Small talk

The exhibition-cum-saree draping technique demonstration was held at Fab India outlets. The exhibition is on till today.

Offsetting truths!
Offbeat — a Marathi play being performed by actors of Begum Productions will be staged tomorrow at the Bharat Natya Mandir. Even though the play is a comedy it highlights the plight of Homosexuals in India both from the social as well as the legal perspective.

It takes the audience on a journey into the lives of homosexuals and throws light on the narrow mindedness and high handedness attitude of the patriarchal society that fails to understand this issue.

It speaks about how homosexuals have been a butt of jokes in the Indian society and are looked down upon,which in turn is a direct cause for their low self esteem and also increases their vulnerability as far as diseases like AIDS is concerned.

Zameer Kamble writer-director of the play says,”For all gays their sexuality is a vital aspect of their identity. In order to bring about a level of acceptance and respect for the members of the community I have written this play,which itself is a struggle as I had to go against the grain to find actors,get censor acceptances and find the strength to actually perform it. I just hope that the play at least makes people sit up and think.”

Notable notes
Music can only be discovered and Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt undertook the journey of discovering music 47 years ago with the invention of ‘Mohan Veena’ and now it’s his son Salil Bhatt who is carrying forward the legacy by inventing his own instrument called the ‘Satvik Veena’. Equipped with these “hybrid” instruments,the father-son duo,are on course to reinvent their quest in the search for divine music.

Speaking about the instruments,Salil says,”Both are basically hybrid guitars but have a shape and design similar to the Veena. Also there are other finer nuances that separate them from regular guitars like the Hawaiian and the Spanish models.”

A 45-minute “Mohan Veena” concert by the duo was held at the SM Joshi Hall on Saturday. The programme “Dev Gandhar” in which the Veena maestros performed also featured a half an hour programme on the compositions of Raja Bhau Dev. The artistes who performed alongside were Madhuwanti Deo,Nitin Dhavalikar Shivani Marulkar and Ninad Deo.