Architectural staging of atmosphere

Although Tasveer has been accommodating different kinds of accomplished photography from old maharaja portraits to modern classics and clearly contemporary sensitivities, Derry Moore's "Evening Ragas" exhibition (October 13 to September 30) with all the Indian focus appears to come as a another world of its own, one that consciously chooses to not only restrict its attention to the environment of colonial-time aristocratic palaces and mansions, but also to either omit any present day realities or filter only dainty fragments of it through the admiring nostalgia for the sophistication of the past grandeur.

This approach should not surprise, since Moor, a senior and much acknowledged lens-man who comes from English aristocracy, has been portraying European royals and their residencies. It also frequently evinces indulgent delight at the mood-full beauty and specific animation of his images brought about by his attuned contact with the surroundings he shoots and fleshed out in technically supported aesthetic nuances.

On the other hand, the spectator may not be able to escape the impact of an alluring yet somewhat sanitised vision that arises even through the scenes of dilapidation and remoteness in solitude, a vision whose sympathy for, even perhaps glorification of, the effervescence of the feudal world, whether consciously or intuitively, does not notice the many less appealing of its sides from craftiness to cruelty, as a result gracefully and powerfully reinforcing certain entrenched stereotypes about the opulent and exotic India that derive from the same period as the colonial endeavour.

What is not just truly enchanting but revelatory, are Moore's images of rich interiors where masses of mostly 19th century European salon sculptures enter into a highly charged, hybrid and flowery, responsive nonetheless, relationship with the indigenous love of ornamental excess. Wonderful then, in particular in the takes from Kolkata's Marble Palace, is the feel of refined, gently sensuous stirring of figures amid curlicue carvings on the walls and furniture.

The artist finely mediates and mutually engages the play of sharp to dissipating illumination with graded shadows that enhance and sometimes layer the carnal smoothness of the human and volumetric figures of stone to be contrasted as well as picked up by the shiny marble floor designs.

One intuits an actively interconnected inner life of the statuary and décor here. It subtlety, sort of pushed to the edge, carries a potential of kitsch, elements of the latter adding an indulgent humour in the prints from Mewar, where the simultaneously grand and comical cut-out figures of royals echo the merger of grave sophistication and cloying kitsch in the manner the halls present themselves.

Actually, a superb aspect of Moore's art is his ability to capture and strengthen the gesture of staging inherent to the palaces and their owners which is evident in the dynamic encounters of the décor and statuary, while the photographers add to it by positioning his luxuriously attired grandees at the architectural centre and axis as the possessors and movers of everything. He excels too in emphasising the intricate flatness of some traditional, mainly Rajasthani, building concepts.

One becomes equally fascinated by his landscapes with architecture, for instance the ephemeral nook of the Protestant cemetery in Kolkata, that poetically absorb colonial-time romantic perceptions onto what is in front of him now.

The shots from reality limit themselves to archaic, awkwardly charming and naively sincere shops with old-timers, as other age retainers and sceneries with vast water reflections and dry hunting ground stretches. The close-up portraits of mainly regal ladies and their current business tycoon counterparts are posed with a delicate, rarefied artifice that may be deliberately hark back to the moods of more than a half-century ago. Partly delightful, they sporadically turn slightly conventional, best when strengthened from the character of the person, like Anita Desai.

Designing ethnicity

Virndavan Solanki"s new paintings at Time & Space (October 10 to 25) continue, with light and formalistic changes, his long-practiced formula where ethnic Gujarati rusticity is comfortably located in the attractive shapes and embellishments of clothing furthered by the assumed tenderness of simple couples of wedded lovers and friends.

The usual blank faces are meant to convey the non-personal broadness of view and the hazy spreads of hues are expected to suggest spirituality. Both ruses, yet, act in the way of the other pleasing formal devices. The new tendency presently is a partial departure from the graphic quality of the black and white canvases that relied on granular textures and linear hatching towards a more indulgent play with smoother, more plaint colours that, nonetheless, retain some of the linear properties of the former kind of paintings.

