The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

Workshop concludes with play
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, August 17
A month-long community theatre workshop organised by the Centre for Education and Voluntary Action (CEVA) in Government Model Senior Secondary School for Girls, Sector 18, ended with a play “Kya sab ko sab kuch aata hai?”, which was staged by the students of Class VII, in the school hall here today.

The play revolved around the theme of rejection which is a common problem in the classrooms.

The cruel rejection of the lesser mortals by the privileged class or those of the slow learners by the intelligent students was portrayed with a comic touch.

The production was dotted with poems and songs written by the students themselves.

The play came as a part of the project to introduce theatre in education, undertaken by CEVA.

The organisation will be conducting similar workshops in other schools of the city.

Besides play production, the workshop included games, puzzles, exercises to improve thinking ability, language and mathematical skills for the participants.

However the main objective of the workshop was to inculcate a cooperative attitude among the students through the games devised for this purpose.

The students also displayed their self-written poems, short stories and scripts and mathematical puzzles which were done during the workshop.

Mr D.S. Mangat, Director Public Instruction (Schools), UT Chandigarh was the chief guest. The workshop was conducted by Anuradha Bhasin, Vijay Machal, Ravi Sharma, Harleen Kohli and Munna Dhiman.

PU yet to decide on Kang’s admission
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 17
No formal decision was taken by the committee about the cancellation of admission of Malwinder Kang, president of the Panjab University Students Union, to the Department of Law. The admission was cancelled recently.

A member said nothing concrete could be said till proceedings were finalised and since a member was absent from the meeting today.

The university had cancelled the admission of Kang for his failure to secure the minimum 33 per cent attendance in the first 10 days as per university requirements.

The problem arose over a medical certificate submitted by Kang. The department said the certificate was fake while Kang said he had only given an application stating that he was being treated by a doctor of General Hospital, Sector 16, and that he would have submitted the certificate later.

COURTS

DISTRICT COURTS
Suicide case: police remand for accused
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, August 17
An accused, Sameer Jain, who was arrested by the UT police in a case of abetment to suicide, was today produced in the court of UT Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr C.L. Mohal, who remanded him in one day police custody. The case against the accused was registered after a Sector-22 jeweller allegedly committed suicide on August 8.

Bail denied: An anticipatory bail plea moved by the suspended St Peters’ school teacher, Sanjeev Tyagi, in a case of criminal intimidation and an act intended to insult the modesty of a girl student was on Friday dismissed by a local court. The bail plea was dismissed by the UT Additional and Sessions Judge, Mr Balbir Singh. A case against the teacher had been registered under Sections 506 and 509 of the IPC on the complaint of Rakesh Prashar.

Arrest stayed: A local court on Saturday stayed the arrest of Saroj Rani, in a case registered against her by the CBI under the Prevention of Corruption Act till September 7. The court had passed the order acting on an anticipatory bail plea moved by Ms Saroj Rani.

She had been booked by the CBI along with M.R. Agnihotri, a former Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge and the Chairman of Oil Selection Board and Mr K.C. Garg under Sections 120B/420, 420, 467, 468, 471 of IPC on June 10.

The arrest of Mr Agnihotri and Mr Garg had already been stayed by the High Court subject to their joining the investigation as and when required by the police in the petrol pump allocation case.

Defamation suit: The president of Shiromani Akali Dal, Mr N.S. Minhas, on Saturday filed a defamation complaint under Sections 499, 500, IPC, against Mr Gurpartap Singh Riar, in a local court. The complainant had stated in the complaint that he was elected as president of the local unit of the SAD by the Akali workers of the Chandigarh unit on March 18, 2000, in place of Mr Riar. Mr Minhas added that during a gap of three years of formation of the group, no contradiction had been given by the high command (Akali Dal). The complainant, besides filing the present complaint against Mr Riar, had also reserved his right to get the damages of Rs 50 lakh from the accused for lowering his reputation in the eyes of general public and Sikh sangat.

Bail plea dismissed: The UT Additional and Sessions Judge, Mr Balbir Singh, on Friday dismissed a bail plea moved by an accused, Daljit Singh, in a case of forgery. The case against the accused was registered by the police under Sections 420, 465, 468, 474 and 120-B of the IPC in police station, Sector 39. As per the prosecution, the accused had owned a shop called DGT Graphics in Sector 17 and was allegedly involved in a crime of preparing forged permissive letters for affixing black films on the cars and also prepares forged mark sheets, degrees and other documents. Acting on a tip-off, the police had arrested two accused. Later during the interrogation they revealed the name of the accused who was arrested in the case.

2-yr RI: Surya Parkash, an employee of Panjab University, was on Friday sentenced to a two-year rigorous imprisonment in a case of teaching and forgery. It was alleged that the accused had been arrested by the police while selling fake BA degrees to some person. The accused was arrested by the police under Sections 467, 468 and 474 of the IPC.

FILM REVIEW
Another “naagin” revenge stuff
Sanjeev Singh Bariana

‘Jaani Dushman’ (Nirman) is an amalgamation of heights of absurdity putting your patience to the most trying test. Playing mockery at a common man’s ‘sense and sensibility’, only providence can save this one from a definite box-office disaster.

Raj Kohli has roped in an assembly of big Bollywood names to forward an ‘indigestible presentation’ and ‘ the one that defies all logic’ does not even please hearts, which is a possibility in a rare exception at the Bollywood results. Taking a look at the cast including Sunny Deol, Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Aditya Panscholi, Arshad Warsi, Sharad Kapoor, Aftab Shivdasani, Raj Babbar, Siddharth, Manisha Koirala, Amrish Puri, Johny Lever and Kiran Kumar, one might expect at least a tolerable watch.

