Range of top artists graces Krishnakriti workshops, interactive sessions

Hyderabad, Jan 9: : Four of India’s eminent artists who are into different mediums of fine art shared their ideas and experiences at Krishnakriti2016, revealing a whole range of aesthetics that have kept evolving within them to the benefit of the country’s contemporary visual culture.

While pioneering graphic novelist Orijit Sen presented at length on Friday evening his ongoing work on changing Hyderabad, senior sculptor Ravinder Reddy gave a power-point presentation of his sculptures that he has been working since graduation days. Young Prathap Modi gave students a brief training in woodwork art, while sexagenarian sculptor Valsan Kollery had an interactive session with art scholar Dhritabrata Bhattacharjya Tato after holding a workshop on sculpting and sketching.

The 12th edition of January 7-10 Krishnakriti Festival of Art and Culture featuring art workshops, installation exhibition, film festival, music, dance and literary sessions among others is being organised by the Krishinakriti Foundation which is into promotion of culture and education in a big way.

Delhi-based Sen, who is an alumnus of National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, said his upcoming book—presenting the many layers of this city of nizams having now become an IT hub—would go much beyond nostalgia.

Ravinder Reddy interactive with the audience

“It is always interesting to note how residents of a locality adapt themselves to new situations. In any case, places are a big area of my interest,” he said, showing on the screen some of Hyderabad’s most changing streets around the famed Charminar.

The 52-year-old artist, who had spent his high-school days in this city, also noted that residents of urban pockets generally fail to notice certain key visual features around. “I know people who go to buy milk from their nearby shop, unmindful of a big tree under which they queue up,” he added.

Reddy, who hails from Suryapet which is known as the Gateway of Telangana and learned his art from MS University at Baroda, pointed out how he has over the years simplified his art with lesser features when it comes to sculptors-small and huge-made largely with fibre, besides using bronze and terracotta.

“Search of one’s of style is a major thing in the life of an artist. Normally it doesn’t come pre-meditated—definitely not with me,” he said in a 30-minute interaction where he showed pictures of his major works over the past four decades.

Modi, who has a Masters’ in visual art from the same institution in Gujarat, gave a breezy training to over 50 students at his workshop as part of the festival here. 

Artist - Prathap Modi displaying his work

The 33-year-old artist wound up the session by showing his own portrait he finished during the course of the interaction.

Kerala-born Valsan, 62, said the concept of pyramid has been a major obsession in his art, leading him to do an inverted version of the structure at the 2nd edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale that concluded in April 2014.

“Time is our biggest enemy,” he said. “But when should not keep regretting a lost past. Look at the future.”

Film on Northeast village where kids are called by distinct whistles

Caller tunes in Meghalaya’s Kongthong echo at Krishnakriti docu fest

Hyderabad, Jan 9: A tribal village in India’s remote northeast has its members calling out children by whistling tunes of individual distinctness, a film screened in this city revealed to the curiosity and fun of its audience.

‘Resonance of Mother’s Melody’, which featured as the first documentary at the ongoing Krishnakriti Festival of Arts and Culture, showed residents of a matrilineal Khasi hamlet in rugged Meghalaya sticking to this age-old mode of communication defined by a special tune the mother gives to her child during initial phase of breastfeeding.

Filmmaker Dip Bhuyan 

Kongthong, which is an agglomeration of 19 hamlets with a total of 120 households and a population of little over 550, is perhaps the only place in the country where people communicate among themselves through whistling and using different tunes to call each other, according to Dip Bhuyan, the director of the 23-minute work made in 2013 after four pre-shoot visit to the hilltop 70 km south of the state’s capital of Shillong.

“It was a young researcher who first came to know of this place and its caller tunes. She then led a group of friends to the place to explore more. She observed it and had interactions with the villagers,” recalls self-taught filmmaker Bhuyan, a native of Assam, having graduated from Cotton College in Guwahati before completing his masters in Statistics from Delhi University in 1991. “The mothers give the whistle tune, which, at a later stage of growth, gets a shorter version that is used for communication.”

