Desicritics Category: Culture: Arts

Do You Remember Those Caves? A Poetry Film on Gwalior

Amitabh Mitra — Sat, 7 Mar 2009 00:26:12 EST

do you remember those caves

at the foot of the fort

where we used to play

and the old cemetery

we once hid from the sun

and hordes of maratha warriors

cascading behind a broken window

hunting relentlessly

for stolen moments.

the heart was then a street

pursuing days and nights

and a subdued sky

hid a longforgotten secret.

imprisoned

we traveled the eyes

and hopes

of another day.

Poetry, Art and Film by Amitabh Mitra

Poetry: And I Knew Him

Amitabh Mitra — Mon, 2 Mar 2009 09:49:45 EST

I knew him
The black man playing a recorder
At a Boksburg street junction.
Every day
He played the tale of sun set blood
Of the fear of white rain gods
Of a hope of the train from Soweto
Might stop
Running over him ever since he was born
He never asked for money
Only the landscape that
Once belonged to him.
One day
He never came back.
His place trampled
By a new founded
Sky.

Photograph - Apartheid Museum, National Archives, Pretoria

Poem by Amitabh Mitra

Art for Art's Sake

Amodini Sharma — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:38:35 EST

I see art everywhere - from beautifully framed prints in a home to grafitti on a bill-board. It's someone's idea of art. My thing with art has always been that is should be good enough to be remembered, and who cares if it is deep enough for the critics ! If I go to a home or to a public place and there’s stuff hanging on the walls, and when I return home, all I can remember is “stuff” and not the details, then that has really not been art. Hence my dislike for the generic plant/vases/fruits/animal paintings you see everywhere - one flower vase looks pretty much like another.

Figurative art is always interesting, because of the expressions and emotions attached to the painting. And it's always intriguing to read someone's views on something you yourself have strong views on. So while reading a not-so interesting novel, "The Sunday philosophy club" by Alexander Mcall Smith, it was most interesting to read the protagonist's view on artwork. The book falls in the mystery genre and some of you would recognize Smith for his other well known books (The No. 1 ladies detective agency) featuring lady detective Precious Ramotswe.

The protagonist here is a wealthy lady of independent means, Isabel Dalhousie, who has a penchant for solving problems not her own. At a suspect's house, Isabel, given to philosophical musings, observes the artwork :

"There were prints on the wall – the landlord’s taste, presumably mixed with that of the tenant: a view of the Falls of Cyde (landlord); A Bigger Splash, by Hockney, and Amateur Philosophers by Vettriano (tenants); and Iona, by Peploe (landlord). She smiled at the Vettriano – he was deeply disapproved of by the artistic establishment in Edinburgh, but he remained resolutely popular. Why was this ? Because his figurative paintings said something about people’s lives (at least about the lives of the people who danced on the beach in formal clothing); they had a narrative in the same way in which Edward Hopper’s paintings did. That was why there were so many poems inspired by Hopper; it was because there was a now-read-on note to everything he painted. Why are the people there? What are they thinking now? What are they going to do now?”

Edward Hopper’s paintings indeed do have that “now-read-on” feeling about them. Each of his painting is a snapshot of people doing something – it could be something as prosaic as reading a newspaper, but they leave you curious.

I do like Vettriano too, although some of his paintings are too mushy and too obvious for my taste. I like the "Singing Butler" because it’s got that hint of romance, but then again, “Dance me to the end of love” is a bit much. A lot of Vettriano paintings feature nicely dressed people on the beach. And interestingly, Vettriano started out as a mining engineer, only accidentally turning to painting when he was given a set of paints by a girl-friend.

Vettriano’s art is much maligned as being “vulgar and devoid of imagination”. But in that respect I think the criticism of apparently “frothy” art is similar to the criticism of “frothy” books. Must we read only literature and must we view only “deep” art? What about the whimsical, the light-hearted, the fun? Should we give all that up because it isn’t deep or worthy of us? That would be silly – if it pleases the eye and warms the soul, why not?

