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Acting
Up
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| Siddhanth
Behl and a scene from the play |
The
Taj Palace hotel in Delhi isn't the best place to stage a play, especially
if it's another enactment of a hapless "opera", The Life of
Gautama Buddha. The 5th century b.c. Sakya saint continues to be the victim
of a puerile theatrical stunt by directors Lushin Dubey and Bubbles Sabharwal,
underlined by wooden faces, middle-school simpers, mismatched music and
weak choreography. "It was a highly experimental play. Most people
have loved it," insists Dubey. Well, the hall was packed last week.
Perhaps the alcohol-laced dinner at the end was the incentive for those
braving it through.
-Anshul
Avijit
Painter
of the Past
Does a crumbling, 2,000-year-old university make for good art? Painter
Sanjay Chatterjee, 31, certainly thinks so. At a preview of his show at
Calcutta's CIMA Gallery, the artist reveals how he had a "spiritual
experience" that drew out his 50-odd works on Nalanda, the ancient
Buddhist seat of learning where he has gone 15 times since 1989. But Chatterjee
, who studied at the Government Art College in Calcutta, remains most
inarticulate about this experience. "The monk is in here," he
says quizzically, tapping his temple.
The paintings trace his changing perceptions. When Chatterjee first visited
Nalanda, he saw an amusement park with secret passages, forgotten rooms,
and old cemeteries. So paintings in the first part of his five-phase series
have a child-like splash of pastels. On subsequent visits, he saw a university
and a religion propagated by kings and scholars, which translated into
sombre greys, blacks and browns on canvas. Then there are map-paper sketches
that give a bird's-eye view of meditation rooms, dorms and classrooms.
In some of the works, there is even a hint of the tantric-images picked
up from Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan Buddhist viharas at nearby places.
"Look at this circle," he explains. "This is the inside
of someone's head, and here are the ideas. It could also be a teacher
surrounded by his students. Can't you see it?" Good thing Chatterjee
isn't writing a book on Nalanda.
-Labonita
Ghosh
Home
Base
Baseball,
America's bludgeony substitute for the rectangular willow, couldn't have
found a better mouthpiece than Taylor Miller of the American Embassy in
Delhi. "Personally I feel that cricket enthusiasts will find a pacier
and crisper alternative in baseball," he says, in his well-meaning
efforts to "make Indians understand the American way of life".
And to expedite the cultural process, Flanagan Field ( a field is called
a diamond in baseball parlance) in the embassy compound in Delhi played
host to the very first corporate baseball tournament where eight teams
pitched their skills-learnt over three hours-against each other. The traditional
baseball regimentals were mostly missing-the three-pronged shoes, the
collarless blouses, the pedal-pusher pants-but that didn't stop Cadence
Software Design Systems from upstaging a bobbling American Express by
three runs in the floodlit finals last Sunday.
For many
of the impassive spectators, the real action began only afterwards, as
Lou Bega and Jasbir Jassi scores rumbled on the parquet dance floor and
the snacky buffet dishes were uncovered. Among those who turned up in
their bobby socks and sporty Sunday casuals for the Jack Daniel-sponsored
event: the American Ambassador Richard Celeste and Jacqueline Lundquist,
Ashish Soni and Misha Grewal, ex-ngma-now-Western Railway exec Anjali
Sen and stage actress Sita Raina, who was adjudged the best dressed lady
. A perfect pitch, so to say.
-Anshul Avijit
Right
Up Their Alley
It was a
second Sunday last week, the Tamil film industry's official day off. So
Snowbowling, a popular Chennai bowling alley, decided to host a bowling
tournament just for them-and drum up some publicity in turn. Sharath Kumar,
Vijaykanth, Prabhu Deva, Ajith Kumar, Shalini, Prashant, they all turned
up, so did scores of other Tamil film and TV actors. In keeping with the
holiday mood, they came minus the expected lofty airs, caked-up faces
and flashy clothes. And with no prying eyes or autograph hunters around-the
fans were not invited, they jostled outside-they shrieked, hurrahed and
hooted to thumping music. Said Kandukondain Kandukondain star Ajith Kumar,
who was accompanied by his actor-wife Shalini: "It isn't often that
the industry gets to meet up. Hopefully, this will be the first of many."
Who doesn't want to have a ball?
-Methil
Renuka
Note
Worthy
Fresh faces
at music concerts are a rarity. That's why this year's Vishnu Digamber
Jayanti Sangeet Samaroh, held in Delhi last week, was a pleasant surprise.
Sharing the limelight with top musicians at the show were Shashank Maktedar,
30, and Subhadra Desai, 33-Hindustani classical vocalists with tremendous
promise. Maktedar has studied with Ulhas Kashalkar at Sangeet Research
Academy, Calcutta, and Desai with Madhup Mudgal at Gandharva Mahavidyalaya,
Delhi. But neither is restricted by their training.
Maktedar
has now moved to Aurangabad as he has to practise "whatever I learnt
from my guruji but I also have to interpret, develop and evolve my own
style and imbibe what is best in other gharanas". Desai on her part
sings in the Gwalior gharana style and is "deeply influenced"
by the late Pandit Kumar Gandharva, who rebelled against gharana traditions.
In a world where celebrity kids usually hog the headlines, here are two
talented artistes with no famous daddies to push them.
-S.
Sahaya Ranjit
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