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Journalism of Courage
Music to the ears
It was about 50 years ago that a meeting between English guitarist John Mclaughlin and tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain at the behest of a Greenwich shop owner created Shakti – a world music band at a time when there were none. With violinist L Shankar and ghatam expert Vikku Vinayakram as its other members, the group merged Indian music with jazz, creating a unique sound. While the band’s music received a great welcome from the audience, jazz purists had their reservations. But Shakti withstood those early criticism to soon find its groove to influence generations of musicians worldwide. This month, Shakti, with new members Shankar Mahadevan, Ganesh Rajagopalan and V Selvaganesh will embark upon their 50th anniversary world tour to celebrate their music.
New kids on the block
While the “nepo baby” debate gripped Hollywood in the last days of 2022, it’s an old issue for the Indian film industry. Irrespective of the backlash, nothing much has changed when it comes to the entertainment industry offering plum projects to children of famous parents. To be fair, actors with well-known surnames — Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor, among others — have proved their acting chops. This year, Netflix is scheduled to release The Archies, directed and co-written by Zoya Akhtar, that will launch at least three star children. The film’s cast of fresh-faced actors includes Khushi Kapoor (daughter of Sridevi and Boney Kapoor), Suhana Khan (daughter of Gauri and Shah Rukh Khan) and Agastya Nanda (grandson of Jaya and Amitabh Bachchan).
In the neighbourhood
In its sixth edition titled “Bonna”, Dhaka Art Summit will see participation of over 120 artists and architects from across the world, including from India. To be held in Dhaka from February 3 to 11, the showcase will also explore how the climate of the country has shaped its history and culture.The highlights include the exhibition titled “Very Small Feelings” that will comprise a Salman Toor and Ali Sethi audio-visual presentation, based on author Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama, an adaptation of a legend from the Sundarbans which speaks of nature, human boundaries, and the need to preserve a balance. Also an outcome of the collaboration is a commissioned work by Mumbai-based architect duo Rupali Gupte and Prasad Shetty, sculptural installation by Delhi-based artist Murari Jha and a performance piece by Shillong-based artist Lapdiang Syiem that connects India and Bangladesh through the folklore of Shillong’s Khasi hill tribes.
And the award goes to
As the final voting for the 65th Grammys gets into its last leg, India finds itself in a unique position with a bunch of nominations this time and opportunities to bring the hallowed gramophone home. While sitar player Anoushka Shankar has two nominations this year, including one for a collaboration with last year’s Pakistani Grammy winner Arooj Aftab, it is a first for Berklee Indian Ensemble that is nominated for their debut album – Shuruaat – comprising 10 songs featuring Ustad Zakir Hussain, Shreya Ghosal and Shankar Mahadevan. Last year’s Grammy winner, Bengaluru-based Ricky Kej is also in the running for a third Grammy this year. It is, however, for the same album that was nominated last year, Divine Tides (Lahiri Music), but in the Best Immersive Audio album category this time. While pop queen Beyonce leads the pack in the top categories, with nine opportunities to win the award, she is closely followed by Kendrick Lamar (eight nominations), Adele and Brandi Carlile (both with seven nominations each). The awards will be announced on February 5 at the Crypto.com arena (formerly the Staples Centre), in Los Angeles and will be helmed by stand-up comedian and political commentator Trevor Noah.
Will SRK rule the box-office again?
Over four years since Shah Rukh Khan’s Zero released in December 2018, the 57-year-old superstar will be back on the big screen with three big projects this year. The first, director Siddharth Anand’s Pathaan, is an out-and-out action film that also features actors Deepika Padukone and John Abraham. It is scheduled to release on January 25. Jawan, expected to release in June, will feature Khan in a double role while Rajkumar Hirani-directed Dunki is tipped to be an emotional ride.