A different experience

Connoisseurs of music had a different kind of experience at the Bangalore Lalithakala Parishat on Friday. A popular instrument of the eastern country - Anklung, was performed by a Bangalorean. That too Karnatic music was performed on that foreign instrument like a 'Kacheri' of Karnatic music.

It was presented by

Dr Anasuya Kulakarni, a graduate of the University of Mysore who has earned a doctorate in music from the Annamalai University. She is also a recipient of several awards including the Karnataka Sangeetha Nritya Academy award.

'Anghklung' is a bamboo rattle instrument of Indonesia, played by a group of people, each holding a note or two and rattled on the direction of a conductor.

Anasuya has adopted this instrument by making a few innovations in the playing technique to a "solo" Indian music playing and named it as 'Ankrang.' She has performed on this instrument in a number of international conferences, both in and outside India and her name was entered into the Limca Book of Records of 2008 edition.

In the current concert, Dr. Anasuya Kulakarni's 'Ankrang' was supported by four instruments - like any other instrumental concert of Karnatic music. Violin (Jyotsna Manjunath) and three percussion instruments - Mridanga (B N Ramesh), Khanjari (A V Kashinath) and Morching (Amrit Kumar). Anasuya opened her concert with a varna in the raga 'Nainakanthi,' followed by 'Vathapi' with brief swara. 'Bantureethi' and 'Sharashara Samare' had a popular appeal.

'Sudhamayee' was elaborated, with lilting melody. 'Bo shambo' was followed by the 'Thani' of percussion instruments. But in such a brief concert, the 'thani' appeared over stretched.

Anasuya presented a Bhavageethe, Devaranama and a folk song also.
A thillana (Brindavani) and Madhyamavathi - came in the last part of the concert. Dr Anasuya produced metallic chime-like sounds on 'Anklung' and selected mostly 'Madhyama Kaala krithies,' which suited the instrument.

Her mastery over the instrument, hard practice and talent was evident throughout the concert.

Falls short in overall appeal

Kathak and Bharathanatya were presented by the students of Natya Taranga, which was led by their teacher Shubha Dhananjay. Shubha, a graduate in dance, is known in the field as a performer, teacher and choreographer. In the current recital, the composition on Ganapathi gave them a good start. Shubha performed 'Omkar' neatly and raised the fare to its rhythmic heights. Mudra Dhananjay attracted in 'Perini' (Sakala Kalavani) accounting for instant popular appeal. Students performed 'Chaturang' though the recorded music (CD) was troubling frequently.

After 'Mahadeva Shiva Shambho' the students chose jugalbandi - six students each on Bharathanatya and Kathak. They performed with ease and assurance though their facials came alive only in parts and their depiction fell short in its overall appeal. But Shubha Dhananjay, the senior dancer lifted the programme through her delightful performance.

Lingering impression

Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira presented the Indian National orchestra, the extravaganza under the leadership of Jayanthi Kumaresh, reputed Veena player. One of the earliest orchestra of India was formed in Mysore Palace during the rule of Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, in the early part of 20th Century.

In fact, there were two ensembles - Karnatic Band and English (Western) Band - and musicians from Trinity College of Music, London, were invited to direct these bands. We are happy that in this respect Jayanthi Kumaresh started this Orchestra (I.N.O.) last year with talented musicians and they have performed in few places already.

The Indian National Orchestra performed in Bangalore for the first time. A composition in the raga Gambheera naata 'Sri Vignarajam Bhaje' (Uthakadu Venkatasubba Iyer) gave them a bright start, which ended briskly with percussion - especially with Konakol.

Opening with the mellow sound of Morching and Khanjari for the dancing peacock in the raga Reetigowla, the instruments shifted from Chatushra to Thissra with delightful effect. They chose rag Gangeswari to show the flow of river Ganga, which was based on the verses of Adi Shankaracharya. The climax came in the form of 'Binnalalith' (Haricharan). Behag rag was chosen for the folk and concluded with the Sindhubhairavi.

