Art and Culture

Mali award for Kathakali artiste

webmaster — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:01:23 -0600

The Mali Foundation's award for outstanding Kathakali artiste will be given away to Kottakkal Sivaraman at a function to be held in Tripunithura on November 9. The award known as 'Mali Karnasapatham award' will consist of Rs.10, 001 and a citation. The award has been instituted to commemorate the birth anniversary of Malathi M. Nair, wife of the late V Madhavan Nair known as 'Mali', author of several books including Karnasapatham Attakatha. The award winner was selected in consultation with Tripunithura Kathakali Club, said its president A K Sabhapathy.

The newly constituted Mali Karnasapatham award is an endeavor to acknowledge artistes excelling in the art form of Kathakali, said V.K. Madhav Mohan, president of Mali Foundation. The first award is an expression of gratitude and appreciation of Kottakkal Sivaraman's lifetime contribution to Kathakali, he said. The activities of the Foundation are focused on encouraging excellence in the fields of literature, sports, art and culture. The support being extended to exponents of various art forms is in tune with the objective of commemorating Mali's love for art forms practiced in India. The award ceremony will be followed by 'Karnasapatham' Kathakali performance by the ladies' troupe of Tripunithura Kathakali Kendram.

Sahitya academy award for Regunandan and Cheriyan K Cheriyan

jimmy elias — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:34:13 -0500

The Kerala Sahitya Academy awards for the year 2007 have been announced. K Reghunandan's Pathiravankara bagged the award for the best novel. Cheriyan K Cheriyan's selected poems bagged the award for best poetry.

Shihabudeen's Poyithumkadavu secured the award for best short story. The award for the best drama goes to Francis T Mavelikkara's Dravidavritham.

Mohanlal in a new role

jimmy elias — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:04:21 -0500

It will be a different role for popular Malayalam film actor Mohanlal as he is all set to perform the 'most adventurous and dangerous' magic show on stage on April 27. The event is a precursor to the International magic convention 'Vismayam 2008' slated for May 1 to 4 here.

"In films, there are retakes. But in the case of drama and magic shows, there is no retake and I pray to god that the show-- escape act titled Burning Illusion, becomes a success", Mohanlal told reporters here yesterday.

"I am taking magic lessons under master magician Gopinath Muthukad, the promoter of Magic Academy for the past one and half years and preparing myself for the act, Mohanlal said.

'I am fully aware of the risk factor involved in the act and I am confident that I will be able to do it successfully", he said.

The special item will have Mohanlal handcuffed and wrapped in chains with the keys in the hands of dignitaries watching the show. The actor will then be put inside a box which will be thrown into a ball of fire from where he has to escape.

Now with rigorous learning, Mohanlal has succeeded in keeping his mind stable even when his body is wrapped with long iron chains, Muthukad said. The act is organised by the Kerala State Youth Welfare Board, State Law Minister M Vijayakumar said.

About 1500 magicians, including street magicians from different parts of the country and abroad, would participate in the Magic Festival organised by state tourism department and Magic Academy.

Thrissur Pooram begins

jimmy elias — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:42:07 -0500

The most spectacular temple festival, Thrissur Pooram, began here Wednesday morning. More than 500 foreign tourists have arrived to watch the festivities. The Thrissur Pooram, celebrated in the Malayalam month of Medom (April-May), is a grand assembly of gods and goddesses from various villages and towns in and around Thrissur town.

The deities from these temples make their annual visit on caparisoned elephants and accompanied by grand ensembles, to pay obeisance to the deity of Vadakkunathan temple.

The festivities Wednesday began with the arrival of cherupooram (processions) from the various temples. The festival lasts 36 hours from the arrival of the procession of Kanimangalam Sastha temple.
Thousands of people congregate at Thrissur town as processions accompanied by temple orchestra and caparisoned elephants arrive.
During the pooram, the temples of Parammekkavu and Thiruvambady compete in various festivities. They vie with each other with variety and richness of the percussion ensembles and the adornments and parasols on the elephants.

"More than 500 foreign tourists are here for the pooram this time. We have made special arrangements for them to witness the Kudamattom (display of ornamental parasols) that will take place in the evening. A special stage is erected for tourists who do not want to mingle in and move with the crowd," Jackson Chacko, the information officer for Thrissur district tourism promotion council, said.

One of the major attractions of the festivities is the temple orchestra attended by hundreds of artists with traditional instruments.

Kudamattom, the competitive display of parasols by the competing temples, on 30 elephants with elaborate decorations arrayed in two lines facing each other is the grandest spectacle of pooram. This is to start at 5.30 p.m. Wednesday. The famed display of fireworks will be held at 3 a.m. Thursday.

The pooram will come to a close tomorrow afternoon.

Auction-packed tale of Indian artefacts

jimmy elias — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:53:23 -0500

The demand for Indian artefacts continues to soar in London auctions despite a global credit crunch. Bonhams' record sale of Mughal Emperor Shahjahan's khanjar at £ 1.7 million was the last of three in London last week after auctions by Sotheby's and Christie's International. All three sales tested demand for Indian and Islamic art among western buyers. The sale raised a total of £ 2.8 million with fees, and 78.5 per cent of the 305 lots sold.

Auction houses in Britain have offered a collection of all kinds of art pieces from India and almost all fetched more than the estimated price. Art business houses in London have sold miniature paintings from the Rajasthani and Pahari courts to early Jain and Pre-Mughal traditions in the last few weeks. Old Indian photographs, antiquities, calligraphy, textiles, swords and daggers, stonework, sculpture and jewellery, all have gone under the hammer.

A record £ 37.3 million of sales in the art world have been registered in London in April, more than double the £ 16 million-estimate. Sotheby's total has been
£ 21.5 million, Christie's International stood at £ 11.8 million and it was £ 4 million for Bonhams.

