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Screening: Ekti Nadir Naam

The Root Reel is screening a film on the life and work of Ritwik Ghatak at Alliance Française Auditorium today.

In continuation with their feature presentation of some of the treasured cinema from our country, The Root Reel is organising a screening of Anup Singh’s essay, exploring the life and work of Ritwik Ghatak. The film is titled Ekti Nadir Naam/Name of a River.

Anup Singh’s debut feature, The Name of a River, is an ambitious, evocative docu-fictional essay exploring the life and work of the great Indian filmmaker, Ritwik Ghatak (1925-1976). Ghatak’s reputation as India’s most important filmmaker has been steadily growing since the first major retrospective of his films was organised internationally in the 1980s. Satyajit Ray described him as “one of the few truly original talents in the cinema this country has produced”. Although largely ignored in his lifetime and usually overshadowed by the illustrious Ray, Ghatak was a legend to a whole generation of Indian arthouse directors and was seen by many as the father of the Indian New Wave.

Born in 1925 in what is today known as Bangladesh, he was 18 in 1943 when the Great Bengal famine drove him and his family from Dhaka to Calcutta as refugees. India’s simultaneous independence and partition into India and Pakistan in 1947, and a further partition later into India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, made it impossible for him to return to his homeland. The Partition of India and Ghatak’s separation from his homeland act as the driving force in his life and work.

In The Name of a River Anup Singh uses a love story between a man and a woman crossing the river between Bangladesh and India – playing the roles of refugees, divine beings and literary and cinematic characters – to understand the mysteries of the events that led to the massacre of half a million people and forced ten million people to migrate across the newly established borders. Covering a huge area of visual, aural and intellectual ground within its 90 minutes, this exquisite film presents its audience with a dreamlike odyssey through a history, a life and a work that we, the viewers, encounter in the shape of stunning landscapes and music, lovers and gods, myths and memories, literature and cinema.

The Name of a River has been screened at numerous international film festivals, winning the Aravindan Award, India, for best debut filmmaker in 2001, and the Silver Dhow Award for best feature at the Zanzibar International Film Festival in 2002.

Head to Alliance Française Auditorium, Theosophy Hall, near Nirmala Niketan, New Marine Lines, at 6.30 pm. Entry is free.

(Compiled by Medha Kulkarni. Picture courtesy worldcinemafoundation.org)

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Have a story to perform? Head to Prithvi

Caferati at Prithvi Theatre, a forum for writers, gives participants a two-minute chance to perform their written work this evening.

A lot of stand-up-and-perform acts for writers and storytellers are mushrooming all over Mumbai. Joining the bandwagon is Caferati, a performing event to be held at Prithvi Theatre tomorrow, January 28.

Caferati is a forum for writers in English. Most of their membership is Indian or has an India connection, because that’s where the group originated. However membership is open to adults anywhere in the world. Some of the members are published or earn a living from writing in some way, but that is not a condition for membership.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, head to Prithvi Theatre today for an exciting event. The event is essentially this: You + your writing + two minutes at the microphone.

However, there are some rules to follow. While the works can be in English, Marathi, Hindi or Urdu, the writing must be yours and you can perform for a maximum of two minutes only. No group performances are allowed. Participants are allowed to shot, declaim, sing; they can sit, stand or lie down; they can dance, do a cartwheel, play a musical instrument – anything goes, as long as you perform your words.

There is no restriction on genres – you can perform poetry, prose, scripts, songs, etc. but nudity, explicit language, slander or anything that flouts Indian laws is prohibited.

Sounds like your thing? Head to Prithvi Theatre today, at least half an hour before 7 pm to make yourself eligible to enter. Submit your script for approval and perform. Good luck!

(Compiled by Medha Kulkarni. Picture courtesy Prithvi Theatre)

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Stories with children

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay is hosting a day-long storytelling carnival tomorrow for children aged between 2 and 12 years.

“Stories are like spiders, with all the long legs, and stories are like spider webs, which man gets himself all tangled up in but which look so pretty when you see them under a leaf in the morning dew, and in the elegant way that they connect to one another, each to each.” – Neil Gaiman

A dilemma that most parents of children today face is instilling a sense of wonder and curiosity in children. Why? Because today’s children learn to use tablets and smart phones even before they learn to read or write! With information available at one’s fingertips, it’s that much harder to inculcate and encourage a keen imagination and creativity.

If you are a parent and are reading this and agree, then you now have a reason to rejoice. Tomorrow, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay (CSMVS, formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum) is organising a day-long story carnival for children.

The Museum’s Kahani Karnival is specifically aimed at children in the age group of 2 to 12 years. With storytelling sessions, workshops and museum walk-throughs, the event should be an exciting one!

The event starts at 10:15 am and registration is compulsory. Email kahanikarnival@gmail.com or call +91 87670 94063 to register.

(Compiled by Medha Kulkarni. Picture courtesy Kahani Karnival)

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Student? Interested in a media career? Check this out.

