-craft that will speak to the modern reader. Covering aspects such as what citizenship means, the ethical dilemmas one faces as a citizen and how one can deal with social issues, Nitin Pai’s absorbing translation is an essential read for conscientious citizens of all ages.

    Nitin has been blogging on international relations and national security issues at the Acorn since 2003. Pai was a gold medallist at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, from where he has a master’s degree in public administration. As an undergraduate scholar, he studied electrical engineering at Nanyang Technological University, after which he spent more than a decade in the telecommunications and technology industry, including a long stint as a policymaker in the Singapore government.

    New book launches for the season.(photo:IANSLIFE)
    New book launches for the season.(photo:IANSLIFE)
    New book launches for the season.(photo:IANSLIFE)
    New book launches for the season.(photo:IANSLIFE)


    Gunjan Ahlawat’s new book – Soul is beautiful

    This is an invitation to to cut through the clutter and noise of the world around you. With the guidance of visual designer Ahlawat Gunjan you’ll learn to see, observe, reflect, and practice artistic techniques developed through years of training.

    This beautiful collector’s edition of SLOW IS BEAUTIFUL prepares you to welcome a new artistic vision into your life by building a relationship with form, colour, and composition in a uniquely accessible way.

    These unique easy-to-use prompts, highlighted by vibrant ink and nature-inspired watercolour paintings will motivate you to draw, erase, paint, experiment, create and, most importantly, embrace your mistakes.

    Rethink Ageing: By Reshmi Chakraborty & Nidhi Chawla

    Veena Iyer, aged sixty-six, got a degree in dance movement therapy. She is training to upgrade her skill and now runs various workshops.

    B.R. Janardan, aged eighty-seven, started running after sixty and has sixteen full marathons under his belt.

    These important stories illustrate the shifting narrative for ageing in India. They battle the ageism that is deep-rooted in Indian culture with fixed notions of ‘approved’ behaviour. Grandchildren? Yes. Pilgrimage? Yes. But companionship? Gasp! A second career? Why the need?

    India will have over 300 million senior citizens by 2050. ‘Active ageing’ has become a popular topic of conversation in urban India and is the process of developing and maintaining functional activities as one gets older. Therefore, it is no longer uncommon to meet people like Janardan or Iyer in our fast-evolving society. We have an ageing society that is living longer and adapting to nuclear families, faraway kids and amorphous social support. Urban Indians are navigating health challenges, isolation and shifting social barometers to practise active ageing, the best form of preventive healthcare. Biological age no longer defines and limits us. After all, why should age prevent us from living the lives we want to?

    Energize Your Mind by Gaur Gopal Das

    In this book, bestselling author and life coach Gaur Gopal Das decodes how the mind works. He combines his anecdotal style with analytical research to teach us how to discipline our mind for our greater well-being. Throughout this book, he provides interactive exercises, meditation techniques and worksheets to help us take charge of our mind.

    This book is an essential read for anyone who wants to work towards a better, more fulfilling future for themselves.

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  • ‘Oh To Believe in a Better World’

    ‘Oh To Believe in a Better World’

    The arguments around authoritarianism in “Oh To Believe in a Better World” will inspire the audience of Kochi Muziris Biennale to consider the current political situation…reports Asian Lite News

    Popular South African artist William Kentridge persuades the art aficionados who walk into Kochi Muziris Biennale to engage in a critical conversation with life and culture in the colonial countries.

    His work titled “Oh To Believe in a Better World”, an immersive film projection set in an abandoned Soviet museum, is one of the invitations programme of Kochi Muziris Biennale 2022.

    The installation explores the immense possibilities of performing arts and films to inspire contemporary ideological debates.

    As the title suggests, the artist refers to the concept of utopia, the wish for it, and the futile struggles for its realisation.

    Through art, this South African artist inspires critical ideology debates

    According to Kentridge, people are good at making connections, though not intended by the artist.

    “As an artist, I’ve my own perspective and stance. The audience can agree with them or reject them. But there is always scope for creative debates,” said the South African.

    The arguments around authoritarianism in “Oh To Believe in a Better World” will inspire the audience of Kochi Muziris Biennale to consider the current political situation.