Filmmaker Renuka George

It is another matter that each child has otherwise a proper name, which gets registered in the neighbourhood school.

Bhuyan’s colour movie, which has won applause at screenings abroad and at Indian festivals including IFFI Goa, starts with the journey of the researcher and goes on to capture the caller tunes of Kongthang, prompting the team to arrive at certain key findings—based also on the narrative of the local headman, who estimates the village is roughly two centuries old.

A second film screened at the Krishnakriti2016 essayed the life of (late) Hindustani instrumentalist Asad Ali Khan. The 70-minute eponymous documentary made in 2010 was a distilled version of footages that ran to 60 hours after 22 days of stay in the rudra veena master’s native Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, director Renuka George said.

“The rudra veena is a difficult instrument; Khan sahib was perhaps among the last to use it in its original form,” said the filmmaker, a Delhi-based Malayali hailing from Tiruvalla in south-central Kerala. “The vajrasana posture in which you ideally sit to play the huge instrument which requires both physical and spiritual involvement is in itself a kind of penance.”

The two films at the festival were succeeded by a stage concert by ghazal vocalist Chinmayi Sripada along with pianist Anil Srinivasan of Chennai.

“For our generation, Hariharan is our icon. We all strive to sing like him,” said young playback singer Chinmayi, midway the 80-minute programme.

Added 38-year-old Anil, who is educated in the American universities of Souther California and Columbia: “It is great to use a western instrument in various genres of Indian music.”

Kerala artist’s unorthodox ways regale crowd at Krishnakriti fest

Valsan Kollery sketches teenage girl, says bad art is one way to excel

Hyderabad, Jan 9: With a typically free-spirited mind, sculptor Valsan Koorma Kollery engaged his audience with wisecracks and simple tips on broad aesthetics about painting, thereby entertaining students as much as educating them in a city far from his native Kerala.

At the ongoing Krishnakriti Festival of Arts and Culture here, the sexagenarian known for his jovially rebellious approach to almost everything around gave a brief introductory lecture ahead of choosing an early-teenage girl as his muse for a charcoal sketch that won loud appreciation from 100-odd young enthusiasts who gathered at Centre for Cultural Resources and Training in Madhapur.

Sculptor - Valsan Kolleri drawing a portrait of a teenage girl

“Take all your shyness away. Inhibition is what blocks creativity. Just sketch or paint or whatever. It may be bad art, but then there is no short cut to excelling oneself in any field,” he told a 75-minute workshop on Friday evening as part of the January 7-10 Krishnakriti2016 featuring a range of cultural events.

North Malabar-born Valsan, 62, who joined Government College of Fine Arts in Chennai way back in 1971, said one could be initiated into art at any age. “You can start it even after retirement from your job. It can be a very good second nursery,” he said, minutes before randomly asking a girl from the crowd to pose for a portrait. “Well, a small work is also a big work.”

Valsan, who misses no chance to ridicule set notions and methodical training in art, said it’s the blind who often sense art better that those with eyesight. “Years ago, I brought visually-challenged people to an art exhibition of mine in Madras University. In a 3,000-square feet area, they stood in rapt attention, feeling each of the 35 artworks in their own way,” recalled the native of Patiam in Kannur district, who did his advanced art studies from France (ENSBA, Paris) and Gujarat (MS University, Baroda).

Open-mindedness is what is essential to art, he added, saying this holds relevant to any area of culture. “For instance, you need no music to dance. You can dance to the colour around, to the fall of the rains, to an inspiring object you come across....”

While sketching on paper the picture of 13-year-old K. Bhavya Manasa, he leisurely asked the class-8 student of Jubilee Hill Public School to store small little artworks one does on and off. “You know why? When you feel like crying sometimes—as well all do—just go back and take a look at them. It can make you happy, isn’t it?”

The sketching, during which Valsan said “I can trace the face of your mother, grandma and great-grandmother if you give me time”, was finally presented to the gathering when the artist deliberately held the paper upside down as he lifted it for all to see.