Susmit Bose, A Maestro of Indo-English Music

Amitabh Mitra — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 06:16:04 EST

I came across Susmit Bose one afternoon on a hot summer day at Delhi sometime in 1978. I am not sure of the year and it might be even before that. Delhi was my favourite hunting ground, hunting for poetry books, trying to sell my poetry book, hunting to fall in love again and again, it was all about love and poetry as it is still now. I have actually never met him till today.

We have a mutual friend who owns a busy café cum gift shop just below Indian Oil Bhavan on Janpath. It is there that I found Susmit Bose’s Long Playing Vinyl Record ‘Train to Calcutta’. Susmit Bose was going to be with me for the next thirty years. I have carried his LP wherever I went. This is one of my most treasured items.

Delhi of the seventies was different. Poetry and Music were emerging in an aroma of genuine Indianess. JS ‘The magazine that thinks young ‘ edited by the maverick Desmond Doig in the seventies was organising music concerts in Kolkata and bringing beat groups from Shillong, Kohima, Darjeeling, Bombay and New Dehi. Indo English Poetry had already taken roots in New Delhi. Reciting poetry near the tea shop next to Godavari at Jawaharlal Nehru University was a regular feature. Evenings and Poetry merged together in unforgettable nights. I feel proud to have been a part of that period.

Susmit Bose came as a sudden storm with simple lyrics that got embedded in permanency.He wrote on his album,

‘These songs convey my sentiments and interpretations of situations around me. I am not trying to preach in my songs but want to share my feelings with you. Having experimented in serious forms in folk music, there are two songs in this album which are the results of this experiment. They are both beautiful songs. The ‘Baul’ ( the folk song of Bengal) written by Kazi Nazrul Islam has had a great impact on me. Viva La Quinte Brigada is a song of the Spanish civil War and has been recorded before by someone whom I regard with great respect - Pete Seeger. I take this opportunity to thank all who helped me to make this dream of recording come true especially Bob Dylan who inspired me a great deal in my music.’

My favourite has always been his song whose lyrics go like this –

I wrote this song

On a Sunday morn

On a train to Calcutta bound

Of a boy who was travelling all alone

The sun went up and all was well

Till the man in the uniform

Was checking all the tickets

And was smiling

A sudden frown came on his face

As he saw the boy around…..

Susmit Bose is now known as an Urban Folk Balladeer. He sings about social issues in English to Indian audiences. His latest song on Binayak Sen, a doctor imprisoned in Chattisgarh created as much furore as my poem on him. A talented filmmaker, he’s produced several successful television shows for Doordarshan, Surabhi, a show on Indian culture being amongst the best-known. He has also released documentary films like Akha Teej on child marriage; A Revival on traditional medicine, For Who; Man Of Heart on the bauls, for IGNCA (Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts). He also arranged the song Hum Honge Kamyab with Anil Biswas and has led the All India Radio Choir. He’s performed in international folk music concerts from Cuba to Berlin, and has sung with folk music legends like Pete Seeger in the US and Canada. He has also performed with Paul Horn, an internationally acclaimed flautist, for a US/UK project on world music.

How do you speak of freedom?

When your thoughts are so in chains

How do you see the rainbow?

Without the rain(Certain Thoughts, Public Issue, 2005)

Whenever I travel to India, I make it a point to visit the café and ask my friend about Susmit. All of us have grown old and today on my birthday I put his vinyl disc on the player and listen to his immortal songs. What a better way to celebrate a birthday by listening to a giant of Indo-English Music. I remember I had penned a few lines in 1979 –

Connaught Place Blues

We had once walked around Connaught place for hours
Trying to solve a puzzle
Of a day in its stately columns
Holding aloft the far shores
Of an unfamiliar sky
Morning of jigsaw pieces in The Book Worm or
Keventers
Mind shopping at the pavement
For love poems
Rushing to embrace
Colors, lips
At a backthought corridor in
Dhoomimal Gallery
Our legs ached
Going round and round
Just trying to be somewhere
Until the one legged man in Dass Studios
Appeared from nowhere
As Sushmit Bose’s voice from the gramophone
Bent down to pick us
Loving was an afternoon
In a season that finally fell in its
Rightful place.

