Mahanatyamani Kalamandalam Gopi

I am always mesmerized by Kathakali when I watch it on TV. I have never watched it live and wish I would someday. Ajayan of Mint profiles Kalamandalam Gopi, a person who expanded Kathakali's fame.

Training at Kalamandalam was rigorous—from 4 am till 10 pm, under maestros such as Ramankutty Nair, Padmanabhan Nair and Krishnakutty Warrier. It lasted for seven long years. “It is the dedication of those teachers that has helped me grow to these heights,” says Gopi.

Kathakali has its roots in Krishnaattom (dance) which was developed and popularized by the Zamorin, who ruled Kozhikode in the 17th century. It is based on the famous 12th-century Sanskrit poem Geeta Govinda which celebrates the love of Lord Krishna for Radha. The ruler of Kottarakkara, a fiefdom in south Kerala, gave form to another play, Ramanattom, based on the life of Lord Rama. These masked plays were a precursor to Kathakali. In the 18th century, the ruler of Kottayam in central Kerala gave Kathakali its current name, along with its present form, making innovations in the costumes, stylization and presentation, and basing it on dramatic episodes from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.

Traditionally, stories based on the epics were composed to be performed over a whole night, but with time they have become more concise, focusing only the dramatic and popular parts that last from two to four hours....

Gopi still remembers his performance as Bhima in Paris in the 1980s. Enacting an episode of the Mahabharata, he was to kill Duryodhana. “I was very young then. Bhima was to pull out the intestines of Duryodhana and, to an extent, I overdid it. A pregnant woman in the front row was shocked at the performance and fainted,” he recalls.

Three factors are crucial in the making of any good Kathakali actor—a body and face ideal for the Kathakali costume and make-up, acting and expressive abilities and rigorous training. “What one finds in Gopi is a rare and happy blend of all these,” says M.V. Narayanan. “He is actually the only actor today who can present with equal ease such highly technical and systematized roles like that of Arjun or Bhim or Yudhisthira, as well as the more ‘emotive’ and ‘freewheeling’ roles such as Nala and Karna.”

Restoration Dept. of Archeology Style

Although there are some really smart and dedicated people working for it, the reputation of Department of Archeology, as most departments controlled by GOI, is probably well deserved, after one sees this:

The picture on the left shows a building at Panam Nagar near Sonargaon in Narayanganj before it was restored by the Department of Archaeology. Following the restoration and the paint job, right, much of the building's motifs have become obscure. A number of buildings at the archaeological site suffered the same fate. Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain - [The Daily Star]

Update: See comments. Dept of Archeology is Government of Bangladesh's creation, not GOI's.

Wonderful Show!

Created by Hawks, the newly arriving IAF trainers - 20 years in the approval process and 3 years since signed deal - imported from UK's BAE Systems. [Link]

How the Taj Was to Come Under a Wrecking Ball

Next time anyone claims British rule was good for India it may be worthwhile to remember this:

Excerpts from books on Taj Mahal and Mughal architecture:

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Lord William Bentinck, (governor general of Bengal 1828-33, and later first governor general of all India), went so far as to announce plans to demolish the best Mogul monuments in Agra and Delhi and remove their marble facades. These were to be shipped to London, where they would be broken up and sold to members of the British aristocracy. Several of Shahjahan's pavilions in the Red Fort at Delhi were indeed stripped to the brick, and the marble was shipped off to England (part of this shipment included pieces for King George IV himself). Plans to dismantle the Taj Mahal were in place, and wrecking machinery was moved into the garden grounds. Just as the demolition work was to begin, news from London indicated that the first auction had not been a success, and that all further sales were cancelled -- it would not be worth the money to tear down the TajMahal. Thus the Taj Mahal was spared. [R. Nath's History of Decorative Art in Mughal Architecture] The forts in Agra and Delhi were commandeered at the beginning of the nineteenth century and turned into military garrisons. Marble reliefs were torn down, gardens were trampled, and lines of ugly barracks, still standing today, were installed in their stead. In the Delhi fort, the Hall of Public Audience was made into an arsenal and the arches of the outer colonnades were bricked over or replaced with rectangular wooden windows. The Mughal fort at Allahabad (one of Akbar's favorite) experienced a fate far worse. Virtually nothing of architectural significance is to be seen in the barracks that now make up the fort. The Deccan fort at Ahmednagar was also converted into barracks. Now, only its outer walls can hint at its former magnificence. [David Carroll's Taj Mahal]

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Come to think of it, it sounds pretty close what the Islamic raiders and rulers did to Hindu and Buddhist temples and universities, few hundred years prior. The Islamics destroyed and burnt places because they weren't Islamic while the British destroyed places for profit and power.

John La Carre Has it Right

Response to Salman Rushdie's knighthood is amusing to say the least. Most of the western news houses, naturally picked up by Indian media, have Islamic nations protesting the knighthood. Rushdie himself probably doesn't care. He has been through lot worst. Whether one agrees with the protesters or not, Eugene Robinson, a columnist for Washington Post, has an interesting flash back in one of his columns. It's regarding his meeting with Rushdie many years ago, when Rushdie was still in hiding (because of Iran's fatwa to Muslims to kill him for blasphemy in Satanic Verses). Apparently Rushdie was taking the whole thing in stride, but was peeved at some of his fellow writers in London for not supporting him completely. Rushdie apparently singled out La Carre.