Vocal for local
During the pandemic, with access to the usual diversity of groceries restricted, people came to rely increasingly on what was immediately available. This led to a greater reliance on the cooks’ own creativity in coming up with interesting ways to use what they could get hold of. The appreciation for local or regional ingredients over the “exotic” is something that continues to influence home cooks as well as restaurant menus, says Chef Regi Mathew who runs Kappa Chakka Kandhari in Bangalore and Chennai. He points to the fact that “ that people see the value in such ingredients has also made restaurants see them in a new light, and in 2023, too, chefs will design menus that highlight such ingredients’ versatility and the creativity they can unleash.”
Get lit
After the pandemic-induced lull, the Jaipur Literature Festival is set to take off in all its former glory between January 19 and 23 at the city’s Hotel Clark’s Amer this year. Apart from a sterling list of Indian writers, the line-up of speakers this year includes 2021 Nobel Prize winning Tanzanian-British writer, Abdulrazak Gurnah, 2022 International Booker Prize winners Geetanjali Shree and Daisy Rockwell, 2022 Booker prize winning Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka and 2022 Women’s Prize for Literature-winning US-Canadian writer Ruth Ozeki. Other prize-winning authors include the Booker Prize-winners Bernadine Evaristo and Howard Jacobson, the two-time Booker Prize shortlisted Chigozie Obioma, among others.
Starry days and nights
The Van Gogh 360° exhibition by Festival House Inc. opens in Mumbai’s World Trade Centre on January 20, an immersive experience that will let viewers soak in the Dutch post-Impressionist painter’s artwork in a three-dimensional format, using projection technology. Expect to be swept up in the master artist’s renditions of the night sky in artworks such as Starry Night, Cafe Terrace at Night; the beauty of still life in works such as Almond Blossoms and Irises. The exhibition will also travel to Delhi and Bengaluru, though dates and details are yet to be announced.
Shadows on the wall
This year marks the 25th year of Katkatha Puppet Trust and, to celebrate the milestone, an international puppet film festival has been organised between February 3 and 5 at the India International Centre in Delhi. During the pandemic, many puppeteers shifted their work online. “Our key idea was to look at what was being digitally produced versus what was puppet film. The lines have got blurred. Also, one of the questions that constantly pops up is how cinema was born from the ancient moving picture, which is the shadow puppet. So, we found a post-COVID linkage of people going back to cinema and to the arts because understanding the arts are so critical when you are in crisis,” says Anurupa Roy of Katkatha Puppet Trust. There are entries from about 14 countries, that include student films, documentaries, etc. In addition, there will interactive events such as exhibitions, workshops and talks.
Colour me magenta
With a bright magenta being declared as the colour of 2023 by Pantone, one would have thought that we are going back to the Y2K years with flourescents, metallics and faux leather, but its description — “crimson red tone that presents a balance between warm and cool” — shows how it is straddling the binaries of the physical and the digital.
Play on
The 22nd Bharat Rang Mahotsav 2023, the theatre festival organised by the National School of Drama in Delhi, will be held from February 14 to 26, for the first time after the pandemic, and feature 81 plays from all over India. The main location will be Delhi, with simultaneous festivals being held in Jaipur, Bhopal, Srinagar, Jammu Ranchi, Guwahati, Nashik, Rajamundhry and Kevadia in Gujarat, where the Statue of Unity is located. Because of the COVID situation, it was decided not to include foreign plays this year. “It is not only people who are recovering from COVID, but also art forms, so I am looking forward to the festival this year,” says Prof (Dr) Ramesh Chandra Gaur, Director-in-charge, National School of Drama.
Capital art
Arguably one of the country’s most awaited art events, in its 14th edition, India Art Fair in Delhi will present 86 exhibitors, including 72 galleries and 12 institutions. While the Indian galleries will present modern and contemporary art, the international highlights include the Galleria Continua booth, that will present works by Anish Kapoor and Michelangelo Pistoletto, the latter, one of the main representatives of the Italian Arte Povera, and Bruno Art Group’s selection of Andy Warhol’s works.To be held from February 9 to 12, this year will see a section dedicated to digital art as well as a showcase of folk and traditional art, from Warli (Vayeda brothers) to Gond (Dhavat Singh), Madhubani (AK Jha and Padma Shri Baua Devi), Pattachitra (Prakash Chandra) and Bhil (Padma Shri awardee Bhuri Bai).