Shaleen Singh's unusual poetry, Proprietary Pains

Amitabh Mitra — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:33:18 EST

Shaleen Singh belongs to a small town of Budaun in the province of Uttar Pradesh in India. Post Colonial Poetry in India came in varied extent from the metropolis. Yes, there is definitely an invisible bond in ones creativity to the town or village of residence. The rustic surroundings of Budayun have influenced Shaleen’s poetry to a certain level.

The Indo-English Poetry Movement that dominated with a few names from the sixties to eighties has lost the anarchy that it professed. Instead poets like Shaleen Singh have brought their own vivid and iconoclastic imagery that defies any norm of poetry, grammar and even English. It is a poetry that is truly Indian. His poems are ultimate, radical and spoken in two or three words. They are like the hot wind that blows so often in summer at Budayun. Its searing effect is reflected on words that are immediate, poetry that seems to grow unhindered in unusual circumstances like the old Banyan tree in his house at Budayun.

Cover Watercolor by Amitabh Mitra, Poets Printery Publishing, South Africa

Fake Art - The Bane of the Art Industry

bCA Galleries — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:39:23 EST

They say that imitation is the best form of flattery, while this may hold true in some situations, this adage is blasphemous in the art circles. Throughout history, whenever an artist through his perseverance and talent has made a name for himself, there have been others lurking in the shadows waiting to piggy-back on his success and make a quick buck through rip-offs.

The monster of fake art has constantly raised its ugly head to plague contemporary Indian art. It does not even spare the new kids on the block ! One prominent ‘victim’ was none other than Subodh Gupta who has made a name for himself both in India and internationally, he who some regard as "Damien Hirst of the East!"

The perpetrator of the crime was a hole-in-the-wall operation – Sahil Art Gallery, which is owned by Shyamsunder Desai. This gallery not only sourced the fake artwork but also doctored evidence to show that it was a genuine painting, they had a certificate of authenticity, and even had a photograph that showed Subodh looking at the painting in the gallery, which had obviously been tampered with.

The matter was brought to the attention of the authorities by Anubha Jayant Dey, director, Bodhi Art Gallery, New Delhi. They had been alerted to the issue when Sahil Art Gallery announced an exhibition of 82 artworks by "12 renowned artists", Subodh Gupta is represented by Bodhi and so they investigated the matter. In a covert operation with the help of the police they recorded the transaction of the sale of the fake work for Rs. 80 lakh on hidden camera. The price range for an original work runs into crores. The police have arrested the owned of Sahil Art Gallery and have confiscated all the 82 artworks pending further investigation.

However, scandalous this heinous crime may seem, it is not the first time that Indian contemporary art has had to grapple with the problem of fakes.

In 2007, Mukul Dey Archives "Chitralekha" who are regarded as authorities on important documents, printed information and images of early 20th century Indian art, declared two works by Jamini Roy which were to be auctioned by Bonham’s auction at San Francisco on 18th June, 2007, as fakes. These works were then withdrawn from the auction.

In 2006, another auction house – Christie's, had to withdraw six works of Indian contemporary artists due to doubts regarding their authenticity. Sotheby’s too had in earlier auction in the same year chosen not to auction some works displaying "a better to be safe that sorry" attitude.

In 2004, Anjolie Ela Menon had her assistant, who had been with her for 20 years, Hamid Safi, arrested for producing fakes of her paintings and selling them off. Safi claimed that he had a recording showing that he completed most of the artist’s works anyway, a claim that was denied by the artist.

These are just some of the scams that have grabbed media attention; there have been many others where unscrupulous art dealers have tried to pass on fake art to unsuspecting buyers. Sharan Apparao, owner of the Chennai-based Apparao Gallery, estimates that "every year, about 20-30 fakes of important paintings and 50-100 fakes of (less) important paintings get released for the markets globally."

