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 Of festivals and politics - Shanta Serbjeet Singh, New Delhi e-mail: shanta.serbjeetsingh@gmail.com April 16, 2010 Twenty five years ago, the vibrant, if hitherto sleepy relationship between France and India took a new turn with the historic first Festival of India in France. October 1985 in Paris was a heady autumn, the maple trees lining the boulevards of Paris aglow with golden colours, the table and chair arrangements still out in the open, in front of cafes, uncaring about the winter snows that would soon push them inwards for a long spell. They invited one and all with the aroma of coffee au lait and fresh breads. It was a young Mallika Sarabhai who then made waves as Draupadi in Peter Brook's Mahabharata at the Avignon Festival. Avignon, in the south of France, is a magical festival space and the play was staged in a nearby quarry whose rock-hewn contours framed the epic battle between two warring clans. I was there, a young arts writer, thrilled to be a part of the official delegation that accompanied the young and handsome Prince of Camelot, the then Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi and his shy and beautiful wife, Sonia Gandhi.
Cut to 25 years ago. Mallika's several months long apprenticeship with Peter Brook may have been one major reason for Mallika finally settling her personal see-saw of should she manage the family business or should she join films or should she put to more professional use, her training in Bharatanatyam and the legacy of Mrinalini Sarabhai in favour of the last choice. She stuck to this choice through the rest of her life, even when son Revanta was too young to be put down from the mother's lap and her choice of a foreign partner, though married, invited raised eyebrows. Good for her! Brook's original 1985 stage play was 9 hours long, and toured around the world for four years. In 1989, it was reduced to under 6 hours for television. Later it was also reduced to about 3 hours for theatrical and DVD release. The screenplay was the result of eight years work by Peter Brook, Jean-Claude Carrière and Brook's partner, Marie-Hélène Estienne. For the casting, an international group of actors, black, brown, and white was intentionally chosen. Together they did show that the nature of the Indian epic is the story of all humanity. In 1990, the film version won the Performing Arts of the International Emmy Awards and the Audience Award for Best Feature at the São Paulo International Film Festival. For Dr. Karan Singh who did the political honours at the "Namaste France" inauguration, it was a nostalgic trip of a personal kind. He was revisiting his birthplace for it was at Cannes, the great capital of international cinema, that he was born. His parents, Maharaja Hari Singh and mother Maharani Tara Devi were camping in Cannes when the baby Karan Singh decided to make his way into the world! Speaking at the opening, Dr. Karan Singh said, "India has emerged on the global stage but in culture, it has always been a Super Power. It is said that India and Greece civilized the whole world with four of the world's great religions being born in India. Culture transcends religions and I have seen the Ramayana of Indonesia performed by Muslims, compare favorably with our own in India." He went on to add, "There are three different kind of Diplomacy - Political Diplomacy which entails Government to Government contact; Economic Diplomacy with Corporation to Corporation contact, and Cultural Diplomacy with People to People contact, which is ICCR's mandate. In the last four years, there has been a multi faceted expansion in our activities. We would constantly go around Delhi looking for a Hall in the Central Business District for our events. When I first saw the ICCR Auditorium, it looked as if a bomb had hit it. It has now been transformed into a state of the art auditorium with the latest technology." Dr. Sahib was talking about the newly furbished Azad Bhavan auditorium. ICCR has launched Horizons, which is a platform for budding artists. The 339 seat Azad Bhawan Auditorium meets safety standards and has smoke detectors which sound hooters that automatically switch on the water sprinklers. It has a 22 feet by 30 feet stage with motorised curtains and cyclorama screen. The wings facilitate performers' entry and prevent the Green Room from being seen from the front seats. The walls and doors have fire proof sound absorbing panels, new lights, and an LCD projector in the centre of the ceiling which can be linked to your laptop. Why am I mentioning an auditorium in this piece? Because while great festivals are wonderful, at the end of the day when it comes to our young performers and their urgent needs, it is infrastructure of this kind that goes a long way to improve the scene.  Shanta Serbjeet Singh, for twenty-five years, columnist, critic and media analyst for The Hindustan Times, The Economic Times and The Times of India, is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Sangeet Natak Akademi and Delhi Govt.'s Sahitya Kala Parishad for her contribution to the field of culture. She just finished her term as Vice Chairman of the SNA, is the founder-secretary of the World Culture Forum and continues as Chair of the UNESCO created NGO APPAN (The Asia-Pacific Performing Arts Network), a position to which she was appointed in 2001. Singh has authored several well-known publications such as 'Indian Dance: The Ultimate Metaphor' (published by Ravi Kumar (Paris), 'The 50th Milestone: A Feminine Critique' (Sterling Publishers, to mark India's fiftieth anniversary of Independence), 'Nanak, The Guru' (Oxford University Press) and 'America and You' (22 editions). |
