Sight and Sound
by Amita Malik
Back to square one
I THINK all of us in the media were so immersed in the Clinton visit that we completely neglected other events during that period. I hope to make up for that this week.

Cartoons & social concerns
By B.B. Nagpal
FILMAKERS like Charlie Chaplin or Raj Kapoor rose to fame while making their audiences shed tears because they used the thin dividing line between humour and pathos to touch the emotional chords of the viewers.

Audioscan
by ASC

A father-daughter Kathak duo
By Sonoo Singh

IT surely is not a common sight to see a father and daughter duo performing a classical dance together on the stage. But when this transpires, sheer poetry that is both picturesque and a wee-bit poignant is sketched on the stage. And that is precisely what the team of Pratap Pawar, a celebrated Kathak dancer, and his charming daughter, Asavari manage to do together — perform an exquisite set of whirls and fast footwork on the stage. In Chandigarh recently, this twosome presented a memorable evening with their evocative dance for a select audience at Tagore Theatre.

Unfortunately enough, their enthralling performance, which had been organised by the North Zone Cultural Centre (NZCC), Patiala, lacked audiences. “It is sometimes disheartening that even the organisers are not able to arrange for viewers to be present for a performance, though as performers even if only one person had been present in the audience we would have still have given our very best”, said the two dancers.

Pratap Pawar in fact has the honour of being the first disciple (gandabandh shagird) of Pandit Birju Maharaj, because of which he brings that certain aura and ambience of exquisiteness to this otherwise richly structured dance form. Watching Pratap dance makes one realise the hows and whys of the popularity of this dance form of the courts, since the kind of grace and elegance that even his “chakkars”, “torahs”, and “tihais” acquire are quite a treat for the eye.

As of today, he is settled in the United Kingdom, where he runs his dance company “Triveni” based in London. And apart from teaching in London Pratap also holds regular monthly workshops in Glasgow. “But I always make it a point to perform here in India, and give a couple of shows every year to my own land”, he added.

His daughter, who is married and settled in Faridabad, Haryana, meanwhile dances both solo and along with her father. “I perform with Papa since I began my early training under him, and even before I was eight years old I had started performing with him and his dance company”, informed Asavari. This acclaimed artiste later went on to continue her Kathak training under Pt Vijay Shankar, and is today not only a regular performer on Delhi Doordarshan, but has also performed for English, Scottish, West Indian, Haitian and Italian televisions.

Asavari is well known for her award-winning production titled “The Coat” which tells the tale of a young woman from a village, on the eve of her journey to the UK to join her husband whom she has not seen for many years.

Meanwhile, Pratap, who is renowned for blending Kathak with the Caribbean and modern dance forms, shot to fame when he performed “jugalbandi” along with Juani Garcia, a famous Flamenco dancer in 1989. I have always found solace in the fact that dance is such a beautiful medium to express oneself in and also to display one’s creative self. And that is precisely what I do”, he said. Pawar, in fact, tries to take movements from life, stylise them, and add complex rhythmic patterns to make Kathak more acceptable to the present generations.

It, thus, comes as no surprise that this dance has been receiving continuous support from the Greater London Arts Association, the Greater London Council, the Arts Council of Great Britain as the Scottish Arts Council. Presently Pratap is receiving a grant award from the Arts Council of Great Britain as an associate of David Bintley of the Royal Ballet of the UK.

Pratap’s choreography, ventures and works include a dance drama titled “Sur Jhankar”, another based on “Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling, “Mowgli”, “Rains Through Rhythm” featuring the use of non-Indian drums and “Triveni”, a combination of Indian, Afro-Caribbean and Flamenco dances.

But for all their achievements, both the father and the daughter maintain and express lovingly how they treasure those performances in which they have been on the stage together. A rare show of tenderness and affection indeed, between a father and a daughter, which later gets translated beautifully on the stage.

Sight and Sound
Amita Malik
Back to square one

I THINK all of us in the media were so immersed in the Clinton visit that we completely neglected other events during that period. I hope to make up for that this week.

First, Rajat Sharma. The glittering dinner at Ashoka Hotel on his completing seven years of Adalat seems to have been a dress rehearsal for the Clinton lunch, including the PM and Rupert Murdoch. But seriously speaking, Rajat deserved it all. His was the first programme on Indian TV which subjected the high and mighty, including fiery politicians whom DD had not dared touch even with kid gloves, to inquisition of a type which was so prestigious and well-documented that they felt it difficult to refuse, duck or hedge. And Rajat did it all with a smile, without raising his voice and with utmost courtesy. Rajat set an entirely new trend in Indian TV and while he has had many imitators, he remains unique.

This week, it was the launch of yet another TV Channel, Subrato Roy’s Sahara Channel. At a press conference which lasted for over two hours, mainly a long dissertation on the lofty moral values, altruistic aims and patriotism of the channel, we saw the actual launch on Tuesday night which initially starred Mr Roy himself, as at the press conference and then treated us to a show which was a combination of Oscar night and Filmfare awards night. A cast of millions, including Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, not to speak of Juhi Chawla and the rest.

Every politician on earth, beginning with the PM, wished Mr Roy well as did Mulayam Singh Yadav, Khushwant Singh in a glowing tribute to Mr Roy as a newspaper baron, Amar Singh, and even, more sportingly, Subhas Chandra to whose Zee entertainment Channel I think Sahara will pose the main threat. I had a peek after midnight to Sahara’s English news.

All I can say is that DD’s newly discovered super-brat newscasters, who are ruining the channel, have strong rivals here. The woman at midnight had the same sing-song style, the same reckless disregard for phrasing and pronunciation and the same sub-standard scripts. The lofty aims for his channel, including political neutrality claimed by Mr Roy, sounded so much like DD, that one was not surprised. Mercifully, professional values surfaced the next morning, when Vinod Dua and Arvind Das did a brisk and interesting analysis of the day’s newspapers.

