Today was
what I call Kultur Day…listened to some fabulous presentations about the
history and theory of art.
Started off
with a great breakfast at the TAG centre … good food is essential to proper
enjoyment of kultur … hence the canteens in all Sabhas. It was great to be standing in the same line
for breakfast as the likes of Sanjay Subramanyam. Introduced myself to him, took a picture and
told him that he has a huge fan following, both in my family and Canada, in general. Unfortunately the pic I took with him has not come out OK.
Breakfast
was followed by a choir of students from a Mylapore Corporation School singing
a couple of songs, including two composed by Subramania Bharati.
Then a fantastic
talk by Sriram Venkatakrishnan on Gopalakrishna Bharati, to a standing room
only audience. Sriram’s research is
painstaking and he brings tremendous social consciousness to his
presentations, which is what I love about him. Plus the touch of humour
that he brings make the experience really enjoyable.
The story
begins with Gopalakrishna Bharati starting off his music education with
Hindustani music, not Carnatic music, as we would commonly suppose.
And then, as we all know, his most well known piece was Nandanar
Charitram.
Gopalakrishna
Bharati had an impish sense of humour and when his sponsor suggested that he
write on some mystic, Gopalakrishna Bharati, suggested that he write about one
of the Alwars, knowing fully well that his sponsor was a Shiva bhakta. Once he had got over the joke, Gopalakrishna
Bharati decided to write about Nandan, a Nayanmar, about whom a brief
mention had been made in the Periyapuranam.
Gopalakrishna
Bharati took a few poetic liberties with the story of Nandan (Sriram made the
point that Nandan became Nandanar only after Nandanar Charitram had become
famous. Till then, Nandanar was plain
and simple Nandan). The most important
liberty was the creation of the Brahmin landlord who prevented Nandanar from
going to the temple before all the crop had been planted and harvested.
In a frank
appraisal of the story, Sriram referred to the common view of Dalit groups that
the story of Nandanar attaining the so called 'oneness with God' state after the 'agni pariksha' was
perhaps more gruesome than mystic.
Sriram
ended his presentation with clips from the controversial Kindanar Charitram, performed
by NS Krishnan. It was a parody of Nandanar
Charitram. (If I am not wrong, the sequence appeared in Nallathambi, which I think was the first film scripted by CN Annadurai...I could be wrong). One must admire Sriram’s willingness to talk about issues that are
not normally raised in elitist audiences. He ended by saying that Nandanar was
a story about human struggle against oppression, and, even if the details
of the struggle change, it will remain an inspiration as long as there is cause for such struggle. Sriram, you rock !!!
From
Sriram’s scintillating talk, I moved to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan where Anita
Ratnam was staging Purush, an exploration of the male dancer’s identity. A brilliant panel discussion by four
celebrity male dancers including Canada’s own Hari Krishnan.
Dr Rustom
Bharucha, drama and culture critic summed up the discussions and made one
telling point which remained with me.
Yes, there
are issues of gender and sexuality that male dancers deal with which cannot be
wished away. Nevertheless, when
Kelu-Babu (Kelucharan Mohapatra, the Odissi Guru) played Radha, one never saw
anything other than a female Radha who was in love with Krishna. See this clip of Guru Kelucharan performing
The Madras
season is acquiring a new hue other than just kutcheris… Perhaps this banner for Rasi silks captures it in a way nothing else does
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