|
|
She's
Got the Look
After an
endless line of software professionals, Bangalore has some more girls
who are hitting it big in modelling. At the Ford Super Model of the World
2000 Contest held in Mumbai, six of the 18 participants were from Bangalore,
including the dusky 6-ft winner, Kiran Vajpey, 19, who heads to Puerto
Rico in December for the Ford International Model Search. Judges included
UK supermodel Gail Hutchinson, British model and actress Helen Fairbrother
and actors Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan. The evening's other highlight:
Bollywood damsels Pooja Batra and Suman Ranganathan modelled designer
Wendell Rodricks' clothes and Twinkle Khanna performed with rock group
Stereo Nation to cheers by the audience, including Kumarmangalam Birla,
actress Bhagyashree and Parvez Damania. The snag: "Sallu" and
"Sanju" were so
busy signing autographs that they had a problem collating points.
-Himanshi
Dhawan
Art
of the Matter
 |
| Khakhar
with Husain |
Welt-often,
German for "at home with the world", seemed to best describe
the exhibition of works by veterans and youngsters at the Jehangir Art
Gallery, Mumbai, last week. The senior clique, including Bhupen Khakhar,
Jogen Chowdhary, Nalini Malani, Ravinder Reddy and M.F. Husain, shared
their latest works with the pictorial constructions of Shibu Natesan,
Atul Dodiya and Jitish Kallat. It seems that well-known German curator
Bernhard Steinruecke's attempt to take a closer look at the sources of
inspiration, as well as the themes and issues affecting the Indian artist,
has paid off-the buzz was that half the paintings had been sold by the
end of the opening day. Natesan linked the busy sale to the growing popularity
of Indian artists in Europe , the US and Japan: "More of us are now
being invited to exhibit abroad than ever before,"(Many of the buyers
were clearly NRIs.) However, others like Khakhar and Chowdhary disagreed,
insisting that Indian artists are still considered inferior to their western
counterparts. Also seen engrossed in the popularity debate at the opening
were Mumbai celebs Shobha and Dilip De, Sabira Merchant, Prahlad Kakkar
and Dolly Thakore.
-Himanshi
Dhawan
Classical
Sense
Wondering
what to call her - dancer, singer, choreographer or TV anchor? Thirty-year-old
Vidya Bhavani Suresh from Chennai is all this, and more. But what strikes
you most is her ability to sound uncannily bizarre and unerringly logical
at the same time. Sample this: she considers Bharatnatyam (which she has
been learning for 25 years) a dance that pampers the male ego. How? "In
every Bharatnatyam composition there is the Indian woman, always jealous
and lovelorn, pleading for the company of the man who ditched her,"
explains Suresh. "Why can't her love be reciprocated?" And that's
just one of the chapters in Suresh's book, Appreciating Bharatanatyam,
which was not taken kindly by some conformists who are "comfortable
with the way things are." Having released a cassette of songs with
"unusual" themes for dances, the exponent is now out to demystify
the convoluted grammar of musical nuances with a series of booklets. The
first one, tentatively titled Maths in Music, says: "Numbers are
the base; music is the structure; dance is the super-structure."
Didn't get it? Well, Aadithalam has 32 counts and every count has four
mathras. You try different combinations which add up to 32 and, presto,
there lies the unravelled musical puzzle. "Now even the common man
can understand the intricacies of Carnatic music," she says. Can
it really be that simple?
-Arun
Ram
more...
Top
|
|
Orthodoxy in economic thought is as odious as obscurantism in the socio-religious context. INDIA TODAY Associate Editor, V Shankar Aiyar, offers a contrarian take on the stock markets and the cause and the impact of policy and practice. 