Sulptor - Valsan Kolleri

Arti Nagpal, a housewife who occasionally paints, told Valsan that his workshop had now inspired her to return to her habit of sketching. “Suddenly, I realise I miss it a lot,” the young lady said, clicking a selfie with the guest artist—the only one to figure in both editions of Kochi-Muziris Biennale (held in 2012 and ’14) by far.

Bengali Priyanka Das, who is doing masters in fine arts from University of Hyderabad, simultaneously sketched Valsan and showed her work to the artist. An appreciative Valsan drew another sketch of his on the left page of the book in return.

Later, at an interaction with art scholar Dhritabrata Bhattacharjya Tato, Valsan spoke about his mid-career shift from bronze to stone as the medium of sculpting. “We can make any place beautiful with right use of art,” he said, sharing his experience of building butterfly parks off Thrissur town and close to Nilambur forests in Kerala.

The artist also his second tryst at India’s only biennale—in Kochi, where virtually churned out a quiet island of creative space that retained the site’s rustic greenery, thus tacitly asking the new-age visitor to return to nature.

William-Vidya narrative of Mughal fall finds debut stage in south India Literature-music jugalbandi marks start of Krishnakriti 2016 festival

Hyderabad, Jan 8: The city of nizams and nawabs was all ears for a refreshing narrative of the petering phase of the once-powerful Mughal era, as author William Dalrymple and musician Vidya Shah performed together a unique literature-music duet for the first time in peninsular India.

The hour-long jugalbandi on Thursday evening marked the start of a four-day art and culture festival being organised here by Krishnakriti Foundation, which brought to Hyderabad the famed ‘Enter The Last Mughal’ show in another instance of serving the state capital with novel aesthetic experiences.

“This is a strange fusion,” said Dalrymple, before opening the programme where he read out excerpts from his celebrated book ‘The Last Mughal’ which profiles the 1857 fall of the dynasty in Delhi, 33 decades after Central Asia-born conqueror Babur laid its foundation along his eastward advancement. “For the last four years, Vidya and I have been trying to explore how to unveil the history in an unconventional way.”

Added singer Shah who is also a social activist and writer: “Our presentation has largely found audiences abroad. It’s a great feeling to debut it in the south of the country.”

The point reinforces his organisation’s motto of introducing art buffs to a wide range of human endeavours, said Prshant Lahoti, the founder trustee of Krishnakriti Foundation. “Our aim is to enrich people with three abiding refinements of life: art culture and education,” he told the gathering at the inauguration of Krishnakriti2016 in Centre for Cultural Resources and Training, Madhapur.

The January 7-10 festival was formally opened with the lighting of lamps by trustees of the 2002-incepted Foundation and Prshant’s family members led by his mother Nirmala Lahoti, who is wife of (late) Krishnachandra B Lahoti in whose memory the annual event is conducted annually.

Dalrymple and Shah, at the opening session of the fete this year, blended a range of arts ranging from story-telling, poetry and music and percussion with focus on the degeneration of the Mughal dynasty dating back to the second quarter of the 16th century and peaking in glory during Shah Jahan’s 30-year rule (from 1628) when the empire extended up to almost the whole of present-day India besides Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and a sliver of Iran.

Recalling those days, Dalrymple initiated the stage-show by saying that a view from Lahore Gate in Delhi then would give one a glimpse of the world’s largest and richest empire of its time. Simultaneously, for long, there was an extraordinary surge in the field of arts, with even the milkman on the street reciting a line or two from high-brow poetry, added the 50-year-old Scottish author who is also a TV presenter.

At this, Shah, who used to deliver Carnatic concerts before branching out Hindustani, sang a Dadra—a light-classical idiom of north Indian music. Kaise jaadu daala, to the accompaniment of the sarangi (Ghulam Ali) and the tabla (Shantibhushan Jha), regaled the audience with her powerful voice and shruti-aligned rendition.

Sliding on the 1840s, Dalrymple noted that the madrasas functioned as great schools of knowledge. Added to this was the popularity of Mirza Ghalib (1797-1867) whose Urdu poems became a hit even while the letters he wrote threw light on his creative genius. Complementing, Shah came up with a ghazal, transporting the gathering to the beauty of lending intimate musical touch to rhyming couplets sharing the same meter.