    “The struggles of the art and literary activists in the western countries like scarcity, oppression, and repression, are relevant elsewhere in this modern era,” opined Kentridge, who has also excelled in his roles as an animator, a filmmaker, and an activist.

    Through art, this South African artist inspires critical ideology debates

    “I have always been interested in the artistic experiments of the constructivists. I also tried to apply the new ways of filmmaking,” he adds.

    The medium uses elements of divisive theatre, puppetry, music, stop-frame animation, collage, and tapestry.

    The 67-year-old multi-talented artist has received several international recognitions, including Spain’s prestigious Princess of Asturias Award.

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  • Stage set for Jaipur Literature Festival

    Stage set for Jaipur Literature Festival

    Writer and oral historian Aanchal Malhotra will be in conversation with the author of ‘Partition Voices’, Kavita Puri, where she reveals how the Partition is not yet an event of the past and its legacy is threaded into the daily lives of subsequent generations…reports Asian Lite News

    The Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), which will run from January 19 to 23, 2023 at Hotel Clarks Amer in Jaipur will host over 250 speakers from across an array of nationalities, as well as recipients of major awards such as the Nobel, the Booker, International Booker, the Pulitzer, the Sahitya Akademi, Baillie Gifford, PEN America Literary Awards, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and the JCB Prize for Literature.

    Announced on Tuesday at the preview held in the national capital, the list has some of the world’s greatest minds including Nobel awardee and celebrated writer Abdulrazak Gurnah in conversation with British publishing legend Alexandra Pringle for a panel discussion titled ‘The Essential Abdulrazak Gurnah’.

    Gurnah’s striking and formidable works include Memory of Departure, Pilgrims Way, Dottie, Paradise, By the Sea, Desertion, and his most recent, Afterlives, which examines the German colonial force in East Africa and the lives of Tanganyikans, as they, work, grieve, and love, in the darkening shadow of war.

    In a tale celebrating the pluralist past of the Middle East, private diplomat, journalist and author Michael Vatikiotis traces the history of his family caught between a clash of faith and identity. Lives Between Lines recounts life under the Ottoman Empire where communities from different creeds and origins thrived.

    Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo (‘Manifesto: On Never Giving Up’), will talk about is an inspirational account of her life and career as she rebelled against the mainstream and fought over several decades to bring her creative work into the world. Booker Prize winning author Shehan Karunatilaka will speak on ‘Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’ where Karunatilaka will delve into his latest tale of pathos, humour and satire, and the grave dangers of collective amnesia. At another session, the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize 2022, Katherine Rundell will speak of her sparkling biography of John Donne: the poet of love, sex, and death.

    The list continues with the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Caroline Elkins for a panel discussion where Elkins will take the audience through her illuminating and authoritative book ‘Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire’. During the session, Elkins will explode long-held myths and shed disturbing new light on the empire’s role in shaping the world today. The Festival will also feature acclaimed art historian Katy Hessel for a panel discussion with Xavier Bray on a session named ‘The Story of Art without Men’, where Hessel will discuss the historical documentation of art and her attempts at dismantling patriarchy within the art world.

    Bibek Debroy, scholar and translator who had made a number of previously difficult-to-access Sanskrit texts available to readers in English will be in conversation with Festival Co-Director Namita Gokhale, talking about the intricate layers of wisdom and learning contained in the Puranas, with special reference to his latest rendering of the Brahma Puranas in English translation.During one of the key sessions at the Festival, three experts of agrarian studies, scholar and writer Maryam Aslany and academic Surinder S. Jodhka will be in conversation with Mukulika Banerjee, delving deeper into the causes and consequences of the situation and the complex and acute tragedy of farmer suicides.

    India’s relations with China have seen numerous highs and lows. At a session, journalist and author Manoj Joshi, in ‘Understanding the India-China Border: The Enduring Threat of War in the High Himalayas’, will trace the brutal circumstances of the LAC and the impact of its “fuzziness”.

    Secretary Vijay Gokhale and former Ambassador to China, Myanmar, Indonesia and Nepal & former Foriegn Secretary Shyam Saran will discuss the rising tensions at the unresolved LAC, and what that means for the region.