Sophia Institute of Social Communications is organising ‘Media Mirror’, a day-long event featuring prominent media personalities. Starts 9 am onwards.

This is a chance for students looking to make the switch to a media career after consultation with the experts – under one roof will be present filmmaker Raju Hirani, RJ Malishka, journalist Ayaz Memon, author Jerry Pinto, filmmaker Abhishek Kapoor and many more eminent personalities.

Sophia Institute for Social Communications Media (SCMSophia) will host ‘Media Mirror’ today. The event is aimed at undergraduates from colleges across Mumbai, especially those looking for unique learning experiences and not-to-be-missed opportunities to interact with industry leaders. Media heavyweights across feature films, sports journalism, radio jockeying, documentary film making, digital media and more will speak and conduct master classes at the event. Says Dr Sunitha Chitrapu, Head of Department, “’Media Mirror’ is our attempt to encourage young people to go beyond being passive consumers and to really pay attention to the media and the role it plays in all our lives. Increased media literacy is the goal of the event”.

What attendees can look forward to are these: Filmmaker Raju Hirani will be in conversation with Meera Sanyal about media and social change; RJ Malishka will conduct a masterclass on radio, Ayaz Memon will speak on media and social change and director Abhishek Kapoor will address the issue of media and gender. Says Malishka, “Media is a double-edged sword. Used responsibly, it is a tool for wonderful social change and of course, entertainment. More and more young people are attracted to media as a career option. To me personally, radio has been a very satisfying medium and a very creative one. My journey with radio has been an adventure and I’m very excited to share it at the masterclass, and chat with the ones who will be next in line to take this medium further.”

For further details, call 022 2352 1104/98190 32120 or email scmsophia@gmail.com for full event schedule. Head to Sophia Institute of Social Communications Media, Sophia Polytechnic, Bhulabhai Desai Road for the event.

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A match, 11 men and 11 boys

A team of young boys played cricket against a team of senior citizens – and lost! – in Borivli yesterday.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

At the very start, the younger team of cricketers was quietly advised to “take it easy” on their opponents – after all, the opposition was much advanced in years, with their youngest player 62 years old, and the oldest was 73 years old! But from the first over itself, the seniors showed the youngsters who the boss was, by claiming wickets in quick succession and bowling out the youngsters for 112 runs in 72 overs.

The country’s first ’16 v/s 60′ cricket match was played yesterday, where a team of youngsters (the team’s average age was 20 years) played against a team comprising senior citizens. The event was conceptualised by Silver Innings in partnership with Pushpa Ma Foundation and The Metrognome, and was held on the BMC ground near St Anne’s School, LT Road. The youth team belonged to the Silver Innings Football Club, an organisation that works with senior citizens and their families.

 

The jubilant seniors’s team won by 7 wickets and with five overs to spare. “We organised this event because we believe that our elders have the wisdom and experience to help and support the youth to bring the required change to create a generation-friendly world,” said Sailesh Mishra of Silver Innings. “We are happy to have organised this innovative programme for intergenerational solidarity. We hope to create awareness and sensitise the youth towards our elders, and what better than sports to develop this idea?” he added. 

(Pictures courtesy Silver Innings)
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Talk: Japan’s post-war avant-garde

Jnanapravah to host ‘Gutai’s World’ a talk by Dr Alexandra Munroe at Fort this evening. Artists and historians, take note.

As part of its ‘Criticism and Theory’ module, Jnanapravaha is hosting a talk titled ‘Gutai’s World: Japan’s postwar avant-garde and the fate of internationalism’ by Dr Alexandra Munroe

In spring 2013, the Guggenheim Museum presented the first US museum retrospective exhibition ever devoted to Gutai, the most influential artists’ collective and artistic movement in postwar Japan and among the most important international avant-garde movements active anywhere in the world during the 1950s and ‘60s.

Founded by the visionary artist Yoshihara Jiro in 1954, the Gutai group spanned two generations, totalling 59 Japanese artists over its 18-year history. The name ‘Gutai’ literally means ‘concreteness and captures the direct engagement with materials its members championed under Yoshihara’s call to “Do what no one has done before!” and to elicit “the scream of matter itself.”

From its earliest festival-like events, Gutai artists sought to break down the barriers between art, the ordinary public, and everyday life, and continuously took on new artistic challenges using the body in direct action with materials, time and space, nature and technology.

Dr Munroe will discuss Gutai’s extraordinary range of bold and innovative creativity; examine its aesthetic strategies in the cultural, social and political context of postwar Japan, including its relationship with the traditional arts; and will argue for the need to establish Gutai in an expanded, transnational history and critical discourse of modern art.

The talk is at 6.30 pm today, January 23. Head to Jnanapravah, Queen’s Mansion, 3rd floor, G Talwatkar Marg, Fort. Entry is free.

(Compiled by Medha Kulkarni. Picture courtesy Jnanapravah Mumbai)

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