Veena, violin, flute, sitar, harmonium along with percussion instruments (Mridanga, Khanjari, Ghata, Morching, Tabla, Konakol) - were played in unison, with sufficient opportunities for each musician, to register their talent and experience. 16 artistes - all of them highly talented with command over their respective instruments. It is not an easy task and kudos to Jayanthi Kumaresh, who has created and left a lingering and haunting impression through the "Vadya Vrinda".

Successful conference

Concerts by both seasoned musicians and upcoming artistes, and academic sessions were held as part of the 44th music conference, organised by the Bangalore Gayana Samaja, last week.

Dr T S Satyavathi, who sang here on Wednesday, is reputed in the field as a senior vocalist, an able teacher and an acclaimed scholar.

With decades of experience, in this concert, Satyavathi brought to her rendering several familiar compositions and a few infrequently heard ragas with commendable control on laya and fidelity to convention that commanded respect, from all sections.

To suit a Sabha 'Kacheri' (that too in the 'Sangeet Sammelan'), she naturally crowned the concert with a fine raga, thana and pallavi.

The very selection of the raga (Amruthavarshini) for pallavi aroused curiosity among the connoisseurs.

A 'Krama Audava' raga Amritavarshini is a pleasing raga, which is also known as a raga which can bring rains!

The alapana received appealing airing and the well-knit thana was yet another instance of her mastery over the medium. Also the swara laya vinyasa was rendered impressively with good raga bhava.

Earlier, Satyavathi presented a less known raga called 'Kalgada'. It is 'Ma, Varjya' 'Audava Shadava' raga and both Tyagaraja (Samayamu e marake) and Syama Sastri have composed compositions in this raga.

She chose 'Parvati Ninnu', which was again welcomed by the listeners. So also 'Vihara Maanasa Rame Sachidananda' of Swathi Tirunal in the raga 'Hindustani Kaapi' was a welcome change and notable for 'ragabhava'.

As Satyavathi sang with several aesthetic passages to lend a rich flavour to the dignified melody, the audience heard her concert with great respect. She presented two devotionals, 'Palisenna Gopala Krishna' of Jagannatha Dasaru and 'Chintayave Sadgurum' of Narahari Teertha - which was also pleasing.

Charulatha Ramanujan on violin, H S Sudhindra on mridanga and S N Narayana Murthy on ghata and Shilpa Shashidhar (vocal support) - gave excellent support.

Hindustani vocal

Pandit Venkatesh Kumar, the lone Hindustani vocalist of the 44th music conference organised by the Bangalore Gayana Samaja, is a recipient of the annual award from the Sangeeth Natak Akademi this year.

'Purya' gave him an impressive start. Bright phrases in both vilambith and druth added a lively lilt to his singing.

Touching the pivotal swaras with attractive phraseology lent a dignified presence to Hameer. Comparatively, Kaushik Kaanada was brief but lively.

Durga was embellished with brisk Tarana. Venkatesh concluded with two devotionals - 'Toredu Jeevisabahude' and 'Kaayada Kathaleya', the lyrical feel in the compositions heightening its emotional fervour.

Viswanath Nakod (Thabala), Vyasamurthy Katti (Harmonium) and Ramesh Kumar (co-singer) accompanied with good understanding.

Dazzling display

The Rabindranath Tagore Nagar Cultural Association conducted the 22nd annual music festival last week in collaboration with Taralabalu Kendra.

After the inauguration, 'Ganga Kaveri', the music ensemble directed by Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma, was held. M K Pranesh (flute) and Praveen Godkhindi (bansuri) were accompanied by six percussion instruments (Karnatic, Hindustani and foreign).

'Evariboda', the familiar varna gave them a flying start.
The 'Kadana Kuthuhala' piece (Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma) was small but evocative, and then they moved to the piece de resistance of the day. Alapana of 'Keeravani' was developed in stages by both flautists.

Thana to the background of percussion instruments was vibrant and lively.
'Thani' of the percussion instruments was quiet attractive and each instrument had its own role to play. Mridanga (Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma), Khanjari (Guru Prasanna), Latin Percussion (Pramath Kiran), Drums (Arun Kumar), Thabala (Jagadeesh and Madhusudhan) - were first played individually and established their individual personality.