    Writer and oral historian Aanchal Malhotra will be in conversation with the author of ‘Partition Voices’, Kavita Puri, where she reveals how the Partition is not yet an event of the past and its legacy is threaded into the daily lives of subsequent generations.

    Technology-friendly writers Nandan Nilekani and Tanuj Bhojwani induct readers into the secret of using electronic devices for their benefit without losing either mental peace or physical fitness. Philanthropist and writer Sudha Murty for an insightful discussion where Murty will present a pragmatic worldview that is nevertheless based on compassion and empathy.

    At another session oncologist, biologist and celebrated Pulitzer prize-winning author, Siddhartha Mukherjee will talk about his most recent book, ‘The Song of the Cell’. and present a panoramic saga that combines “memoir, history and science” as it attempts to answer the questions of what it means to be alive.

    This year, the festival will celebrate the diversity of language and literature by conducting a panel discussion featuring International Booker Prize winner Geetanjali Shree in conversation with translator Daisy Rockwell and Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar recipient Tanuj Solanki for a session on Ret Samadhi: Tomb of Sand. At the session, the trio will discuss the nuances of language, translation, prizes and fame. A session on the late Lata Mangeshkar’s long journey as a vocal artiste, featuring celebrated poet, music and cinema scholar, Yatindra Mishra in conversation with translator and writer Anu Singh Choudhary.

    JLF 2023 will also showcase some of the greatest novelists, including Marlon James and Ruth Ozeki and some of the greatest non-fiction writers, including Anna Keay, Jonathan Freedland, Rebecca Wragg Sykes, David Wengrow, David Raubenheimer, Luke Harding, Alex Renton, Antony Beevor, Orlando Figes, Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Mikhail Zygar, Sathnam Sanghera, Merlin Sheldrake, Tansen Sen, Vincent Brown, Kris Manjapra, Miranda Seymour, David Olusoga, Edmund de Waal, Katie Hickman, Anthony Sattin, and Anita Anand, amongst others.

    Speaking during the preview, Namita Gokhale, writer, publisher, and Co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said: ” Our programme as always forefronts new voices across languages and cultures and spans a wide arc from geopolitics, history, religion and spirituality, prose, poetry and argumentative discourse to planetary concerns, crime-writing, detective fiction and psychological thrillers, appropriately titled ‘Jaipur Noir’. The Jaipur BookMark too returns onground to examine publishing perspectives.”

    William Dalrymple, writer, historian and Co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said: “Every year we try and raise the bar at the annual Jaipur Literature Festival, but 2023 will undoubtedly be our finest festival yet. We are proud to present almost all the year’s most decorated writers: we have the winners of the Nobel, Booker, Sahitya Akademi, Baillie Gifford, National Book Awards & Women’s Prize!”

    Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, producer of the Jaipur Literature Festival, said: “Jaipur Literature Festival is a platform for spreading considered knowledge and presenting different perspectives on complex issues of our times. In 2023, the Festival will focus on themes such as climate crisis, geopolitics, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Indo-China relations, agriculture, and energy.”

    The Delhi Curtain Raiser at The Leela Palace saw a performance by the Barmer Boys welcoming the audience with their Rajasthani folk and Sufi music penetrating the walls of the palace with an exemplary performance.

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  • Alper Aydin depicts political environment in Kochi Biennale

    Alper Aydin depicts political environment in Kochi Biennale

    Aydin, who uses various mediums of contemporary art to express his ideas and to relate to the audience, has come out with an installation comprising pencil drawings and plastic paintings at Pepper House in Fort Kochi…reports Asian Lite News

    Alper Aydin has come all the way from Turkey to attend the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2022 and has put up an artwork depicting the politics of environment.

    The fifth edition of the Kochi Biennale got underway on Monday after a four-year hiatus and will feature over 200 projects of 90 artists.

    He feels that his works are expressions of the thought that humans are just a part of biological nature as the 33-year-old believes that there is no better medium to give expression to his ideas than art.

    Aydin, who uses various mediums of contemporary art to express his ideas and to relate to the audience, has come out with an installation comprising pencil drawings and plastic paintings at Pepper House in Fort Kochi.

