september 2008 programmes

tuesday 2^nd september

6.30 pm ‘INQUILAB’ a documentary film in Hindi (40 minutes) directed by Gauhar Raza

 Bhagat Singh was considered to be one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement. He was hanged by the British in 1931 for the assassination of a British DSP J.P. Saunders, in Lahore the place of his birth.

This documentary traces the evolution of this revolutionary icon as a political thinker and a visionary. It begins by tracking the early influences, his revolutionary family, locating him in the national and international political context and finally tracing the roots of his future ideological formations. Bhagat Singh was an Anarchist, a Marxist and an Atheist.

 The film spends little time in glorifying Bhagat Singh and his comrade’s revolutionary actions. Scripted and directed by noted filmmaker Gauhar Raza, the film contains archival footage and original visuals of locations, rather than a dramatic re-picturisation, which gives the film an authentic look. Textual materials have been effectively used to illustrate his political persona and it delineates the dreams of the revolutionaries to create an independent, socialist and multi-cultural India. This film attempts to craft an intellectual biography of Bhagat Singh in an audio-visual format.

The documentary will be followed by a discussion.

Gauhar Raza established the Jahagirabad Media Institute. An electrical engineer by qualification, a social scientist, a communicator working in the area of Public Understanding of Science, Cultural Studies and with more than 20 years of experience in conceiving and formulating national and cross-country research projects.

He has published seven books and more than 25 research papers, articles and reports and lectured on Public Understanding of Science. He has also produced 11 video documentary films on socially relevant subjects as well as TV serials for children.

He was awarded the best subject expert for educational film in 1999, and the Creative Literature Award, Hindi Academy, 2001, for his collection of poems 'Jazbon Ki Lau Tez Karo'.

S Irfan Habib is Consultant and subject expert in the film. This documentary emerged   out of his book project To Make the Deaf Hear: Ideology and Programme of Bhagat Singh and his Comrades. He works with the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS). He has been working in the area of modern Indian history as well as history of science and scientific ideas during colonial India. His other books co-authored or co-edited with Dhruv Raina are Domesticating Modern Science, Situating the History of Science: Dialogues with Joseph Needham and A Social History of Science in Colonial India.

Produced by Nehru Memorial Museum and library in collaboration with ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy)

wednesday 24^th septemper to wednesday 8^th october, 2008
11a.m.-6:30 p.m. (Sundays 1:00 pm to 8:00 pm) 

 ‘Mint Green’ - An Art-In-Décor exhibition Showcasing ‘world art’ at its eclectic best by a melange of artists from around the world. Organized by The Fuschia Tree

                                                  
Creative energies, at their eclectic best, connect in 'Mint Green', an exhibition that promises to showcase the best of original artworks and art prints from around the world, in hues of 'Mint Green'.
 
Peerless techniques and a refreshingly new language fused with distinctive styles are at play to add sheen to a show that is already a visual delight.
 
The exhibition's unique art-in-décor concept transcends many cultures and geographies and brings forth the aesthetics of fine art to the buyer and art enthusiast, all at affordable prices.
 
The artists are surprisingly united in their diversity and artistic expressions as they find common ground in shades of the all encompassing unifying colour, Mint Green

The Fuschia Tree is an interactive space that caters to artists and people in search of that perfect blend of creativity and art.
 
For them, art is a necessity, like the air we breathe — becoming a part of everybody's life to adorn our lives like a precious jewel. Clearly, the business of buying art ceases to be a business when a canvas becomes the very soul of an artist. The cause then becomes nobler. This is The Fuschia Tree's basic tenet and its beliefs ripple through every facet of its endeavours.

friday 26^th september
7.00 pm Off the Mantle #16 ‘Liquid Windows’ stories by Hanif Kureishi
The First City Theatre Readings

 Hanif Kureishi is a playwright, novelist, screenwriter, essayist, co-editor of The Faber Book of Pop, and recently anointed, Commander of the British Empire (C.B.E.) – not a small feat for a man who grew up watching sitcoms in Bromley, a middle-class London suburb, the son of a Pakistani father and an English mother. The world was introduced to Kureishi in 1985 through his screenplay for the Oscar-nominated film, My Beautiful Laundrette, which shed fresh light on class, race and sexuality in Thatcher's London. Over the next two decades, his novels, stories and plays, have infused English-language literature with the rhythms of popular culture and the stories of London and the UK's South Asian communities. The First City Theatre Foundation presents a reading of excerpts from his novel Intimacy and his first collection of plays.

monday 29^th september

6.30 pm ‘ALICE BONER, THE INNER VISION’ a documentary film by Werner Weick (55’, 1997)

 This documentary is one in the series The Golden Thread, a portrait of a Swiss sculptress who came to live in India in the 1930's to study the principles of sacred art. She was profoundly influenced by Indian temple sculpture and was able to envisage the metaphysical structure that lay behind these sculptures. Today her studies are used as textbooks in Indian universities.

The Golden Thread is a series of documentary films Werner Weick initated in 1994 for Italian Swiss television. It aimed at introducing lesser known personalities from the East and the West: Alain Danielou, Alice Boner, Kathleen Raine, Laurens van der Post, Max Picard, Kapila Vatsyayan, Frederick Franck, John Tavener, Raimon Panikkar , Adolfo Asnagh and many others whose personalities and personal histories were original and unique. 

Alice Boner (1889-1981), artist, impresario and scholar was instrumental in launching in the West the experience of the Indian Ballet along with Uday Shankar in the late 1920's. She accompanied Uday Shankar back to India in 1930 and contributed in the rediscovery of Kathakali. She settled down in Assi Ghat in Varanasi and devoted her time to painting and music. Soon after, the photographer Raymond Burnier and Alain Danielou came to live in the neighbouring Rewa Kothi. Alice Boner has made an important contribution in the cultural dialogue between India and Europe.             

This documentary is being screened in India for the first time at The Attic and will be introduced by Dr Dagmar Bernstorff, a German scholar living in India. Dr Bernstorff came to India in 1954 on a scooter, while she was broadcasting for German radio. A Professor in Heildeberg, she is the editor of many books and was instrumental in bringing out Alfred Wurfel's autobiography: India my Karma. 

This programme is organised in collaboration with The Alain Danielou India Committee, TSI (Televisione Svizzera)  and the Swiss Embassy. It is the concluding part of a series of events organised by the ADIC in collaboration with The Attic, Pro Helvetia New Delhi and Copal Art Ltd.