V for veganism
Chef Dhruv Oberoi, of Olive Bar and Kitchen, predicts that veganism will remain one of the top food trends of 2023. “In India, of course, there have traditionally been a lot of vegan dishes, even if the term itself is relatively recent. Even the basic dal-rice-roti-subzi combination, if we remove ingredients like desi ghee, butter and cream, is vegan, so it’s not a huge adjustment for the Indian diner, in that sense,” he says. What will be new, he says, is how veganism is adapted by restaurants which don’t serve Indian food. “At Olive, for example, we have started making ricotta out of nut milk, instead of actual milk and use that with tortellini, for example,” he says.
Art, anti-fit and occasion wear
In a year of blurring boundaries, evidenced by the return of gender-neutral cargo pants, blazers and the continuing rise of athleisure clothes, “art will continue to carve a space in the wardrobes of tastemakers. Surreal and expressive, evocative and playful, clothes that fiddle with the concept of reality will reign supreme. From prints that offer an imaginative escape to ingenious silhouettes, artistic influences will be on many mood boards. And rightly so. We live in times of dire crisis but also infallible hope. Art will serve as the antidote to tribulations, providing a space of respite and wonder. For Spring Summer 23, I see design drawing inspiration from the inimitable voices of two artistic visionaries — artists Carlos Cruz-Diez and Takashi Murakami,” says designer Hemant Sagar of Lecoanet Hemant. Sustainability and resource-consciousness will creep into occasionwear. Designer Tarun Tahiliani believes, “The one segment that is slated to grow and be unaffected by what is happening economically is the occasionwear segment, because special occasions will continue to be celebrated. I am also seeing the use of athleisure for day-to-day life. Apparently, fashion for men and women seems to be in convergence, though I do not see this in this segment.”
Circle of life
The first ever retrospective of SH Raza’s work in Europe will be held at The Centre Pompidou, Paris, from February 15 to May 15. Through this exhibition, the Centre Pompidou (France’s national museum of Modern Art) will retrace the footsteps of the artist who moved to France in 1950, following his stint as a student at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris on a French government scholarship. The first non-French artist to be awarded the Prix de la critique in Paris in 1956, the modernist’s works deeply reflected his admiration for his motherland that he often visited, and returned to in 2010, six years before he passed away. Featuring nearly 100 paintings, the exhibition represents the evolution and transitions in Raza’s oeuvre in chronological order, from the formative years in Mumbai, to the change in oil when he initially moved to Paris, and his iconic bindu that he first painted in the 1980s.
Time to be one
Against the backdrop of war and all things divisive, the 18th International Architecture Exhibition at Venice holds new hope even as landscapes across continents keep changing. The artistic director of the event, chosen for this year, is Lesley Lokko, an architectural academic, teacher and novelist, with roots in Ghana and Scotland. Her theme, “The Laboratory of the Future”, is centred on Africa, the home of all civilisation. In her statement, she says, “There is one place on this planet where all these questions of equity, race, hope and fear converge and coalesce. Africa. At an anthropological level, we are all African. And what happens in Africa happens to us all”. The Venice Architecture Biennale will be held from May 20 to November 26.
Welcoming back Rushdie
What better way to celebrate Salman Rushdie’s road to recovery after an attack on him in New York in August last year than with a new novel by the 75-year-old literary superstar? Rushdie’s latest novel, Victory City, is scheduled for release in early February. It will mark his return to fiction set in India after nearly a decade and is likely to showcase all the elements that make a Rushdie novel an event to look forward to.