On one level the film tries the old tried formula of ‘ re-birth and snake love stories’ with ‘naag and nagin’ stuff which has a list of big success stories in Bollywood, including two ‘Nagins’ and the recent ‘Nagina’, and on the other this one steals visuals and style from Arnold Swarzenegger’s ‘Terminator’ which do not fit in the sequence at all.

The ‘career promoter flick’ for Armaan Kohli (now christened Munish Kohli) even steals the style of Arnold while running and turning his necks. Certain graphics have been aped which somehow do not fit into the story of ‘ re-birth and a wait of hundreds of years in love’.

The film opens on a college campus where Manisha is eyed wickedly by eyes of two of her classmates, including Siddharth. The first attempt to rape her in her hostel room is foiled by her lover Sunny Deol. He however soon leaves for England.

Manisha gets up in the middle of her sleep and she walks to a tree in her hostel compound, and lo! appears Armaan Kohli out of the tree bark. He was a ‘naag’ (cobra) who loved Manisha in her earlier birth. She was a snake-woman. They are separated by the curse of a ‘sadhu’. He goes back in the tree bark waiting to meet her again.

Meanwhile Manisha’s class- mates, including the chunk of the cast except Raj Babbar, who is the school principal, plan an outing. She is deceived to come to a lonely place by Siddharth and his friend and is raped. She blames all her friends and after her death along with Armaan decides to kill everyone. Lot many are killed including Sunil Shetty, Aditya Panscholi, Arshad Warsi, Siddharth and his friend and the battle goes on till the end where Sonu Nigam is on the verge of death.

Raj Kumar Kohli has made another attempt to create the magic of one of earlier releases ‘Nagin’ (1976) which ruled the roost at the box-office for a long time.

The whole teamwork is nothing above average. The major credits include those of Govardhan Viregham in special effects; K.K.Singh in dialogues; Thomas Xavier and Damodar Naidu in cinematography; Sameer in lyrics; and Anand Milind, Anand Raj Anand and Nitin in music.

Celebrating the joy of rhythm
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 17
Tagore Theatre today played host to a troupe that danced not for the sake of technique, but for the joy of creation. Under the direction of Narendra Sharma, disciple of Pandit Uday Shankar and perhaps one of the last propagators of his style that originated and bloomed from the Indian Cultural Centre at Almora, nine dancers today presented a dance of soul.

Courtesy the Department of Cultural Affairs, Haryana, the city was treated to a slice of Indian contemporary dance, which Narendra Sharma has now been developing for six decades. Through Boomika, his creative dance centre, Narendra Sharma has been living the medium of dance, creating his own space within the parameters of tradition. No wonder each of the three presentations that filled the performance space of Tagore Theatre this evening revelled less in form and technique and more in grace and vitality. As Narendra Sharma himself maintained, “Dance is there in every human form. It only needs a fine direction to surface.”

Structured as a tribute to Pt Uday Shankar, all three ballets presented by Bhoomika had one connecting factor — the concern for environment.

The first presentation, The Homage, was a choreographic tribute to Pt Uday Shankar, a pioneer of Indian contemporary dance who propagated this art through his centre in Almora, of which Narendra was a student. Talking to Chandigarh Tribune about his present productions, Narendra Sharma said, “Having contributed to the field for six decades, I felt the need to get back to Almora and rediscover my moorings. As I went back to those nostalgic surroundings, I could think of nothing else but Pt Shankar and his zeal to break free of tradition in the interest of uplifting dance as a medium of education for common man and for children. I returned to find myself choreographing the three sequences which I today present to you all.”

After ‘The Homage’, a delightful offering to Pt Uday Shankar, Narendra Sharma’s troupe presented ‘Flying Cranes’, a tribute to the Siberian cranes that visit the country every winter. The eternal rhythmic movement of nature was the inspiration behind it. Today’s presentation of ‘Flying Cranes’ was Narendra Sharma’s fourth version. He had developed the first version as part of his academic schedule at Almora. Later, he refined the sequence for children. Today’s item was the fourth version, much developed and enriched as compared to the original offering in 1943.

As the item unfolded on stage, a flock of cranes visiting the country came from beyond and landed on a lake. What followed was a movement of joy, as the cranes danced in pairs and groups amidst the beauty of nature.

The third item, Kalpavriksha, came across as a poem in dance. With dance, man grows from the days of deriving pleasure from hunting. His growth from darkness to light, the joy of stretching out the arms to embrace the earth and hug the rising sun were beautifully captured in rhythm and movement. As the dance progressed, movements depicted more energy, leading on to the portrayal of ecstasy coming from human love and bonding.

Reflecting the concern for environment, the presentation reminded one of Rabindranath Tagore’s quote: “Nature stands in her own right.... proving that she has her great function, to impart eternal peace to human emotion.”

Translating feelings into movements on the stage were dancers Sangeeta Sharma (also assistant choreographer to Narendra Sharma), Meenakshi Chopra, Himani Sharma, Monika Kumari, Panishwar Bhasker, Gopal Sarkar, Mahender Rawat, Manish Pandey and Shubhro Ghosh. Technical designer for the show, which was conducted by Jainendra Singh, was Milind Srivastava.

The production was conceived and directed by Narendra Sharma, with the assistance of his wife, Jayanti Sharma.