Dalrymple then turned the chapter on to the “proto-nationalist approach” by revolutionary litterateur Azim-ullah Khan, with Shah crooning his work Hum hein iske malik and noting that the lines later inspired Muhammed Iqbal to write the patriotic poem Sare jahan se achha in 1931 against the British occupation of India. 

Soon, by the second half of the 19th century, rot had set in the cultural field as well as the administrative power of the dynasty. In 1857, when the sepoys engineered a mutiny against the Raj, last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was a frail octogenarian soon to be put on trial by the imperialist power.

Dalrymple read out from his 2006 book a passage that epitomised the gone valour of the king—and an epoch. For the audience, the poignancy was accentuated through a Shivaranjini-raag song about Zafar’s haplessness.

“The show has been evolving since we debuted it,” said Shah. “It is an ongoing process of distillation.”

Krishnakriti Festival of Art & Culture

 The 12th edition of the Krishnakriti Festival of Art & Culture was inaugurated today at the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT), this evening.

From Left to Right - Nirmala Lahoti, Vijay Kumar Lahoti, Aruna Malani, Suresh Chandra Lahoti, Rekha Lahoti at the Inauguration at CCRT, Hyderabad.

Photograph from the performance of the 'Enter the Last Mughal' by William Dalrymple & Vidya Shah

कला, संगीत, थिएटर, सिनेमा, साहित्य संगम के साथ ‘‘कृश्णकृति 20016’’ कला एवं संगीत प्रेमियों को मंत्रमुग्ध करने को तैयार

हैदराबाद में डेलरिम्पल-विद्या हेरिटेज प्रदर्शनी  के साथ 07 जनवरी से 10 जनवरी तक चलने वाले इस महोत्सव की शुरूआत होगी 

हैदराबाद, 6 जनवरी: मोतियों के शहर के रूप में मशहूर हैदराबाद शहर में इस सप्ताह कृश्णकृति महोत्सव का आयोजन हो रहा है जिसमें विविध आयामी चित्रकला, मूर्तिकला, संगीत, हेरिटेज, थिएटर और सिनेमा के अलावा साहित्य के विभिन्न पहलुओं को पेश किया जायेगा। यह महोत्सव चार दिन तक चलेगा।

महोत्सव के आयोजकों ने आज यहां बताया कि 07-10 जनवरी तक चलने वाले इस महोत्सव के दौरान अलग- अलग क्षेत्र के विशेषज्ञ न केवल अपनी कलाओं का प्रदर्शन करेंगे बल्कि इंटरैक्टिव सत्रों तथा कार्यशालाओं में अपने विचारों का आदान-प्रदान करेंगे। इसके अलावा इस दौरान हर दिन शाम को वृत्तचित्र फिल्म महोत्सव का भी आयोजन होगा।

हर साल आयोजित होने वाले महोत्सव ’कृश्णकृति’’ के 12 वें संस्करण का मुख्य आयोजन स्थल माधेपुर का  सांस्कृतिक संसाधन एवं प्रशिक्षण केन्द्र होगा जिसमें दिग्गज अभिनेता आमोल पालेकर, पाकिस्तानी कलाकार राशिद राणा, ग्राफिक उपन्यासकार ओरिजित सेन, मूर्तिकार रविंदर रेड्डी, सूफी गायक ध्रुव सांगरी और प्रसिद्ध शास्त्रीय संगीतज्ञ सुजात खान और रसिक चन्द्रशेखर के अलावा अनेक हस्तियों की ओर से कार्यक्रम पेश किये जायेंगे।