Global world
Unlike the older Venice Biennale, the seven-year-old London Design Biennale is still in its bud. But it hasn’t failed to challenge notions of design and question what has been accepted this far. In finding new routes, it has also forged new partnerships and this year again, it privileges cooperation with its theme “The Global Game: Remapping Collaborations”. This year, rather than a person, the artistic director is Het Nieuwe Instituut, the Dutch National Museum and Institute for Architecture, Design and Digital Culture, led by its artistic director, Aric Chen. To be held from June 1 to 25, the museum ambitiously hopes to initiate international cooperation through the medium of design.
India in the world
Designer Samant Chauhan, who rescued the Bhagalpuri silk as couture, swears by Japanese style minimalism in daywear and clean lines allowing for reuse in combination with accessories. “Indian fabrics like chanderi and kota are going to be big because of their organic, breathable character. Lookwise, it will be desi grunge or the tribal look with jewellery, motif and fabric, thrown about as mix and match layers over flowing silhouettes. With John Galliano and Jean Paul Gaultier using a lot of Indian motifs, India should make its presence felt at trunk shows in Paris. Central Asian republics will emerge as a new market for Indian designers because there is a cultural sameness and similarity in what we wear,” he says.
Readers’ Digest
The New Delhi World Book Fair, based on the theme of 75 years of Indian Independence, will take place from February 25 to March 5, from 11 am to 8 pm, in Halls 2 to 5 of Pragati Maidan. Organised by the National Book Trust with India Trade Promotion Organisation, it will host skits, street plays, storytelling sessions and music presentations for children. There will also be a book launch for 75 young writers mentored under the government’s YUVA scheme for guiding and publishing young authors, not to mention panel discussions between writers, scholars and publishers.
The Wandering Minstrel
The first time singer Harpreet’s sonorous voice made its presence felt was in Kanu Behl’s film Titli. The song Kutte — a dog’s view of human beings — sung in raw, resonant Punjabi conjured vivid memories of wandering minstrels, whose poetry offered glimpses into a unique and unseen world. After this moment of high, the singer from Haryana vanished from the scene, save a few short gigs at a few festivals. He resurfaced a couple of years ago with a satchel full of poetry by heavyweights such as Pash, Kabir, Baba Bulleshah, and fine guitar work, his music a commentary on contemporary sociology-politics. In the current world of Indian folk music and nirgun sangeet, which usually stays away from politics and power, and which is obsessed with populist poetry, Harpreet is singing Paash’s lines — Bamb sut deyo bhaave vishvavidalaya te, bana deyo har hostel malbe de dher, Main ghah haan, main twaade kitte karaye te ugg aawanga (Even if you throw bombs at the university, turn hostels into heaps of debris, I am grass, I will grow and spread on all your doings). Watch out for more of his powerhouse performances.
Designed for success
This could be the comeback year of JJ Valaya, who grabbed eyeballs by collaborating with Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth Carter to create costumes for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever(2022). With the endorsement of none other than Kate Middleton and a roaring business in New York, Anita Dongre has catapulted herself on top of the marquee. And, of course, there is always Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Rahul Mishra, who continues to be international favourites.
Rooting for RRR
Even though SS Rajamouli-directed RRR lost out on being India’s official entry to the Academy Awards 2023 in the International Feature Film category, it has already won over a large section of Western movie critics and found a fanbase. RRR’s catchy Naatu Naatu track has been shortlisted in the Best Original Song Category, raising hopes of its Oscar win after the makers submitted the movie for consideration in other Oscar categories. Even as we wait to see if RRR makes it to the final list of nominees, Indian fans can revel in the fact that this year four movies have made it to the Oscar shortlist. This includes Pan Nalin-directed Chhello Show (The Last Show), which is India’s official entry for the International Feature film category; Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes for Best Documentary Feature; and Kartiki Gonsalves’s The Elephant Whisperers for Documentary Short. The final nominations for the 95th Academy Awards will be announced on January 24 and the Oscar ceremony will be held on March 12. Before that, RRR has a chance of winning a major international honour at the Golden Globes — it has been nominated in the Best Non-English Film and Best Original Song categories — which takes place on January 11.