There are essentially four ways in which these forgeries are created:

* Copy the work exactly without the signature.
* Change the medium, for instance, if the original work is in oil, the fake would be executed in watercolours or acrylic.
* Change the direction of key elements in the composition - for instance place the tree on the left rather than the right as in the original.
* Carry different elements from different works of a single artist and incorporate them in one artwork

There have been rare instances where the family of an artist who has passed away has authenticated fake works for pecuniary reasons.

It is reported that Kolkatta is fast emerging as the main centre for producing fakes where out of work art graduates make a living by working for these ‘fake factories.’ They are proving to be so successful because more people these days are into the purchase of ‘names’ without having much knowledge of the artist’s style and preferred medium, for them purchasing an artwork at less than market rate appeals as a ‘good deal’. It’s after all a matter of pure demand and supply.

India lacks an institutional mechanism for certifying artworks. While the Indian art market is becoming more transparent it still has miles to go before the first time art buyer can be assured that he is buying an original.

For most buyers and collectors, it is advisable not to purchase from shady art dealers. If the work is being priced much lower than the artist’s current market rate, that alone should set the alarm bells ringing, as was the case of the Subodh Gupta work being scalped by Sahil Art Gallery. It still remains to be seen if any of the works being sold by Sahil Art Gallery are originals.

Besides, it is also advisable to purchase the works of young, talented artists whose works are assuredly original and who have an immense potential for appreciation. Also, galleries like bCA Galleries, who follow the international norm of having artists being officially associated with them, can guarantee that you are purchasing an original work.

Till such time that India has some regulatory authority and benchmarking in place for art, all art buyers – Beware!

Zubeida

Amitabh Mitra — Sun, 8 Feb 2009 12:38:24 EST

Huzrat kothi, your home
another minor minaret
lost to history and Mughal nobility
to a stampede of life, moments and memories.

Days and nights in old Delhi
have always been streets that have weathered
misfortunes
and a torn sky that has overgrown to people
hangs on pegs of tombstone drying its tatters
the sun burns its way and a piercing June wind
chases
a seller's voice
mangoes and utensils
tamarinds and jaggery
clothes and clothes...

Oh! belief and rain
I spy a
white salwar and dupatta
sheltered by a pock marked door
ghungroos jingled a runaway tread
in a smile and an aroma of familiarity
Ammijaan's voice calling you back
a muezzin’s cry restraining from a nearby mosque...

I had once held to storms, seasons
and shadows in stained glass windows
as a hundred pigeons took off to nowhere from your loft
that day.

I sat on steps,
footprints tracing
a tremor
of your eyes
sifting edges in a
corridor,

I had found
you
that day.

Silkscreen Print and Poem by Amitabh Mitra

S is for Sitar and Surbahar

Ra — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:16:35 EST

This post is related to T is for Tanpura not Sitar; it's Good to Know the Difference, so it may help to start from there. On the previous post there was a comment from a reader whose mother is a Vainika, i.e. a Veena player, saying that some people she knew thought it was cool not to know the difference between these instruments. One hopes the coolness quotient of Indian music will improve over time.

As always, there is no need to watch the videos to their full length or at all, though it might help to watch a classical clip to familiarise yourself with the sound and to distinguish the sound of the Sitar from that of the Tanpura.

Sitar:
A Sitar is a more complicated instrument than the Tanpura: it is used to produce complex melodies and not just the tones of Sa and Pa (though it has the strings to produce a drone) and will take longer to learn how to play (though some would argue that learning how to tune the Tanpura is a lifelong process!). The Tanpura is a unique instrument in the function that it performs; there are no Tanpura concerts, though it may be used for meditation. But Sitar concerts, where the Sitar features as a solo instrument are common. The Sitar features largely in Hindustani music concerts, i.e. concerts performed in the North Indian style of classical music. It is also played in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The word "sitar" has Persian origins. There is some dispute about the origins of the Sitar, but there seems to be some consensus that it is an Indo-Persian instrument. To read more on it's history see this link. It's origins are attributed both to the Veena of India and the lutes of Western Asia.