यह महोत्सव कविता तथा संगीत के प्रभावकारी समागम के साथ शुरू होगा। इसमें विख्यात लेखक विलियम डेलरिम्पल और शास्त्रीय संगीतकार विद्या शाह के बीच विचारोत्तेजक संगम होगा। इस महोत्सव का आयोजन करने वाली संस्था कृश्णकृति फाउंडेशन के प्रमुख श्री प्रशांत लाहोटी के अनुसार ‘‘इंटर द लास्ट मुगल’’ शीर्शक वाला यह अद्भूत कार्यक्रम दुनिया भर के सम्राटों, नामी - गिरामी कवियों, राज नर्तकों, राजनीति, युद्धों, बीते युग के प्यार एवं टकरावों की जीवंत झलक पेश करेगा। यह महोत्सव बोटानिका, फोर्ड, जी एल मंधानी ट्रस्ट और तेलंगाना टूरिज्म के सहयोग से आयोजित किया जा रहा है।

श्री प्रशांत लाहोटी ने आज यहां आयोजित एक संवाददाता सम्मेलन में बताया, ‘‘इसके अलावा यह फाउंडेशन फ़्रांस के दूतावास के सहयोग से कलाकारों तथा छात्रों को छह महीने की इंटर्नशिप भी प्रदान करता है। हर साल, चुने गये उम्मीदवारों को उच्च अध्ययन के लिए पेरिस जाने का मौका मिलता है।’’ उन्होंने बताया कि इस बार महोत्सव के दौरान कलाकार एवं शोधकर्ता निर्मला बिलुका द्वारा बनाये गये स्थल विशिष्ट इंस्टालेशन को भी प्रस्तुत किया जा रहा है।

कलाकृति आर्ट गैलरी के संचालक श्री प्रशांत ने बताया कि कृश्णचन्द्रण बी लाहोटी की स्मृति में 2003 में स्थापित फाउंडेशन सांस्कृतिक प्रदर्शनियों का भी आयोजन करता है। कलाकृति आर्ट गैलरी के पास भारत के ऐतिहासिक नक्शों का संग्रह है और माना जाता है कि यह संग्रह देश का सर्वाधिक व्यापक संग्रह है।

श्री लाहोटी ने कहा कि कृश्णकृति 2016 का समापन 10 जनवरी को सितार वादक सुजात खान तथा दक्षिण भारत के बांसुरीवादक रसिक चन्द्रशेखर की प्रस्तुति के साथ होगा। इसी दिन माधोपुर में शिल्परमम में साढ़े 8 बजे एक जाज संगीत कार्यक्रम और नाटक का प्रदर्शन किया जाएगा। श्री लाहोटी को 2013 में फांस की सरकार की ओर से शेवेलियर डांस एल’आर्डे डेस आर्ट्स एट डेस लेटेªस (नाइट आॅफ द आर्डर आफ आर्ट्स एंड लेटर्स) का सम्मान मिला था।

कृश्णकृति फाउंडेशन के एक ट्रस्टी श्री अनूप राव ने कहा, ‘‘यह महोत्सव एक दशक से भी अधिक समय से विभिन्न प्रकार की सौंदर्य संवेदनशीलता की पूर्ति कर रहा है। इसमें अब भी कोई बदलाव नहीं आया है।’’

रिवर टू रिवर फ्लोरेंस इंडिया फेस्टिवल के निदेशक सेलवाजिया वेलो ने कहा, ‘‘एक आर्ट गैलरी से इस महोत्सव को शुरू करने का विचार अत्यंक आकर्षक है। इसने मुझे इस अद्भुत सहयोग करने के लिए आकर्शित किया।’’

दूसरे दिन, एक ‘कला तकनीक’ कार्यशाला (शाम 3 बजे से) आयोजित की जाएगी जहां केरल में जन्मे कलाकार वाल्सन कोलेरी क्ले- माॅडलिंग पर विचार विमर्श का नेतृत्व करेंगे। उसके बाद प्रताप मोदी ‘‘वुडकट’’ पर विचार विमर्श का नेतृत्व करेंगे।

इसके बाद ग्राफिक उपन्यासकार ओरिजित सेन (‘ड्राइंग हैदराबाद’) और मूर्तिकार रविंदर रेड्डी (‘मोनुमेटलिटी की तलाश में’) के द्वारा इंटरैक्टिव सत्र आयोजित किया जाएगा। इसके तहत कोल्लेरी विद्वान धृतब्रता भट्टाचार्य (‘जादुई हाथों से संसार को आकार) के साथ वार्तालाप करेंगे।