I promise not to return to DD’s appalling professional gaffes during the Clinton visit, some of which deserve to pass into the Guinness book. But watching the coverage of the Hyderabad visit, one kept on wondering why, with two seasoned local correspondents in Hyderabad, Krishna Rao and Sanjeve Thomas, Gayatri Chandrasekhar had to be brought in from Bangalore when all that she could do for 45 minutes was to talk tonelessly on tuberculosis around the world when other lively happenings were on the screen. Similarly, Navin Kohli and Manoj Raghuvanshi mysteriously flown in from Delhi, spoke for an equal length of time on the infotech revolution without any relevance to the many celebrities, including Chandrababu Naidu, computer wizards, captains of industry such as Ratan Tata, Rahul Bajaj and Adi Godrej, American Congressmen and top scientists who were clearly visible inside, with about 250 other people. Thus while the super commentators were asked to cover all this from the OB van outsidee, it seems both DD’s local correspondents were well inside, but were asked by Mandi House to keep their mouths shut. And leave it to the outsiders in the OB van, when they were experienced and competent enough to do running commentaries as well as interviews on the spot. Straight out of Alice in Wonderland.

This thrusting of inexperienced commentators on DD’s staff reporters took a legal turn recently, when DD’s veteran Patna correspondent, Sudhanshu Ranjan was arbitrarily asked to keep off screen so that the Delhi studio anchors could take over. Mr Ranjan, who is a qualified lawyer, took his case to CAT, the tribunal looking into injustices done to government servants it ruled that DD had broken the terms of Ranjan’s contract, and restored his professional rights. Have matters reached such an appalling stage that DD’s best professionals have to appeal to the law to be allowed to perform their legitimate duties?

Cartoons & social concerns
By B.B. Nagpal

FILMAKERS like Charlie Chaplin or Raj Kapoor rose to fame while making their audiences shed tears because they used the thin dividing line between humour and pathos to touch the emotional chords of the viewers.

An astute cartoonist similarly uses this thin dividing line to create awareness or rouse his readers against social evils and the injustices of day-to-day living.

This is brought out in interviews given by different people during the making of “Fifty Years of Lampooning”. The series has been made by Sudhir Tailang, who is himself the eminent cartoonist known for his social and political cartoons.

The four cartoonists featured in the half-hour films include K. Shankar Pillai who is known as the patriarch of cartooning in the country; Mario Miranda who is the keen observer; and Abu Abraham who is the philosopher. For the fourth cartoonist T. Samuel, who created Babuji, the common man, a recent showing of these films turned out to be a very nostalgic moment, as he received from Tailang copies of a bunch of his early cartoons which even he had lost. Members of the family of the late Shankar, founder of Shankar’s Weekly, were also present on the occasion.

According to Tailang, these cartoonists have left a mark on the annals of independent India. And people like President K.R. Narayanan, ministers L.K. Advani and M.M. Joshi, sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan, author Khushwant Singh and newspaper baron Shobhana Bhartia have testified to this during interviews in the four films which are expected to be telecast on Doordarshan shortly. In fact, all persons interviewed admitted to seeing the cartoons before reading the news. While the film on Shankar has some excerpts from a film by Films Division and shows the special relationship he shared with Pt Jawaharlal Nehru who had exhorted him “not to spare me”, the others have extensive interviews with the cartoonists featured. — UNI

Audioscan
by ASC

Wedding songs from Punjab
Mehndi ki Raat (Magnasound): Every time is song time in Punjab. None more so than the wedding time. There are numerous elaborate functions connected with a marriage and each has particular songs to go with it. Many of these have been incorporated in this two-part album, making it a total of 16 songs. The cover says it is a cassette of “wedding songs from North India” but actually most are from Punjab.

These sure make one nostalgic. Hardly anyone of them is new. In fact, most come from earlier albums like “Doli Wedding Songs”, “Wedding Songs” and “Top Hits of Musarrat Nazir”.

Numbers like Mera laung gawacha … are sung at every occasion but those like Mehndi leke aaiyan …, Dhiyan te dhan paraya … and Mawan te dhiyan … are strictly wedding songs. Noorjehan and Musarrat Nazir render these in a true folk style free from today’s influence. That is what makes the album stand out.

Jaan (T-Series): The biggest difficulty with cutting a private album is that one has to steer clear of the influence of film singing. This problem is all the more acute when the cassette is by a playback singer like Sonu Nigam. He has managed to keep the singing distinct from film songs.

But there is a price to pay. Many of the eight songs do not sit easy on the lips. The pace may also be a little too slow for some listeners’ taste. But if heard repeatedly, at least some, Diwane ho ke hum milne lage sanam … and Tu har pal aane lagi hai nazar … do grow on you.

Music is by Nikhil-Vinay and lyrics by Faiz Anwar. A slick video has become a part of album launch these days. It has been directed by Anubhav Sinha.

Dulhan Hum Le Jayenge (Tips): One knows very well what to expect from a David Dhawan film. The music of this Karisma Kapoor-Salman Khan gives an entirely different meaning to the word “chaalu”. Most of the songs are basically snatches of conversation set to music. The formula is so well entrenched that Dhawan has picked up a relatively new music director, Himesh Reshamiya. Even the lyricist (Sudhakar Sharma) is wet behind the ears.

But make no mistakes. They seem to know what sells on the street. The songs are so outrageously simple that these might very well climb the popularity charts. Nariyal nahin hai to supari le ke aajaa … is one of many “memorable” experimentations.

Singers (Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik, Sonu Nigam, Shankar Mahadevan, Sunita Rao and Suresh Wadkar) are all into the spirit of the game and sing with gay abandon.