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Stage
of the Art
 A
stage in a hobbling hall with a seat-stuck audience? Playhouse personality
Aamir Raza Husain thinks that's passe. Why, in the new atmosphere of postmodern
amelioration, the whole world is a stage, all of us are actors ... and
nobody wears seatbelts. Last week at the open air Nandiya Gardens in Maurya
Sheraton, Delhi, a stretch mostly used for pre-nuptial buffets and less
frequent jazz nights, Husain displayed Afsana-e-Tarikh, an hour-long period
piece on Delhi's chequered history from early invasions till 1947. And
looming large over the freely-roaming audience were some of the familiar-and
fanciful-landmarks: the Red Fort façade, a (stunted) Qutub Minar,
Tughlaqabad, Sanyogita's courtyard, Razia's resort, Khurram's anteroom.
It all looked pretty impressive, even though the props were a bit Amar
Chitra Kathaish and the script overly theatrical ("There is no defeat
in love; to have loved is to have won," says Prince Khurram about
his love Anjuman Bano). But where else would the fires of Tansen's pyro
piece, raag Deepak be washed over by Megh Malhar ... in other words by
a fierce torrent from the roof of the 15-storey hotel. Or when Shahjahan's
baraat ... two elephants with canopies... take a lap of the lawns and
the guests suddenly find themselves the baraatis. "The entire production,
from the script to the sets, was done in 12 days," says Husain. Now
that changes things.
-Anshul
Avijit
Rock
to the Russian
So you think
Vasco da Gama was the first European explorer in medieval India? Wrong.
Afsany Nikitin, a Russian merchant from Tver near Moscow, beat da Gama
by 30 years, landing at Alibag, Maharashtra, in 1446. To strengthen this
claim, and to boost Indo-Russian relations, a delegation from the Tver
region took a boat to the spot where Vice- Governor of Tver Krasnov Iouri
kissed a foundation stone before laying down a monument. The occasion?
To commemorate the 100th year of the Russian consulate in Mumbai. But
it was Ambassador Alexander Kadakin who surprised the gathering with his
fluent Hindi: "Hum chahte hain ki Bharat ek mazboot desh bane (We
want India to become a strong country)." Spasibo.
-Sandeep
Unnithan
Dance
Date
Mass dancing
by school children is becoming somewhat of an addiction in inhibition-shedding
Chennai. Imagine about 500 of them, all their moves in choreographed order,
jiving to an audience that can't seem to have enough. Last week it was
the turn of ArtworX's John Brito whose performance at the Don Bosco school
auditorium, incidentally his 500th featuring 6-to 10-year-olds, showed
an eclectic bag of jazz, Afro jazz and ballet. But it was a take on Hrithik
Roshan's Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai that got the loudest cheers.
-Kavitha
Muralitharan
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Enron
symbolises everything that's wrong with the way reforms were handled by
M/s Rao & Manmohan, says INDIA TODAY Associate Editor
