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PremiumFresh look: Karna focuses on one of the central figures in the Mahabharat to cast new light on the character
DELHI
Art
Minutes to Midnight
Till 28 July
Photographer Trent Parke is the first Australian to become a full member of Magnum. This exhibition showcases a series shot during a two-year journey across Australia, “examining the current and changing state of the Australian nation". The photographs capture a contrast between nostalgia for an “Australian way of life" and a more complex social reality. The exhibition is presented by the Australian high commission, with support from the Australia International Cultural Council. It is part of Chobi Mela IV, a touring biennial festival organized by Dhaka-based photo agency Drik and the Centre for Media and Alternative Communication in Delhi.
1pm-7pm. All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, 1, Rafi Marg (23711315).
Theatre
Karna: Warrior Of The Sun
25 July-3 August
Director: Rudradeep Chakravarti. Writer: Farrukh Dhondy. Script: Ranjit Kapoor.
7.30pm. Siri Fort auditorium, Khel Gaon Marg. Tickets, Rs250-1,000. (26493370).
Good Hands + Godspeed
27 July-2 August
Directed and written by Neel Chaudhuri; cast, Momo Ghosh, Kriti Pant.
Neel Chaudhuri presents a series of self-scripted monologues. In ‘Good Hands’, a young man presents a slide show of “unsung superheroes", highlighting their elemental virtues and narrating short episodes from their adventures. In ‘Godspeed’, a girl cleans up a room that belonged to a boy who died, finding comfort in songs from his music collection.
7pm. Attic, 36, Regal Building, Parliament Street, Connaught Place (41503436).
Music
Jagdeep Singh Bedi
26 July
A ‘surbahar’ and sitar recital by one of the few New Delhi artists who performs in public on the ‘surbahar’. Bedi has studied under Anil Dhar in the style of the Senia gharana, and later became a disciple of Debashish Mukherjee.
6.30pm. Attic, 36, Regal Building, Parliament Street, Connaught Place (41503436).
TV Manikandan
30 July
A Carnatic vocal recital by Manikandan and his group.
7.30pm. Epicentre, Apparel House, Sector 44, Gurgaon (95124-2715000).
Dance
Komala Varadan (Bharatanatyam)
28 July
Komala Varadan and her disciples celebrate the silver jubilee of her institute—Kalaikoodam, the Komala Varadan Institute of Art—with a performance. Kalaikoodam was founded in 1983 for the promotion of “arts, literature and culture", the organization’s website says. Varadan—who is also a Padmashree awardee—is best known for her interpretation of Tulsidas’ ‘Ramacharitamanas’ through Bharatanatyam. Rather than interpreting it as a ballet, Varadan preferred to present it in a solo form. The choice of text was also a deviation from the standard Tamil texts that are favoured by purists.
7pm. Habitat World, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road (24682222). Call Kalaikoodam (26053341) for details.
Film
Nowhere In Africa
29 July
It is 1938 and five-year-old Regina Redlich (Lea Kurka, later Karoline Eckertz) is leaving Breslau with her mother (Juliane Köhler) for a remote farm in Kenya, where her father, a prominent lawyer, has secured the job of manager. Based on Stephanie Zweig’s novel about a German-Jewish family fleeing the Holocaust, Caroline Link’s Oscar-winning feature is carefully balanced between charting the African experiences of a wide-eyed child and those of her more ambivalent parents. Regina’s beautifully drawn friendship with the Masai cook Owuor provides a delicate link with the country’s culture, while news of war reminds us of the chaos Germany has unleashed in Europe. The film is balanced and, through the experiences of one family, explores what it is to be an outsider—at home as well as abroad. All the performances are powerful, complemented by Gernot Roll’s ravishing camerawork.
7.30pm. Epicentre, Apparel House, sector 44, Gurgaon (95124-2715000).