The percussionists followed up with a sizzling solo with exciting exchanges, providing thrills.

With a Kannada devaranama, the ensemble concluded the concert with exhilarating effect.

Natural and the denatured

Borders and Boundaries', the just concluded painting exhibition of S Sham Sunder (Sumukha, October 13 to November 3), came after a long gap, the artist having been preoccupied with teaching and heading the Department of Fine Art at S N School, University of Hyderabad.

At first glance, the large canvases with vast sceneries peacefully spreading along pronounced horizons quite immediately draw the spectator into their atmosphere that is saturated with a brooding, aspirational beauty.

Soon enough, however, they trigger an uncertain discomfort around indications towards unnatural, ominous divisions, dimensions and occurrences. For those who remember Sham Sunder's early career, especially as a figural sculptor, the desolate landscapes simultaneously differ from and connect with that phase in their tender, tactile sensitivity permeated by an undercurrent of turmoil and pain.

The contradictory character of the images suggests the impossibility of direct and normal contact with the visible in an increasingly complex and hybrid world. It lets one think of related conclusions by other painters who use the realistic means of probing: Sudhir Patwardhan's compressed multiplicity of suburban perspectives and K T Shiva Prasad's coexistence of alien realities and times carrying diverse ways of perception.

Sham Sunder remains torn between reposing his trust in the qualities of free expanse, abundant generation and nourishment or calm pleasure associated with pristine nature and his despairing about the aberrant and often violent human incursions into it which may augur annihilation, his mood then oscillating from delight to gloom.

And so, among the stretches of shadowy green ground and clouded blue of the sky frequently mingled with dark sunset hues, the continuous horizon may be an expected emphasis, but the nearly filigree golden gate rising in the middle of nowhere and extending its fence far into the depth gains sinister tones allowing only dry leaves around it.

The motionless emptiness is half-relieved by flocks of birds defying the gate which secures ownership while oozing a hint of crimson. The apparent serenity of another panoramic sight, already undermined by the presence of leafless trees and a deep pit in the earth, becomes denied by the other part of the diptych which reveals its own remote fragment in close-up as red-stained, barren soil further wounded by excavation whose man-made precision holds cruelty.

The artist identifies his hope and empathy with the birds that turn into a metaphor for nature, sadly observing its own condition impacted by people.

The enormous eye of the crescent moon amid obscure cumuli and flying birds looks down on the unending, flat and hostile ground into which the iron barrier has immersed itself permanently, while elsewhere a compact globe echo above is reflected in a bleeding circle below or holes in the ground wait to entrap the birds of freedom.

As a sharp-carved river of blood cuts through a misty cluster of green trees, the variety of face on views and relatively acceptable perspectives are counterbalanced by integral yet precipice-like inverted flights of scenery.

If the understated softness of the canvases does not disclose the drastic content instantly or entirely, the few smaller water colours and drawings compensate that with images of a man welcoming birds, nearly becomes one of them, of another equipped with bullets and a devil's mask and of a firm fist holding a grenade.

To note the less convincing side of the oeuvre, whereas the strongly executed graphic works tend to be slightly literal, the large oils and acrylics focus on dark yet enchanting and somewhat vaguely rendered moods contradicting those through a not sufficiently powerful stress on harsh aspects of the whole.

Three kinds of design

Three otherwise rather different idioms connected by their preference for a basis in designing were noticed in the paintings of three artists who exhibited at the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath last month. Dipesh Majumdar's "Psychedelia" need for a pattern could be perhaps understood as natural for an impassioned amateur who tried to capture and enhance a diversity of complex, intensely emotional states by fragmenting and abstracting heads or figures and their surroundings into compressed yet somewhat dissipating accumulations of bright and contrasting colours.

In the other two cases, the professionalism of their techniques became employed to comfortably offer variations within well-established and fairly old-fashioned aesthetic ways. For K K Makali, it meant an ornate sort of rustic ethnicity that relishes a highly, if sweetly, stylised, linear description with abundant jewellery and colours.