    The installation depicts the drawings and paintings of stones in various sizes and weights from his native place, Ordu.

    His works go on to contend that humans don’t have any special place or power in nature.

    Aydin, whose creativity spans painting, sculpture, illustration, performance, and video segments, has already made a footprint in various international exhibitions, including Biennales, with his works.

    The world-renowned artist who has done his studies in ‘earth art’ has a Ph.D. also to his credit.

    He served as a professor in the art department for seven years.

    Currently, he focuses on environment watch and conservation and the art activities centred on them on the world stage.

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  • Deepan sets theatre closer to a football match

    Deepan sets theatre closer to a football match

    “The audiences will get to witness works by some major theatre persons like Brett Bailey, Romeo Castellucci and Eugenio Barba. Indian directors, including Atul Kumar, Nikhil Mehta and Jyoti Dograwill also be presenting their works.”…writes Sukant Deepak

    While sometimes writers do not allow directors to even touch their scripts, he says his work in fact starts from there. “I do not take it from the writer nor stick to a script because theatre is not literature. It’s far away from it. A story and a novel are solitary. And theatre is not. I would put theatre closer to a football match — people gather, they cheer,” smiles theatre director Deepan Sivaraman.

    As part of the curatorial team of the International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK) to be held from February 5 to 14, 2023, he wants to look at struggles faced during the pandemic, a time when theatre-makers, in particular, were looking into an abyss.

    “Unlike other forms of art, theatre cannot be done without people — you have to gather. This year we are using the opportunity to reassemble, hold hands, and tell the world that this is the time when art, humanity and artists must unite, precisely why the ITFoK theme is ‘Humanities Must Unite’, Sivaraman tells.

    Co-curating the festival with veteran theatre persons like Anuradha Kapur and B. Ananthakrishnan, this faculty member at Ambedkar University’s School of Culture and Creative Expressions, says this year’s effort is trying to retrospect things they have done in the past 12 years.

    “We want it to bring more confidence in theatre-makers and offer more to the audience and show them what theatre can do.”

    The festival will witness 12 international plays and 14 national productions, including four from Kerala. The international productions include ‘Antigone’ (Uzbek/UK), ‘Kafka’ (France), ‘Don’t Believe Me If I talk About War’ (Israel/Palestine), ‘Samson’ (South Africa), ‘Hero Beauty’ (Taiwan), ‘Museum’ (Israel), ‘AveMaria’ (Denmark), ‘Tempest’ (France), ‘Told by Mother’ (Lebanon), ‘Seven Moons’ (Tashkent/Uzbek), ‘Three Episodes of Family Life’ (Poland) and ‘3rd Reich’ (Italy).

    “The audiences will get to witness works by some major theatre persons like Brett Bailey, Romeo Castellucci and Eugenio Barba. Indian directors, including Atul Kumar, Nikhil Mehta and Jyoti Dograwill also be presenting their works.”

    Best known for directing plays like ‘Ubu Roi’, ‘The Legends of Khasak’, ‘Project Nostalgia’, ‘Nationalism Project’, and several others, Sivaraman, who is considered the best scenographer in the country (‘Naked Voices’, ‘Virasat’, ‘The Girl in the Drain’ and ‘Siddhartha’ among others), feels it is extremely important to bring in other art forms to theatre.

    “Theatre has always been a hybrid form. Although many directors over history do search for a purer form but the more you search, the more you see that it’s not pure. In India, we have a lot of text-based theatre — and it has become a form of dialogue. The more the artist is able to understand the complexity and the nature of form, there is the crossing of disciplines — and that is theatre.”

    However, this founder of Oxygen Theatre Company in New Delhi and Master’s degree holder in Scenography from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design London, says that the audiences do ‘accept’ that theatre is about the experience of time and space and not just about delivering dialogues.

    Talk to him about working with conventionally trained actors, much used to working with a bound script and how they react when they enter his rehearsal space, and the director says he has worked with different kinds of actors — trained, village actors and the naturally trained.

    “But I have to train them afresh. You cannot hire them like engineers. Sometimes what they know is not enough. And sometimes it is easier to work if they do not know anything. Learning and unlearning is an essential part of the process. And that is not just with just theatre. You may have a set of ideas, and unless you have a conversation to learn from each other, something new will never emerge, and the kind of work we do is about that.”

