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METRO
FEATURE
Sets
Apart...
"Here,
you can keep this," says Sumant Jayakrishnan, holding out a sheaf
of papers. It's his CV. "I know, I know," he says with a wry
smile, "I've just been looking for some grants, so I've got it lying
with me." Six pages? But what do you expect when a 31-year-old straddles
the worlds of set design (cinema, theatre, TV, fashion shows), installation
art and acting-among other things.
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| Jayakrishnan
on the sets of To Each his Own |
In the past
couple of weeks, Jayakrishnan-graduate of the National Institute of Design,
Ahmedabad, who's also done a short-term course at the Royal Academy of
Dramatic Arts, London--has created the royal ambience of designer Tarun
Tahiliani's fashion show and the lush backdrop of Suneet Varma's fall-winter
presentation. Kitsch, but as he points out, "it's so much fun".
It's also a novel medium for him. Last year, he made a foray into commercial
Hindi films when he did some of the sets for Govind Nihalani's Thakshak.
And last week, even as Delhi was lapping up his two funky on-stage rooms
for the theatrical farce To Each His Own, he was in rehearsals
for director Anuradha Kapur's Lao Jiu: The Ninth Born (he's acting
and designing for it). A Jack of all trades? Few mind. Not Nihalani, at
any rate. Jayakrishnan, who he describes as "a person with a refined
taste in art and a very fine graphic imagination", is also acting
in his film Deham. Sanjoy Roy, director of To Each..., adds:
"Sumant builds a sense of anticipation through his sets." Jayakrishnan
simply shrugs off the label. "If I've done what I've done well, that's
one thing, but if I've done it badly, it's valid criticism," he says.
"And it's not a lot of trades, it's all a question of working with
space." And a question of having fun.
-Anna
M.M. Vetticad
Harappa
Revisited
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| Skeleton
from Rakhigarhi (left); pillar section from Dholavira |
What's
so impressive about some scrappy potsherds, dismembered torsos, religious
bric-a-brac and lots of urban rubble (even if the checkerboard streets
cross each other at right angles) from a pre-Aryan civilisation called
the Indus Valley? After all, 5,000 years back, the ambitious Egyptians
were constructing giant pyramidal sepulchres based on star maps and statues
of gods and emperors more than a storey high. But as the refurbished multi-media-cum-artifact
gallery at Delhi's National Museum reveals, the Indus Valley may have
been less spectacular in its scale, but was certainly not less impressive
in its expanse-with a covered area of more than 12,000 sq km and excavated
sites exceeding 1,400 (with fresh ones being discovered almost every other
day). And that every artifact, however diminutive, holds clues to unravelling
this mysterious culture.
The new Harappa
Gallery (some belligerent factions in the museum wanted it to be the Indus-Saraswati
Gallery but were vetoed), built at a cost of Rs 5 lakh in collaboration
with the Archaeological Survey of India, uplifts a previously dreary interior
with automatic guiding systems, a video screen playing 20-minute films
and had large visuals and maps of recently discovered sites such as Dholavira
in Gujarat (1990) and Rakhigarhi in Haryana (1997). Says Harappaphile
D.P. Sharma, the man who coordinated the project: "The gallery displays
some unique finds, specially from Dholavira. Who ever thought the Harappans
would even have yoni-shaped fire alters and kilns?" Other pulse-racing
novelties include the recently dug gold hoard from Mandi in Muzaffarnagar
in Uttar Pradesh and a smirking skeleton of a middle-aged woman from Rakhigarhi.
And this time you can even take in your camera.
-Anshul
Avijit
Polo
Pack
Polo buffs crowded the start of the week-long five-nation (India, Pakistan,
South Africa, New Zealand, Singapore) Baleno World Cup Polo Challenge
at Rambagh Polo Club in Jaipur on September 24. They included a generous
smattering of ex-royals like Bhawani Singh of Jaipur (left, with Yashodhara
Raje Scindia), Arvind Singh Mewar (above left, with daughter Bhargavi)
and Gaj Singh of Jodhpur (above right), apart from emerald king Rashmikant
Durlabhji, former army chief V.P. Malik and Jaipur's sports-loving crowd.
What everyone is waiting for: the final day's clash between the Indians
and the flamboyant Pakistanis.
-Rohit Parihar
Pg.
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In
India, youth is marked by impetuosity and prevented from getting ahead.
Elsewhere, of course, the young rule the world, says INDIA TODAY Deputy
Editor Swapan Dasgupta in 