Ramesh Chavan, differently, indulged in apparently free, spontaneous abstraction with broad gestural accents and line squiggles, those being treated though like predictable patterns even when combined with elements of sketchy or mannered figuration.

Homage to Parvatikar

Swami D R Parvatikar (1916-1990) was a Haridasa, great Rudra Veena player and a composer.

He had created 'Dathatreya Veena' and has published a number of compositions in Hindustani style and spent his last days at the Sri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt, Indiranagar. In his memory Shri Raghavendra Swamy Mission had organised a special concert, on its own premises, last week.

Dr Jayanth Kumar Das, who played on Sitar and Rudra Veena was initiated to music by his father Sripathi Charan Das and received advanced training from Ustad Vilayat Khan and Ustad Imrat Khan. He is working as a staff artist with the All India Radio, Bangalore and has performed both in and outside India. Young Adarsh Shenoy, who accompanied Das on Tabala, is a disciple of Nagaraj Rao Gaekwad, Rajgopal Kallurkar and Yogesh Shamsi.

Dr Jayanth Kumar Das played both Rudra Veena and Sitar, one after the other, which was well suited for the occasion. Das opened his concert on Rudra Veena, with Purya Kalyan and followed it with rag Chandrakauns in Jhap tal, sustaining a lingering impact.

Rag Jog gave Dr Das a good start on sitar and moulded into an essay of aesthetic finesse. Some attractive phraseology in the Madhya lay, Ek tal gath Jhala, vouching for fertile imagination and concluded with a dhun (Thilak Kamod), with lilting melody. The whole concert was heard by a sizeable audience with more respect than excitement.

Seshadri shines

It was the turn of Dr Seshadri Iyengar to perform in the Horizan series of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, last Saturday.

A student of Padmini Ravi, he has had training in bollywood dance and works with the Srishti Dance Creations, London and features in 'Quick', which won the 'THE PLACE' prize.
A Homeopathic physician and a dance-yoga instructor, Dr Seshadri has performed in some of the prestigious venues. The "Narthana Ganapathim", the invocatory piece in the raga Naata gave Seshadri a good start. An intelligent adoption of Lalgudi Jayaraman's varna (Charukeshi raga) vouched for his choreographic skill.

His Nritta in the celebrated varna raised the fare to its rhythmic heights. One felt that he can bring more depth, though his portrayal was absorbing. He chose 3 pieces for Abhinaya - Chinna Chinna Kiliye (Vatsalya), Mere to Giridhar Gopala (Bhakti) and Shyam Ko (Shringara) - which was pleasing and concluded with a Bhajan of Meenakshi Subramanyam. Probably live music instead of CD, could have brought better inspiration for the dancer.

Classical vocal

Seasoned artiste O S Tyagarajan gave a soulful music concert for the Vagadheeswari Kala Kendra, last week. He was well supported by S Yashasvi on violin, H S Sudhindra on mridanga and Ullur Giridhar Udupa on Ghata.

Tyagarajan chose a popular composition of Saint Tyagaraja as the piece de resistance of
the concert. In this Keerthana Tyagaraja pleads - "I do not seek any boon from you. This is the most opportune time to relieve me of my distress. You know fully well that I never approach any other God. Will I aspire for anything beyond I deserve and be disappointed"! Tyagarajan brought out the entreating mood of both the raga and the lyrics.

But the alapana, nerval and swara prasthara - all were rather brief, than the required proportion! Earlier "Rama Raghukula Jalanidhi Soma' was equally impressive and 'Nee Padamula gathi' with chitteswara was evocative. The devaranama "Sada Enna Hridayadalli" brought nostalgic memories in the old timers. The accompanists rose to the occasion.

Tender harshness

Akbar Padamsee's exhibition at Time & Space (November 9 to 15) was a rare opportunity to see a significant body of his work.

In particular, that the quite recent images were a continuation of his primary search interrupted only by periodic departures into contrast, they let one immerse oneself in experiencing them as part of ever subtly varying yet ever constant waves of creativity attuning itself to as well as probing the rudimentary human condition.