    Though this director, who taught in London for a long time and then came back to put that into practice, wanted to set up an art collective here, he is not really sure when that will happen.

    “I am someone whose practice is very different. I am an academic and a lot of my time goes into universities. I do my practice and curate and work with other artists. It’s about spreading energy.”

    Mention the theatre ecosystem in India where the journey of major productions for festivals mostly end there and seldom go beyond, and he asserts, “There was a big vision for ‘The Tempest’. Such a huge production and all that could be managed were 10 shows. There is a serious problem unless you make work out of your own company,” says the director behind ‘The Legend of Khasak’, the unique theatre project that has no similarities in the recent Indian theatre history in the terms of its production of working with village actors and the way in which the entire village got part of it.

    ALSO READ-A complete fusion of creative expressions

  • A complete fusion of creative expressions

    A complete fusion of creative expressions

    The programming this year will give weightage to Interdisciplinarity, which will be further explored by Quasar Thakore Padamsee and Geeta Chandran through their projects intersecting dance, drama, music and storytelling…reports Asian Lite News

    India’s largest multidisciplinary arts event, Serendipity Arts Festival, will be held from December 15-23 in Goa.

    The festival brings together diverse creative expressions from the region of South Asia and promotes its cultural heritage through varied projects. The performance segment will see curation by Bickram Ghosh, Ehsaan Noorani, Quasar Thakore Padamsee, Mayuri Upadhya and Geeta Chandran. The music performances with multi-genre and unique performances will celebrate the coming together of traditional and contemporary forms.

    Bickram Ghosh and Ehsaan Noorani will curate the Music section with a series of concerts covering diverse genres from classical, fusion, folk, indie pop, rock, and more.

    Innovators like Sanjay Mondal will be leading a group of children through instruments made from scrap and waste material.

    An illustrious line-up of curators at the 5th edition of Serendipity Arts Festival(ianslife)

    Bickram Ghosh will also be paying tribute to ace music composer RD Burman through his project titled ‘The World of Pancham: An RD Burman Tribute’.

    Celebrating India’s 75th year of independence, the festival will offer artists a platform to perform and showcase their art.

    The programming this year will give weightage to Interdisciplinarity, which will be further explored by Quasar Thakore Padamsee and Geeta Chandran through their projects intersecting dance, drama, music and storytelling.

    Speaking about the curation, Geeta Chandran said, “I am energized by my curatorial assignment for the 2022 Serendipity Fest. Reclaiming performance after a pandemic hiatus got my juices flowing again! This is indeed a unique opportunity for me to bring to the festival truly inter-disciplinary work since the festival gives curators complete freedom to explore the creative forms of expression. Puppeteers with dancers, theatre artists with dancers, different dance forms dialoging with each other, all very exciting and fresh… .”

    The fifth edition of the festival will explore ways to enhance public engagement with the arts and boost the soft power of the nation by making art and culture a part of everyday conversations.

    Exploring the post-pandemic transition from the virtual to the physical, choreographer, educationist and creative entrepreneur Mayuri Upadhya will focus on engaging and immersive nature of the arts that delves deeper in the culture and its stories. The range of projects will celebrate the socio-cultural milieu of the region through traditional and contemporary dance and choreographic practices.

    A confluence of artists from diverse backgrounds will underline the Goan spirit of SAF. Curated by Goa-based classical guitarist Shayamant Behal, ‘Music in the Park’ features some of Goa’s finest musicians who will regale audiences with daily performances.

    ALSO READ-Salaam Venky: A heart touching real-life tale with stunning performances

  • Mayuri Upadhya born to ‘create’ and she will continue to do that

    Mayuri Upadhya born to ‘create’ and she will continue to do that

    Talking about her studio process and how she selects her themes (or how they ‘come’ to her), this dancer and choreographer states when one is an artiste, creativity trickles down to every part of the DNA…writes Sukant Deepak

    Her journey with dance started at the age of six. She stresses that for her it is not just an art form, as the relationship with it is more internal, emotional, and spiritual. That it is the way she understands, communicates, and expresses — from body, voice and imagination to design thinking.