सायं 6 बजे, डाॅक्युमेंटरी फिल्म महोत्सव - रिवर टू रिवर फ्लोरेंस इंडियन फिल्म फेस्टिवल इज ए कोआर्गेनाइजर का शुभारंभ होगा जिसके तहत दिप भुइयां के द्वारा एक घंटे की फिल्म ‘रेजोनेंस आॅफ मदर्स मेलोडी’ दिखायी जाएगी। शाम में ही रेणुका जॉर्ज के द्वारा स्वर्गीय हिंदुस्तानी वादक पर ‘उस्ताद असद अली खान - ए पोट्रेट’ दिखायी जाएगी। उसके बाद एक इंटरैक्टिव सत्र ‘अनप्लग्ड’ आयोजित किया जाएगा, जिसके तहत पश्चिमी कर्नाटक पियानोवादक अनिल श्रीनिवासन पाश्र्व गायिका चिन्मयी श्रीपदा के साथ वार्तालाप करेंगे।

तीसरे दिन की शुरुआत ‘एक कला तकनीक’ कार्यशाला से होगी जिसके तहत पौशली दास वाॅश पर और अनिल शर्मा ‘मिनिएचर एंड रियलिस्टिक पेंटिंग्स इन टेम्परा’ पर सुझाव देंगे। इसके अलावा ‘स्पेस वर्सेस टाइम: मैपिंग हिसोरियोग्राफीज - द नैरेटिव आॅफ परफार्मेंस आर्ट इन इंडिया’ पर एक इंटरैक्टिव सत्र आयोजित किया जाएगा जिसके तहत विशेषज्ञ सुरेश कुमार जी, मनमीत देवगन और राहुल भट्टाचार्य से वार्तालाप करेंगे।

शाम के समय रूही दीक्षित और जिबा भगवागर के द्वारा वृत्तचित्र फिल्म ‘स्पेस बिटवीन’ दिखायी जाएगी। ध्रुव संगरी के द्वारा सूफी परफार्मेंस से पहले लाहौर में जन्में राशिद राणा एक इंटरैक्टिव सत्र ‘ट्रांसपोजिषन्स’ को संबोधित करेंगे।

अंतिम दिन की कार्यवाही फिल्मों पर एक पैनल चर्चा के साथ शुरू होगी। ‘सो मेनी सिनेमाज: डू फिल्ममेकर्स हैव टू बी रिस्पांसिबल टू देयर आॅडियेंस?’ शीर्षक के तहत चर्चा में, वक्ता में हरिहरन कृश्णा, सेल्वागिया वेलो और डाॅ. पवन मानवी के अलावा अभिनेता अमोल पालेकर और समाजशास्त्री शमूएल बर्थेट शामिल होंगे।

इसके अलावा ‘डिसकसिंग प्लुरलिटीज / मार्जिनलिटीज इन कंटेम्पररी इंडियन आर्ट’ पर भी एक पैनल चर्चा आयोजित की जाएगी, जिसमें जयराम पोडुवाल, आनंद गडपा, सूसी थारू, राहुल भट्टाचार्य और अंशुमान दासगुप्ता जैसे विद्वान शामिल होंगे। उसके बाद रूही दीक्षित और जिबा भगवागर के द्वारा एक फिल्म ‘स्कैटर्ड विंडोज, कनेक्टेड डोर्स’ दिखायी जाएगी।

शाम साढ़े 6 बजे से, शिल्परमम के राॅक हाइट्स में एक घंटे का इंडो- क्रियोल म्यूजिक कंसर्ट (एलायंस फ्रैंकाइस के सहयोग से) आयोजित किया जाएगा, उसके बाद नाटक ‘एट किंग्स’ (विक्रमाजीत सिंहा के द्वारा) का मंचन किया जाएगा और सुजात- रसिका कंसर्ट आयोजित किया जाएगा।