MUMBAI
Film
Saamna
25 July
If north India has its cow belt, Maharashtra has its sugar belt, a region that determines the political fortunes of the state. Jabbar Patel’s 1974 Marathi drama, written by the late Vijay Tendulkar, still seems fresh. A maverick teacher (Shreeram Lagoo) takes on a corrupt politician (Nilu Phule) in a small town in Maharashtra. The Expressionist cinematography heightens the conflict between the two fabulous actors.
7pm. SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Bhavan’s College, Munshi Nagar, Andheri (W) (32938017).
Theatre
Afsaneh – Bai Se Bioscope Tak
26 July
‘Afsaneh’ is a tribute to ‘nautanki’ and ‘baithak’, two performance forms that have all but vanished. Gulab Bai, based on the real ‘nautanki’ star of the same name, and Beni Bai, a ‘baithak’ artist, reminisce about their days of glory. Once the reigning queens of entertainment in the country, they found themselves out of work after television captured India’s attention.
7pm. Experimental Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Nariman Point. Tickets, Rs100 (66223737).
Music
Soulmate and Junkyard Groove
29 July
Soulmate, a popular blues band, performs an unplugged set at this RSJ Pub Rock Fest gig that will also feature Chennai alternative rock group Junkyard Groove.
9.30pm. Hard Rock Café, Bombay Dyeing Mills Compound, Pandurang Budhkar Marg, Worli. Tickets, Rs100 (24382888).
Vivek Rajagopalan
31 July
The talented percussionist-producer will play tracks from his electronica-driven debut album, ‘Moving Images’. The 29-year-old percussionist-producer’s mix of Indian classical elements and drum and bass recalls the likes of Nitin Sawhney and Talvin Singh, but his idiom is local. ‘The End… The Beginning’, which is inspired by the 2006 train bomb blasts in Mumbai, features a brooding, processed Tibetan chant laced around a newsreader’s announcement and a backdrop of percussion and sitar. ‘Snake in the City’ is a superbly dark, shehnai-sampling drum and bass piece that resonates with a multitude of sounds. ‘Bolo’ uses tabla ‘bols’ to deliver an infectious, acoustic rhythm. ‘Savare’ sounds like just another breakbeat single until Rajagopalan’s skills on the ‘mridangam’ take the song to another level. But the rest of the album is peppered with tracks that sound alike.
10.30pm. Blue Frog, Mathuradas Mills Compound, Tulsi Pipe Road, Lower Parel. Tickets, Rs300 (40332300).
Art
Surviwall
30 July
Roul Hemanta’s cut-out-driven works are inspired by graffiti.
11am-7pm. Gallery Art and Soul, 1, Madhuli, Dr Annie Besant Road, Shivsagar Estate, Worli (32536266).
BANGALORE
Art
Metamorphoses
Till 6 August
Gallery Sumukha presents the works of Jehangir Jani. “JJ is a simple artist who is interested in mythical monsters," says Jani in his introduction. On his website, a note from him says, “I see George Bush and Osama bin Laden becoming mythical monsters in the distant futures." Jani speaks of his fascination with “the working of myths, and observing the way in which large numbers of populations structure their lives, accepting them as absolute truths". “I try to look under the skin of these beliefs," he explains. The theme that Jani is most reputed for, however, is sexuality. “We base so much of our smugness on such shifting ideologies," he says. “Predictably, a lot of the time, I come up with, according to me, ridiculous bases or sacrilegious interpretations." He says: “It has never been my project to deliberately offend or insult anyone who has come upon my work. But, I have no regrets if someone gets upset by it. I don’t see the need to change my thought process or beliefs."
Monday-Saturday, 11am-6pm. 24/10, Depot Road, Wilson Garden (22292230).
Photography
Drishti
Till 27 July
Chitrakala Parishath will showcase works by students of the Drishti School of Photography. The students participating are Anirban Basak, Sunrita Bagchi, Chetan, Sreekanth Chintam, Mahadev Dambal, Hemanth Deshpande, Dinakar, Gururaj, Sandeep Hari, Swapnil, Ravi H.N., Jonny, Adarsh Kini, Lokesh M.R., Santhosh Nadig, Mohan Raju, Navyanth, Parameshwar, Dev Sarkar, Soumyajit, Deepak Thimmoji, Geetha Thimmoji, Dharmendra T.M., Ashish Vanjari and Vishal.