    Mayuri Upadhya, choreographer and dancer feels as one grows with time, there are many intertwined layers of what she/he wants and what the world wants of the person, yet, strangely, it all makes sense.

    “I started off as a performer, a dreamer, but today I am a doer, I persevere on an uncharted path with intuition, hard work, and by constantly refining my talent and skill,” she tells.

    Upadhya, who will be one the curators for the dance segment at the Serendipity Arts Festival to be held in Goa in December smiles, “I was born to create, and that I will continue to do. All the other variables will fall in place.”

    Adding that she is excited to bring world-class Indian acts to the festival, Upadhya assures the dance programming at the festival is a perfect mix of immersive, experimental, and inclusive.

    “We have mythology musical with ’18 Days’ by Sharath Prabhat, new works by Madhavi Mudgal, and Ashley Lobo’s Navdhara India Dance Theatre. We see Sita’s point of view in Shruthi and Parshawanath Upadhye’s ‘Abha’ and award-winning contemporary works by Surjit Nongmeikapam. Not to mention, the excellently curated street jam ‘On The Move’ on the penultimate night of the festival that brings the international street dance styles all under one roof.”

    She feels that there need to be more art festivals — not for the world to see us but for us to see the world.

    Talking about her studio process and how she selects her themes (or how they ‘come’ to her), this dancer and choreographer states when one is an artiste, creativity trickles down to every part of the DNA.

    “Probably that is the reason there is seldom a dearth of ideas. I also believe that an idea picks the person or the channel and not the other way round.”

    Adding that for her there is a different intuitive process for every project, she says, “You can say my process is that I am not conscious of breaking dance patterns. Dance is like a mould of clay that can constantly change shapes — ones I want to play with, break and recreate.”

    Upadhya feels the country definitely needs more dance repertories.

    “Both repertories and their heads need to be nurtured. Companies can be adopted for a minimum period of five years to show their true potential. There can be a one-time corpus fund created to help basic financial challenges,” says the dancer whose favourite form is Odissi.

    “There is nothing that beats it because it’s so poetic, complex, and yet so effortless,” she concludes.

    ALSO READ-India Art Fair to spotlight next-generation artists

  • The Blue Bar: An evocative thriller on lost love and murderous obsession

    The Blue Bar: An evocative thriller on lost love and murderous obsession

    Past and present blur as Rajput realises he’s on the trail of a serial killer and that someone wants his investigation buried at any cost. Could the key to finding Tara and solving these murders be hidden in one of his cold cases? Or will the next body they recover be her’s?…reports Asian Lite News

    On the dark streets of Mumbai, the paths of a missing dancer, a serial killer, and an inspector with a haunted past converge in Damyanti Biswas’s “The Blue Bar” (Thomas & Mercer), an evocative thriller about lost love and murderous obsession.

    After years of dancing in Mumbai’s bars, Tara Mondal was desperate for a new start. So when a client offered her a life-changing payout to indulge in a harmless, if odd, fantasy, she accepted. The setup was simple: Wear a blue-sequined sari, enter a crowded railway station, and escape from view in less than three minutes. It was the last time anyone saw Tara.

    Thirteen years later, Tara’s lover, inspector Arnav Singh Rajput, is still grappling with her disappearance as he faces a horrifying new crisis: On the city’s outskirts, women’s dismembered bodies are being unearthed from shallow graves. Very little links the murders, except a scattering of blue sequins and a decade’s worth of missing persons reports that correspond with major festivals.

    Past and present blur as Rajput realises he’s on the trail of a serial killer and that someone wants his investigation buried at any cost. Could the key to finding Tara and solving these murders be hidden in one of his cold cases? Or will the next body they recover be her’s?

    Damyanti Biswas is the author of “You Beneath Your Skin” and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She’s been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine.

    Biswas is also a supporter of Project WHY, a programme that provides quality education to underprivileged children in New Delhi. Apart from being a novelist, she is an avid reader of true crime, a blogger, and an animal lover. Her ambition has always been to live in a home with more books than any other item, and she continues to work toward that.

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