The Sitar is used a lot in Hindi film music and has been used by pop bands like the Beatles and by the heavy metal group Metallica. It would be fair to say that the Sitar is the most well-know Indian instrument in the West. Many people are able to recognise the sound of the Sitar, even if they confuse it's appearance with that of the Tanpura.

Listen out for the Sitar right at the beginning of the Metallica song Wherever I May Roam:

And for a calmer sound, let the Beatles step in. Their first song that tried to incorporate Indian music was Love You To. People are divided on whether they like the sound:

Another Beatles' song where I think the Indian element sounds better and where the Sitar is used is Norwegian Wood:

Though a Sitar may look like a Tanpura, it has movable frets on the fingerboard (see picture below), whereas a Tanpura doesn't have any frets at all, and many more strings than a Tanpura (approximately 21-23), of which usually six or seven are playable. Remember that Tanpuras usually have four (or sometimes five) strings. Some of the strings of the Sitar provide the sound of the drone, and quite a few are sympathetic strings, that create resonance. The gharana, or school of Hindustani music the Sitarist belongs to, determines the number of strings and frets used.

The Sitar often has two gourds at either end (though not always), whereas a Tanpura ALWAYS has only one. It also has many tuning pegs sticking out of the side (known as kunti) but the Tanpura has them only on the top.

Here is a picture of a type of Sitar:

Picture Credit: kksongs.com

Here is a video of Sitar Maestro Ustad Shahid Parvez playing the sitar. His sitar has only one gourd. Contrast this video to that of Pandit Ravi Shankar and Anoushka Shankar that follows-they play sitars with two gourds. You can see Tanpuris (small Tanpuras that are used to accompany instruments) in the background in both videos.

Here is a video of Pandit Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka playing the sitar.

Sitars became poular in the West thanks to Pandit Ravi Shankar and his famous pupils the Beatles, particularly George Harrison. Here is a video of Panditji teaching George Harrison!

The Sitar is held differently to a Tanpura, i.e. across the chest, and played differently. Both hands are used to play the Sitar (for the Tanpura you need only one hand) and each hand is used differently. One hand plucks ( a plectrum is worn on the index finger) and the other hand slides or fingers the strings. The Sitar can initially be cruel on the fingers and demand blood, whereas the Tanpura strings are much simpler to play!

If you go for a sitar concert, you will often see the musician tuning the Sitar between pieces. The tuning of the Sitar is too complicated to get into here, suffice to say, this also depends on the gharana and the musician.

I would like to end the section on the Sitar with a video of the late great Pandit Nikhil Bannerjee, my personal favourite sitar player. Reluctant to be in the limelight, and completely devoted to his music, he received the honours due to him rather late in the day. Exquisite playing of the highest order.

Surbahar:
Another instrument that I will briefly mention here is the Surbahar (and the legendary player associated with it). The Surbahar is a close relative of the Sitar but is significantly larger, and has a lower, deeper, more bass sound. It is rarer than the Sitar these days and not as many people play it. It is/was sometimes played as a prelude to the Sitar or the Veena and some Sitar and Veena players do play it in addition to the Sitar or Veena, though they may employ different styles both musically and in the technique of using their fingers.

Here is Beenkar (i.e. "Veena player") Suvir Misra playing the Surbahar in the Dhrupad style (he is left-handed). Misra uses three fingers to pluck the strings (quite a feat).

One of the foremost exponents of the Surbahar is the famously reclusive Vidushi Annapurna Devi, daughter of Ustad Allauddin Khan.