That recurrent flow where an immediate, calmly pitched sensation cannot be separated from the distance of conscious and complex reflection made the spectator intuit in it the core feel and dynamism of life in its is becoming, sustaining and dissolving to become again.

The gravity and scale of its reference, within its empathic modesty, also helped one understand Padamsee's position as a modern classic who nonetheless remains independent and, unlike the senior Progressives avoids specific or illustrative address preferring to anchor himself in feeling others as sentient beings.

Such an all-inclusive but admiringly humble aim necessitates limiting of the enquiry's area for the sake of maximum depth, on the one hand, and on the other admitting the importance of complementary opposites that always permeate things, both these strands needing frequent revisiting on another plane of the past knowledge, techniques and skills, occurrences and premonitions.

Thus, the viewer was comfortable as well as slightly surprised with the ample series of heads whose beginning in Padamsee's oeuvre goes back at least five decades.

Their minimalist ethos in black and white, whose non-evident character relates to the Chinese painting tradition, holds endless aspects around the state of being human on the verge of the specific and universal, as if the individual potentiality in all of us, among which one can recognise the artist as a compassionate, co-feeling presence within and an agency of evocation and analysis, while the sheer multiplicity of the compelling phenomenon invites the simultaneous act of denial and erasure.

What the spectator senses with an unobtrusive intensity is the inextricably whole blend of muted, accepted and naturally endured sadness, even pain and of quietly relished joy in just being alive and feeling it.

Like always and slightly unlike before, Padamsee's faces appear to be lowered in an internal attentiveness and withdrawal whereas at the same time allowing outside sensations to enter them; otherwise they rise a little, as though exposing themselves to and absorbing the external, yet only to also lock in and nearly diffuse over an inner focus.

The impact arises from the dual employment of realistic accents in clear strokes, tactile, skin-alluding textures and warm tonalities that conjure plasticity along with their instant contradiction by high abstracting, hazy dilution or violent stabbing and crossing out that flatten, almost dissolve shapes and volumes to depersonalise-refine further associations and intuitions and admit the final inscrutability of everything.

The artist's tenderness is such that it reaches the suffering of people as well as hurts him.

Hence, soothing stains contain harshness whilst defining strokes become mere markings of unnamed and accommodated violence and protest and graded hue tones or uncovered paper white oscillate between illumination, radiance and X-raying solidity.

The embracing permeability of qualities inevitably includes the media used, especially that the vast majority of the works are lithographic prints. When confronted with the few drawings and watercolours, they reveal the force of the contradictions that mutually enhance and contribute, since these graphics reinterpret the strokes, tonalities and textures of drawing and of painting, connected as much by the frequent use of the brush in both as by the wash-like element there.


Scenic enthusiasm

'Dust on Butterfly's Wings,' Milind Nayak's current display (Genesis Art Gallery, November 12 to 26), brings yet another chapter in his celebration of nature's beauties. Having used pastels before along with oils and watercolours, the artist attributes their partially new look to his being inspired by the American painter Wolf Kahn.

Not knowing his style, one may guess its presence under the somewhat more realistic sceneries with perspective, accentuated shadows and repeated directional strokes, as plenty of burning reds and yellows perhaps come from temperate climate autumns.
While delighting in the lushness and saturated, bright colours of landscape throughout, the works seem to opt for different angles - some more literal and some highly abstracted in their vast, textured pigment spreads.

Both, however, tend towards designing, which eventually results in a third and more interesting, aesthetic variant with large stretches of contrasting, even hues and abstracted forms resembling angular, digital patterns.

On the whole, though, the always sincere joy cannot fully compensate for the somewhat easy pleasantness of the idiom.

Flights of fantasy

Instrumental music, discourse and dance programmes were held as part of this year's "Flights of Fantasy" festival of Ganjam.

Vishaka Hari, who gave a discourse here on Saturday, is well versed both in music and discourse and is a crowd puller wherever she performs. As she chose the story of Lord Hanuman for the day's programme, devotion filled compositions flowed throughout. The story was developed by presenting songs in different languages, including Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Sanskrit and of course, Kannada.