11am-7pm. Art Complex, Kumara Krupa Road (22261816).
Music
Bleed
25 July
One of Bangalore’s newer bands, metalheads Bleed, will try and set the house on fire in an acoustic set at Legends of Rock. Bleed always has a sound engineer in attendance, but the question of whether he will be able to wrestle the controls and make the band sound good will be answered only on Friday.
7.30pm. Legends of Rock, 905, 6th Cross Road. Cover charge, Rs150 (41303232).
Veena Venu Violin
26 July
Acclaimed trio H.K. Venkatram (violin), G. Ravikiran (flute) and Ashwin
Anand (veena) perform with Neyveli Narayanan (mridangam), Giridhar Udupa (‘ghatam’) and N. Amrut (‘kanjira’).
5.30pm. Sree Ramana Maharshi Institute for the Blind, 3rd Cross, 3rd Phase, JP Nagar (26581076).
R. Ramakrishnan Murthy
26 July
A mainstay on the Carnatic music circuits for the last two years, both in India and the US, University of California freshman R. Ramakrishnan Murthy will perform at the Rajamahal Vilas Sangeetha Sabha, accompanied by Aditi Krishnaprakash (violin) and K.S. Ramana (‘mridangam’).
5.30 pm. Rajamahal Vilas Sangeetha Sabha, Raghothaman Memorial Building, above post office, Sanjaynagar, RMV Extension 2nd stage (9880384858).
Theatre
Silence, the court is in session
25 -26 July
The play is a drama within a drama, where the protagonist, Leela Benare, is pushed into playing the role of an unmarried woman on trial in a mock court. Exploited sexually and forced to abort a pregnancy to preserve a veneer of social honour, she is in the dock for her alleged wantonness. But, as the play progresses, the distance between her role and actual facts in life begin to dissolve and she is made to face the often unrelentingly harsh truth of life for a middle-class Indian woman who chooses to live on her own terms. Though written in 1967, Vijay Tendulkar’s incisive masterpiece remains a telling critique of Indian society’s predilection for gender bias and pathological moralizing.
Friday, 7.30 pm; Saturday, 3.30pm and 7.30pm. Alliance Française, 108, Thimmaiah Road. Tickets, Rs100 (3.30pm) and Rs150 (7.30pm) (41231345).
Feluda Pherot
26-27 July
Playwright Srijit Mukherji re-imagines Satyajit Ray’s dashing fictional sleuth, ‘Feluda’, as a retired 55-year-old who spends most of his hours tending flowers in his little garden, occasionally writing articles on old Kolkata for the newspapers. But that is only so he can inveigle the detective to shake the dust off his fabled skills and plunge into a fresh challenge that tests whether time has dulled the man’s acuity. This premiere will feature the feted talents of actors from other Feluda productions in Kolkata, such as Barun Chanda and Parambrato Chatterjee.
7.30pm. Ranga Shankara, 36/2, 8th Cross, 2nd Phase, JP Nagar. Tickets, Rs150 (26592777).
Dance
Bharatanatyam
26 July
Anuja Nair’s performance will begin with the first piece of the Bharatanatyam margam (the performance format) and then move to the pushpanjali (a dance of devotion where flowers are offered to the deity to seek blessings). She will then proceed into a Ganesh ‘stuti’ (a devotional piece), and on to a ‘kirtanam’ written by Annayama Charya on a few avatars of Vishnu: Rama, Krishna and Narasimha. She will conclude her performance with a ‘devaranama’ by the Kannada Bhakti poet Purandaradasa.
6pm. Samskruthi, 1, 17th Cross, 15th Main, 5th Phase, JP Nagar (9844017675).