Picture credit: india.tilos.hu

Allauddin Khan initially refused to teach Annapurna Devi music, because his other daughter's mother-in-law burned her Tanpura. Another daughter had died an early death. Ultimately, he had to teach Annapurna Devi, when confronted with her genius (he came home one day to find her teaching her brother the renowned Sarod player Ali Akbar Khan and his other student who went on to make waves, Ravi Shankar). Today, she teaches a few very select pupils (though not necessarily Surbahar) and generally refuses to meet anyone. I haven't put the videos with the soundtrack of her playing here, because the recordings aren't of very good quality. Some other Surbahar greats are Ustad Imrat Khan, the late Pandit Chandrashekhar Naringrekar and Pandit Pushparaj Koshti. Other, younger exponents include Shubha Sankaran and Rajeev Janardan

Here is a very sweet video of a dad playing Surbahar to his baby. Looks like she loves it! I'm mesmerised by the way she responds to the music.

If anyone has any questions, please leave them in the comments section, I will be happy answer to them or to point you to more qualified sources.

The Oscar Best Picture Nominees - A Comparative Review

Aaman Lamba — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:52:54 EST

Movies seem to get better with each passing year. While last year's Oscars were all about dystopian gloom and blood, this year seems to be predicated on hope and transformation, on the power of movies to make the impossible probable, and to chronicle memory through the prism of interpretation.

The 81st Academy Award Best Picture Nominees cover the spectrum from biopic to masala entertainer. They brim with heartwarming pathos while each reveals the darkness within. Each of them has a strange pairing that makes the movie what it is, from the cerebral Frost and Nixon to the tragic Jamal-Latika (or should that be Jamal-Prem?).

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is perhaps the most fantastical of them all, with its reverse chronology, and yet this device serves to give us a retrospective look at our last century, and also enables the tragic nature of ageing in the film. The unusual romantic pairing of Daisy (Cate Blanchett) and Benjamin (Brad Pitt) is itself depicted in a manner that requires great creative effort, at times from the perspective of the ageing Daisy, and at others from that of Benjamin. As he puts it on one memorable occasion, "When I had left she was a girl...and a woman had taken her place...She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen." This magic realism imbues the photography, the close-ups and the broader shots of a society in as much flux as the characters themselves. The computer generated characters are reminscent of The Lord of the Rings, more Gollum than Bilbo. Its only failing is its episodic character, not giving us any reason to appreciate the deeper meaning of Benjamin's adventures, across tramp steamers and with bored diplomat's wives. Brad Pitt's typical detachment might see him lose the Best Actor award to the far more intense Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, or perhaps either of Frank Langella or Sean Penn from the other Best Picture Nominees.

Milk has more immediacy, along with Sean Penn's desire to be redeemed, at least in his own eyes. Harvey Milk, advocate for gay rights and activist, is portrayed with a playfulness while still revealing the bleakness and loneliness within. This is a movie borne entirely on the shoulders of Mr. Penn, although Gus van Sant has much to do with the causes and effects of his acting, undoubtedly. There is much foreshadowing of both what is to come for Harvey Milk as well as for America at large with his refusal to fit into the closet, as it were. The oft-quoted line "My name is Harvey Milk and I want to recruit you" has resonance even today, with the separation of civic life from the political sphere, and more opinionation than action. Harvey Milk takes action, and is evidently ready for the consequences. The film is shot with linear, controlled shots, done using actual 70s-era Cooke-Panchro lenses, and giving the film its 70s sheen. San Franscisco and the Castro neighborhood are as much characters in the film as Harvey Milk or Dan White, and the city's backdrop is a central part of the film's tone. Dan White (Josh Brolin) might provide the gay subtext to this film about America's first openly gay elected official, yet the indictment is more on a society complicit in the closeting of people.