Instead of narrating the story step by step, she highlighted the salient features through well known compositions. Though it was a Harikatha, all the elements of a regular 'Sangeetha Kacheri' was incorporated - Raga, Thaana, Krithi, Nerval and Swara Prasthara - were there in a suitable proportion. Especially, rendering of Thaana, during the jumping of the sea by Hanuman was appropriate and attractive.

Though Vishaka Hari chose from Valmiki Sloka, Ugabhoga of Gopala Dasa, Meera Bhajan, compositions of Saint Tyagaraja were mainly elaborated. Audience also enjoyed the well woven Pallavi (Seethajanaka Sutham), Nerval and Swara Prasthara. A Bhajan (Tulasidas) and the sacred 'Mamava Pattabhirama' brought the curtain down on the well received Harikatha. Charulatha Ramanujan on violin, H S Sudhindra on Mridanga and Sukanya Ramgopal on Ghata - suited the needs of the occasion.

Kala Nadam

The Nadam conducted the annual 'Kala Nadam,' in association with the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. In the two-day classical music festival, Karnatic vocal, Hindustani vocal, percussion ensemble were also held.

Manorama Mehta, was a known figure in the music circle of Bangalore, few decades back. A post graduate (Music) from the first batch of the Dance, Drama and Music Department of Bangalore University, Manorama was also known for her good repertoire.

After a gap of several years, she performed at the Kala Nadam, of course this time with her daughter Chandrika K Mehta. She presented several compositions that were in practice few decades back, to bring back nostalgic memories of a bygone era.

Her methodical approach to the raga (Bhairavi) with an aesthetic touch brought a composite picture of the melody.

The 'Balagopala' stood out for its improvisatory nerval and Swara Prastara. Though her voice occasionally reminding her age, she deployed her concert craft convincingly. Co-singer Chandrika, also a post graduate in music, revealed ample flashes of her talent.

But she must gain confidence to sing and perform independently. 'Yochana', Hari Kunida, Jinjoti Thillana, Meera Bhajan - were the other important compositions - they presented. Charumathi Ramanujan (violin), V S Rajagopal (Mridanga) and T N Ramesh (Ghata) - supported the vocalists.

Memorial programme

L Raja Rao Memorial Foundation presented 'Veena Raja Rao National Award' to Dr Kadri Gopalnath, renowned saxophone player, on Friday. It was followed by a Veena recital by Dr Suma Sudhindra, a popular Veena player. She was supported by M M Ganesh on violin, C Cheluvaraj on Mridanga and on Ghata by S N Narayana Murthy. It was a bright start, with the Kalyani varna in five speeds.

There was good clarity even in high speed. The invocatory piece in the raga Bouli, was a composition of L Raja Rao. Her alap for Shanmukhapriya was a treat, meandering over the pivotal swara's alluringly. Thana was brisk and dignified.

The popular keerthane 'Marivere' with crisp swara was delineated with aplomb. With melodious 'Naada' and impressive presentation, Suma concluded her recital with a thillana and devarnama (Bha gyada Lakshmi Baramma). Earlier, Vidushi Veena Kinhal, paid tributes to her father and guru through a Veena recital. She played few selected compositions of L Raja Rao in a befitting manner.

Pleasing sans sparkles

There was a Hindustani vocal recital also in the 'Kala Nadam' festival. Pandith Amarendra Dhaneswar, Mumbai, a disciple of Smt Neela Bhagawat, who belongs to the Gwalior Gharana sang, in a simple way. He has produced few music related programmes for television and All India Radio and written a number of articles.

Pandith Amarendra Dhaneshwar opened his vocal recital with rag Behag. His alap was absorbing. Gradually developing the raga, touching the pivotal swaras, he gave a detailed picture of the raga, which was pleasing sans sparks.

He also presented Jaijaivanti (Madhya Lay), a thumri and a Bhajan, though short of emotion.

Expressive staging

The 'Pondicherry' photographs by Sebastian Cortes at Tasveer (November 10 to 30) offered a charmingly classic and sensitive insight into the unique character and atmosphere of the place.

