FRONT ROW
MUSIC & DANCE
PERFORMANCE IN CHENNAI
MADRAS AND MARGAZHI MUSIC
By ANJANA RAJAN
Like many societies steeped in tradition from centuries gone by, India seems at once new and old. It combines the spirit of ‘what’s new’ and ‘more of the same’ with an irrepressible zest. And traditions, whose Sanskrit meaning, parampara, is translated as ‘permanent and impermanent’, have a brilliant way of evolving with the times. When we talk of the countless art traditions of India, this staying power becomes a real boon. Who could be more aware of this than the art lovers of Chennai in south India? In this metropolis, perhaps better known for supplying IT professionals to companies across the world, the dust has just settled* on one of its most popular annual traditions, the Music Season, with preparations for the next one already under way. Taken literally, ‘Music Season’ is something of a misnomer for the explosion of music, dance and related arts that engulfs Chennai from November end to mid-January.
BOOK REVIEW
The Inheritors
By Aruna Chakravarti
Chakravarti’s work is a rare literary feat, unmatched yet in Indian writing in English
says Antara Datta
Bengal at the turn of the 19th century is admittedly one of the most potent sites of the emergence of nationalism, conflicts around issues of caste, women’s education, social reform and modernity. Vernacular Bengali literature captures this moment of history with vividness but it is only with Aruna Chakravarti’s aptly titled novel, The Inheritors that this historical experience has been for the first time, articulated in all its complexity in the English language.
BOOK REVIEW
Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature,
edited by Malashri Lal and Sukrita Paul Kumar.
The eighteen essays contained in this volume create a vibrant space that compels us to look at ‘home’ from a renewed perception,
says Usha Bande
Home, both actual and conceptual, is a highly emotive term/place. Seminal to the sense of belonging, home emphasizes a physical as well as psychological necessity and in the Maslowian “hierarchy of needs” it can get prime position as catering to all the three basic needs – physical, emotional and spiritual. The book under review Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature is an attempt to delineate the representation of “home” in literature: literally as well as figuratively. As the blurb suggests, the book is about the search for a “location where the self is ‘at home’.”
BOOK REVIEW
BHANGRA
Birmingham and Beyond
By Dr Rajinder Dudrah
Reviewed by Reggie Massey FRSA
This amazing book comes as a breath of fresh air to a critic like me who has spent decades studying subjects pertaining to Indian classical music and dance. Shastriye sangeet and Bharata Natyam have been my interest areas, but since the bhangra genre is part of Punjabi folk culture, I welcome this first book on British bhangra most heartily. The following is from the chapter on Folk Dances in my book India’s Dances: Their History, Technique and Repertoire: ‘Throughout Punjab, the Land of the Five Rivers which lies on either side of the India-Pakistan border, the virile Bhangra is danced on all festive occasions and particularly after the kanak, wheat, is sown. The lively and often lusty songs tell of the pleasures of life and the heroic deeds of lovers. The Gidda is like the Bhangra but danced only by women. At the tail-end of this dance the girls form up into pairs; and then holding tightly on to each other’s hands, with arms outstretched, they spin at great speed to the accompaniment of loud and fast songs. This is the Kikli which is known to every Punjabi peasant girl. A much slower dance is the Karthi in which both men and women participate.’
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