The Reader takes another look at society's complictness in the events that occur within it. The movie deals with the war, already forgotten by 1958, when the story opens, and the process of forgetting. The amnesia of a nation and Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet)'s 'forgetting' to tell the adolescent Michael Berg are contrasted later, when she is put on trial for being a concentration guard at Auchwitz. Still, is it so hard to expect a society and a person to want to reconstruct their pasts to build a new life? This difficult question haunts Michael, who must choose to be the instrument of Hanna's punishment, and thereby redemption. The movie is also about the power of another form of remembering, books. The illiterate Hanna is read to, and perhaps does not therefore comprehend, by Michael, and earlier by prisoners. The coming-of-age sexuality is also contrasted with the damaged country seen around Hanna's apartment. There is a certain ham-handedness to the film, but it successfully poses its central question, and sidesteps it, by letting the viewers realize that everyone knew all along about the atrocities of the time, and chose not to speak out, much like Hanna chooses not to learn to read. Finally, the film is also a journey, from ignorance to knowledge, as in The Odyssey.

Slumdog Millionaire is another kind of journey, from rags to riches, and also from obscurity to fame. There is no forgetting involved in this film, though. The centrepiece of the film is the ability of Jamal to answer questions in a television quiz show based on seminal moments in his life. His childhood is no aristocratic idyll, a la Nabokov in Speak, Memory. Jamal is from the gutters and the film takes us through a rollercoaster ride through these social gutters, battering the characters with everything terrible and depraved that society can manufacture. He survives, pehaps by a self-imposed detachment, necessary to wade through rivers of excrement for the promised goal. The goal is ever-fluid, though, much like the film's usage of time. We are sometimes given a retrospective view, and at other times, events presage the inevitable happy ending. This recursive approach works more on the first viewing than any subsequent one. Another aspect of the film that does not quite work is the out-of-place accents of both Jamal and Salim. Jamal's Scottish tone might be explained by his days as a chaiwallah in a call center, but Salim's preppy voice is more suited for a school production of Othello. The interesting counterpoint of the film is not that between damaged Latika and the hopeful Jamal, but between the quiz show host Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor) and Jamal. Prem sees Jamal's indefatigability as reminscent of his own, and endeavors to first sabotage it, and then undermine its validity. In the end, he is rendered an instrument of Jamal's Fates, with the final question being a roll of cosmic dice more than a memory of horrors past. The spectacular reception of the film might work in its favor, but the Oscars are home to capricious spirits themselves, from those that shut out shoo-ins from the nominations to others which spring a surprise when the envelope is opened. It is written, as Jamal might say.

Frost/Nixon has perhaps the most unusual subject in the set, with its focus on the 1977 interviews of former President Richard Nixon by upcoming presenter David Frost. The film is a talkathon, with the magic lying in the interplay between the extremely savvy Nixon and the stubborn Frost, whose career and financial stability rests on the success of the interviews. The nature of the success is ambiguous, and final victory, the admission of guilt, delivers little reward, even for David Frost, who might have gone on to television success regardless. While the superlative acting and close setting of the film have brought it this nomination, it would be more than magical if it went further.

A definite miss in the nominees is Edward Zweick's Defiance, with its hardpressed Jweish partisans, a Schindler's List in the forest, as it were. While Daniel Craig and the ensemble cast deliver a compelling performance, and most aspects of the film are very well-done, it probably lost out given its Hollywood-style fight scenes and general lack of subtlety. Another notable miss was The Dark Knight, and I would posit, the Swedish vampire movie, Let The Right One In, perhaps the best vampire flick since Interview with The Vampire.

T is for Tanpura not Sitar; it's Good to Know the Difference

Ra — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 13:56:25 EST

Today I'm going to write about Tanpuras (or Tamburas), and in subsequent posts, about Sitars and Veenas because these instruments are often confused with each other. In my highly prejudiced opinion, every Indian who is able, i.e. has access to this knowledge, should know the difference between these instruments. The Tanpura is the backbone of Indian music, Sitars have brought it fame, and the Veena is one of the most ancient instruments in the world. After all we can recognize pianos, and will probably be able to tell that an organ is not a piano, though it may look similar and though we may not be able to name it.