It was perhaps inevitable for a Western photographer living now largely in the country to be drawn to Pondicherry's often comfortably and acceptingly loose symbiosis of different cultures and layers of time with a specific undercurrent of bygone France.

But the outcome, more than expected, endears with the kind of warmth and perceptiveness that thoroughly blend probing distance with the intimate immediacy of an insider.

Whether aided or not by his association with the theatricality of fashion photography presentation, the artist is attuned to as well as enhances the element of self-revelatory staging that remains intrinsic to how architecture and human surroundings are consciously as well as intuitively shaped in order to mediate mundane practicality with imposing display.

The image of an empty old cinema interior with rows of seats focussed on the large, luminous screen appears to capture that mutuality between the receptive observer and the evocative space where Cortes locates himself.

That position within the process of discovering and experiencing the mood in and together with the behaviour of architecture bearing traces of the human presence can be sensed, especially, in the many shots of colonial time building interiors. With a tinge of inner drama, he looks at things frontal and symmetric along with depth, and waits long until they slowly yield more of their nature or he seeks such disclosures during somewhat quicker, more dynamic encounters with angled, far-receding flights.

The spectator then becomes almost a participant in the unfolding of the display-recognition. Frequently devoid of inhabitants, the spacious elegance of the massive columns and soft arches under plentiful, dainty candelabra, amid the intricately carved wood of furniture, its browns and greys bleached by age as well as intruded into by useless fragments of rejected domesticity, suggests the beautiful yet rough sadness of the grand era that has passed away but having imprinted itself on the present and survives as memory of relic as well as in hybrid coexistence with new and diverse forms of life.

As European structures and architectural details finely mediate the indigenous inner courtyard, whose illumination seems simultaneously dramatic and private, they enter into relationships with more visible but ignored or unassumingly welcome seams or rifts when in westernised environs, combining graceful antiques with plain new plastic, otherwise muted down under the predominance of traditional Indian structures, dense Hindu icons and equally profuse human business and decor.

With a similarly evident merger and separateness, Cortes empathically probes and assimilates the verge between houses and tropical nature, also between aesthetic qualities and kitsch, drawing from the latter both a literal and poetic surround that speaks of human life behind - naïve, even crude as well as delicate or exuberant and loving. Dark, forlorn, archaic sights contrast yet connect with images of the cherished past in the carefully polished surfaces of furniture, otherwise with airy, illuminated, translucent ones from the spiritual environs of Auroville. If concentrating on people, the artist approaches them quite like architecture - stressing the obediently spreading regularity of RSS trainees, recalling the rows of medicinal bottles elsewhere or the quiet liveliness of idlers along a beach front, otherwise emphasising the dynamic engagement between a person and his/her possessions, workplace with its objects and other people, as the dissipating viewpoints and image blurring add to the state of responsive linkage. Among the best are the scenes of a naturally surreal stage where the grandeur and artificiality of plant-life, wild yet tamed in the city, cohabits with religious idols, ritual-mundane priesthood and traces of daily life.

Literal
abstractions
'Tortoise Venus Nautilus', Anuradha Nalapat's exhibition at Galerie Sara Arakkal (November 17 to December 8), was an ambitious exploration of universal connectedness on the micro and macro planes, alluding to mathematical and scientific ratios behind its spontaneous rhythms and recurring forms that govern mundane human life along with its organic and mystical or philosophical aspects. Since the concepts were verbally explained and poetically evoked in the catalogue text, the large canvases and drawings may have looked somewhat like illustrations to it, especially that they tended to oscillate between the obviously depicted or symbolised, the pleasantly patterned and the abstracted for expressiveness. The frequent snail shapes and spiralling shell forms amid graph-like motifs and dotted trajectories, cosmic as well as minute, interspersed with schematic human and tree silhouettes and sinking into amorphous, textured spaces, in particular when accompanied by gently sweet hues, verged on pleasant design. Better were the black and white images that calmly tried to merge representative residues with gesture-laden abstraction.
Marta Jakimowicz