Robinson writes of La Carre's response:

He considered the prime offender to be none other than le Carré, whose real name is David Cornwell and who also happened to be a neighbor of ours -- his city house, as opposed to the country house where he spent most of his time, was just across the way, and we had met him socially. So there we were, torn between literary lions. Le Carré's position, as he later explained in a published letter, was that "like any decent person" he of course deplored Rushdie's persecution but that he also believed "there is no law in life or nature that says great religions may be insulted with impunity." Leaving aside an earlier feud between the two authors over a book review, le Carré makes a reasonable point about gratuitous insult. It's basically the same point I made about those Danish cartoons that ridiculed the prophet Muhammad in a stunt whose only purpose was provocation. [Knighthood for a Literary Lion - Washington Post]

When apparent secular folks are up in arms about freedom of speech (based on first amendment of US constitution?) and Hindu fascists with regards to Durga Devi's offensive painting, it would be wise to take La Carre's words in advice.

Black Friday - Review

By Rampalli Srinivas

A feature film documenting real incidents is like a twin edged sword both for its makers and performers. Make it a little too realistic, it will end up like a documentary and put in a little too much drama and it loses its authenticity. It becomes that much more difficult if you are making this film in India against an additional barrier of its legal system and politically correct censorship. Also throw in the chance of a life threat from one or more of the players behind the conspiracy.

If a film maker decides to risk all these and make such a film what else can you call it but one of the most important chapters in the annals of Indian cinema. It is cinema at its starkest with extremely believable recreation of the actual incidents. I strongly believe this movie has turned a new leaf in Indian cinema and paved way for many such efforts in the future. No words can be enough to describe this gutsy effort by a young film maker like Anurag Kashyap. He showed the guts to take up such a project and has executed it with a vice like grip on the audience starting from the first scene.

The only flaw I can point is that the length of the episode showcasing the travails of Badhshah Khan, in an attempt to escape the police through various places in India. However, he deserves some slack in this regard for the simple reason that this is the episode which contributes the most towards making his effort into a movie and not a documentary.

It greatly helps that this film has a cast comprising of very few recognizable faces and among them are Kay Kay Menon, Pawan Malhotra and Aditya Srivastava, who just melt into their roles in such a fashion that you only see their characters. Cinematography is extremely good with innovative lighting schemes and the manner in which the camera follows the characters through the slums and bylanes of Mumbai is spellbounding.

The casting idea reminded me of Paul Greengrass's United 93. The narration without taking sides reminded me of Steven Spielberg's Munich. However, it needs to be mentioned that this film was made before either of the above two (it was lying in the cans waiting for the courts to clear it!). The camerawork through the slums of Mumbai reminded me of Fernando Meirelle's Cidade De Deus (City of God).

For someone awaiting an Indian movie of international standards, this one is like an oasis in the desert. It is my wholehearted plea to everyone wishing international recognition for Indian cinema - Please go watch this movie!

Rampalli Srinivas is a guest blogger at Gudem.

Amazing Rock Arts In MP

Dr. Jean Clottes created a small web exhibit of rock art from, mostly, Madhya Pradesh - around Bhopal and northwest of the state - after visiting International Rock Art Congress in Agra in 2004.

Bhimbetka - White elephant and human

V. Wakankar started in 1957 the latest study of these rock arts with newer scientific methodology.

Dr. Clottes writes:

The first discovery of rock art we know of was done in 1867 by Archibald Carlleyle, then First Assistant of the Archaeological Survey of India, in the sandstone hills of the Vindhyas Mirzapur District (what is now Uttar Pradesh). This was twelve years before the discovery of Altamira. His discoveries were not published at the time, but long after, in 1906. On the other hand, in 1870, H. Rivett-Carnac, a Colonel of the colonial British administration, found and reported cupules near Nagpur, then in the state of Maharashtra. Then he found some more in Kumaon (Himalaya). In 1883, John Cockburn reported the painting of a rhinoceros hunting scene in the Mizrapur District and shrewdly attributed it to prehistoric times and made ethnological comparisons, so that “Cockburn’s views and concept on the rock art of India (are) still valid for further ethno-archaeological investigations” (Chakarverty 2003: 9).

Bhimbetka - Dual of red warriors with swords, shields and daggers

And he continues:

Yashodar Mathpal sees three broad periods in the history of rock art research in India. The first one, from 1867 to 1931, would be that of enthusiasts and explorers. During the second one, from 1952 to 1972, “more attention was paid to faithful recording” while “during the third period which still prevails, the study of rock art has become a science and a subject of research” (Mathpal 1992: 213-14).

Bhimbetka - White warring scene with elephants and horses

He has art from Bhimbetka, Karabad, Shamla Hill, Magazine Shelter, and Chaturbhujnath Nala all from Madhya Pradesh. There are more scenes of fights, wildlife, ordinary life of man, women, and domesticated animals here.