I know that for those not interested in music this may be boring. On the other hand it is likely to be boring even for those who are interested in music, because this is very basic. But I hope those who are not interested, or vaguely interested, do read this post and forgive me for being a little obsessive about wanting us to at least recognize the different instruments if not to hear them. There may be concepts that are difficult to understand, if you want, you can explore them further by clicking on the hyperlinks, or just ignore them for the time being and simply get used to what the instruments look like and sound like so you can tell the difference. There are many video clips (hurrah for youtube!) and it's not necessary to play them for their full length or to play them at all-they are for the purposes of illustration only.

It's probably not your fault if you don't know the difference between these instruments-all three look similar, they have many variations (particularly Veenas), and Indian classical music has often been inaccessible to various groups of people; Gender, caste, social status, language, religion, class and education have all acted in complicated ways to exclude people from learning it or knowing about it. Or it may simply be that one just doesn't know about it, so let me evangelise (imperfectly).

Tanpura or Tambura:

All Indian classical vocalists, of the well-known styles of Indian classical music i.e. the North Indian style of Hindustani music (further subdivided into the quite distinct Dhrupad and Khayal styles) and the South Indian Carnatic style of music are accompanied by a Tanpura or Tambura (there are other less well-known forms of Indian art music that I shall not refer to here). The instrument is called Tanpura in the North and Tambura in the South. Instrumentalists are accompanied by Tanpuras too, though they often use a smaller version called a tanpuri or tamburi.

There are "male" and "female" Tanpuras-female ones are smaller and they can be tuned to suit male and female voices respectively.

Here is a picture of a North Indian Tanpura:

Picture credit: binaswar.com

And here is a picture of a South Indian Tambura:

Picture credit: chandrakantha.com

Though they might look big and heavy, they are actually quite light and quite fragile.

The North (Miraj) and South Indian (Tanjore) versions are constructed slightly differently and produce a slightly different sound though they perform the same function, that is to provide a "drone" to help the musician sing in pitch (sruti). Maintaining sruti, or singing in pitch is very important and therefore the Tanpura is absolutely essential in Indian classical music. Essentially, the Tanpura sings a recurring melody.

Everyone has a natural pitch. When learning Indian classical music, one chooses one's "Sa," called adhara shadja, the basic tonic note-every other note is sung relative to this note. Thus maintaining the basic "Sa," the fixed reference point is very important, and that is what the Tanpura does. (this is different to Western music).

Tanpuras usually have four or five strings. The first string is tuned to Pa (the natural fifth from the adhara shadja), the two middle ones are tuned to the higher Sa and the last, which is the bass string, to the tonic, Sa, an octave lower. The tuning of the first string may change, depending on the raga/ragam (e.g. there may be a raga/ragam without Pa) or an extra string that plays the seventh, i.e. Ni, is added, but we will not get into that here.

Nowadays one gets electronic sruti boxes and electronic tamburas that are much easier to carry around, that look like small radios. Though these are very good and have reached high standards, some people (including yours truly) feel that the traditional Tanpuras and Tamburas provide a richer sound and should not be done away with. Learning to tune a Tanpura is also considered essential in training one's ear. For a technical view on why traditional Tanpuras sound better see this article.

Here is a link to a podcast by the Carnatic musician Vidya Subramaninan and Devesh Satyavolu that explains, very simply, the functions of the shruti box, the electronic tambura and the traditional Tambura. Vidya sings out the notes of the Tambura-this will help in understanding what's been said above about how it is tuned.

Here is a video where you can see how Tanpuras are played and hear the rich sound of well tuned (North Indian) Tanpuras clearly. The singer is Ustad H. Sayeeduddin Dagar who sings in the Dhrupad style. He starts off here with a Sanskrit chant:

Here is a video of the Khayal singer Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, singing a bhajan. I've chosen this video because it has clear close-ups of her fingers on the Tanpura strings:

And finally, here is a link to a video of a South Indian Tambura being played, that I couldn't embed here.

A Tanpura is usually held straight up in front of the singer or tanpura accompanist (people can tend to lean it towards their bodies or put it in their laps) or flat down on the floor, whereas a Sitar is usually held diagonally across the body. More on the sitar in the next post.