Mohiniattam
26 July
Sreedevi Unni and her group will perform the ‘Gandharivilap’ ballet, which narrates the story of the only moment in the ‘Mahabharat’ when Gandhari removes her blindfold to see her 100 sons massacred by the Pandavs (guided by Krishna). When she sees her sons’ corpses, she cries out and curses Krishna—that his entire clan will be wiped out in 36 years. Sreedevi Unni says the format is the Kerala Kalamandalam style of Mohiniattam, but is stylized in the Lokadharmi style from the Natya Shastra, which she says is more accessible.
6.30pm. Seva Sadan, 14th Cross, West Park Road, opposite MLA College, Malleswaram (23347830).
Around town
Discussion on urban issues
26 July
After conducting walks in Gavipuram, Whitefield, the old City and Hessarghatta, the Bangalore City Project, led by Max Mueller Bhavan, hosts a panel discussion to reflect on a range of urban issues such as water supply, heritage conservation and urban infrastructure development. City-based writer and historian Ramachandra Guha will moderate the discussion.
6pm. Max Mueller Bhavan, 716, CMH Road, Indira Nagar 1st Stage (25205305).
Heritage walk in Ulsoor
27 July
Learn all about the Someshwara Temple in the heart of Ulsoor in the latest programme in the Parichay series, organized by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. H.R. Prathibha from Intach talks you through what the Karnataka State Gazetteer calls “the largest and the finest temple in the Bangalore Corporation limits". Sathya Prakash Varanashi, founder trustee of NGOs CIVIC Bangalore and Udbhava, will lead the walk.
9.30am. Meet outside the Someshwara temple, off Old Madras Road, opposite Ulsoor police station. For details, call Meera Iyer on 9986023014.
RECOMMENDED
DELHI
Kids
WorldKids International Film Festival
25-31 July
The WorldKids International Film Festival arrives in New Delhi with a package of Indian and international films for children. PVR Premiere turns into a festival space, with all four theatres screening these films. While the festival is open to all, registration is mandatory, and can be done at the venue.
The detailed schedule of screenings will be available at the time of registration. 6pm-8.30pm. PVR Premiere, Select Citywalk, Saket (27944194). Log on to Worldkidsfoundation.com for details.
MUMBAI
Film
Release Ajay TG
28 July
Documentary film-maker and activist Ajay T.G. has been in jail in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, since May on charges of colluding with Maoist fighters in the state. Describing Ajay’s arrest as yet another attempt by the Chhattisgarh police to silence dissent, activists and film-makers are arranging screenings of his films across India. Through these screenings, the Committee for the Release of Ajay T.G. hopes to gather support for the 43-year-old film-maker as well as raise awareness about rights violations in Chhattisgarh.
7pm. Prithvi House, near Prithvi Theatre, First Floor, Janki Kutir, Juhu Church Road, Juhu, Vile Parle (W). (26149546).
BANGALORE
Art
Till 25 August
GallerySke will bring together four artists—Minam A., Sakshi Gupta, Sreshta Premnath and Avinash Veeraraghavan—to create pieces that will interpret and explore the associations of the word “current". The artists will work at the gallery during the course of the show. Gupta—who bases most of her works in discarded scrap—is planning a “rather poetic kinetic sculpture, with electromagnets suspended on a pulley and iron filings". Premnath intends to craft a work that makes “sculpture-esque use of a projector and expired film stock", including one of an edited Bruce Lee fight from the film ‘Enter the Dragon’. Veeraraghavan will craft a multi-part work titled ‘Total Internal reflection’. Minam A.—originally from Arunachal Pradesh—works with ink on paper, and is planning a painting composed using her technique of random ink spills. Her work, with a fold down the middle that replicates a mountain peak, draws loosely on two stories from Arunachali myths. One is the story of a young lady who journeys to the land of the stars where she gets impregnated by the wind that carries plant seeds into her. The second is of how man studied the spider and was inspired to construct the first hanging bridge—found all over Arunachal, spanning gorges and valleys across the Siang river. Monday-Saturday, 11am-7pm. Tuesdays closed.
82, Presidency, St Marks Road (65951972).
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