Amid recent global stock market turmoil, investors were scouring Asian art in London for bigger profits. Chinese and Indian art has come to be viewed as another commodity to invest. Art observers have noticed a 10 to 60 fold price increase in artifacts.

A dagger that once belonged to Mughal Emperor Shahjahan, sold for £ 1,700,000 at Bonhams Indian and Islamic sale. The elegant dagger, dates back to 1629-30, is perhaps one of the most complete documented pieces of the emperor's time.

The khanjar was acquired by an anonymous buyer on the telephone, who beat a £ 1.3 million bid from representatives of billionaire Vijay Mallya, present at the auction. The presale estimate was between £ 300,000-500,000.

The 16-inch long gold encrusted curved khanjar is part of Jacques Desenfan's collection. Desenfan, a Belgian enthusiast, spent over 50 years collecting arms, armours and other artefacts from the Indian subcontinent.

There were other items also on sale from Desenfan's collection including stunningly decorated horse and camel saddles from India, Persia and China.

Then there were dozens of images of Indian princes by leading early photographers and album of Kashmiri views at the same auction house. This collection of photographs owned by late NRI Kanwardip Gujral, sold for a record price of £ 512,000. Gujral was a Hamburg-based businessman who was born in Lahore but brought up in Agra. His first purchase of Indian photographs was in 1976.

Two of the highlights are panoramas of the Taj Mahal and the Jama Masjid at Agra dating from around 1860.

David Park, head of Books Maps and Manuscripts at Bonhams said that the strength of interest in the sale was impressive and that it had set a new benchmark for images of this kind.

Top item in the sale was a series of 102 prints of Kashmir in the 1860s and 70s owned by Lord Lansdowne, the Viceroy of India for the period from 1886 to 1894. It sold for £ 72,000, much higher than the estimate. The photographs were by John Burke, William Baker and James Craddock. Images range widely, from the North-West Frontier to Bengal, Himachal Pradesh to Madras.

Bonham's also sold an illustration from the "Shangri" Ramayan: Hanuman attacking Ravan's demons, circa 1700-1710 for £ 15,000.

Last month, six Indian artists stole the show at the Sotheby's contemporary art auction in London and their creations together fetched $ 11,69,886. The highest price went to Raqib Shaw's work -- Garden of Earthly Delights. There were works from TV Santosh, Subodh Gupta, Ravinder Reddy, Anju Dodiya and Shibu Natesan.

Sotheby's contemporary art specialist James Sevier said, "The six Indian works received huge presale interest from collectors looking to Indian contemporary art as a flourishing sector of the international art market, that is emerging and affordable."

Sotheby's maintain that Indian contemporary art now has an established coterie of western collectors.

Bloomsbury forthcoming sale of oil paintings, watercolours, drawings & prints has several Indian subjects. The most unusual being "Lot 64", which consists of three Indian company school watercolours depicting a gruesome religious, ritual dance involving hooks, piercing and impaling.

Sotheby's 'The Indian sale' in May will present Indian paintings and watercolour prints.

The auction house has works of legends like Rabindranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, Avinash Chandra, Prosanto Roy, MF Hussain, B Prabha and Ram Kumar, to name a few.

Christie's, South Kensington centre is showcasing Indian and Islamic works of art, which includes miniature paintings Pahari, Rajasthani, Mughal and Jain style with varied subjects like life of Lord Krishna and Ragamala paintings.

Amid record sales and profits for art businesses, London emerges as an important centre for all things related to Indian art -- contemporary and classics.

Nandini Jawli | London

Remembering a literary giant Thakazhi Shivashankara Pillai

jimmy elias — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:37:45 -0500

It might be a decade since Thakazhi Shivashankara Pillai walked off the face of this earth, putting away the mirror that he held up to life through his stories. But the little village of Thakazhi, which was put on the world map by the writer, has not forgotten him.

A week-long literary festival, aptly titled the Thakazhi Sahityotsavam, is being held at the residence of the writer, which is now a state-run memorial in his name though his wife Katha continues to live there. Beginning on Thursday, the writer's 10th death anniversary, the festival will continue till April 17, which would have been his 96th birthday.

Plea to promote classical arts

jimmy elias — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 01:56:00 -0500

Kathak dancer Shila Mehta has called for more initiatives to promote classical art forms among youth. She was addressing a press conference held here on Tuesday on the sidelines of 'Poora Nilavu', a dance and music festival to herald Thrissur Pooram. "Classical art forms need support from all quarters to survive the onslaughts of globalisation," she said.

Dinosaurs and aliens join samurai warriors at Mumbai museum

jimmy elias — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:07:14 -0500

Dilophosaurus, the carnivorous dinosaur from 'Jurrasic Park,' Danny DeVito, the evil Penguin from 'Batman Returns' and a model of the Alien Queen from 'Aliens' will figure among a collection of Hollywood memorabilia that is soon coming to Mumbai. The country's first ever musuem-archive-entertainment centre 'The Osianama,' has purchased Rs 1.15 crore worth of artworks used in various Hollywood films and auctioned at the recent 'Profiles in History' auction held at Los Angeles.

The highlight of the collection is the hand-painted and detailed solid poly-foam pieces of the Dilophosaurus display study used in the Steven Speilberg's 'Jurrasic Park' bought for USD 27,500.

Neville Tuli, the founder chairman of Archive cum Auction House, Osian, says "Young minds have a fascination for the Sci-Fi and horror film creatures which show magnificent imagination and represent some of the most unique creations of Hollywood. To see the smiles on the faces of our children when they see these artworks will be wonderful." The adult Pteranodon and five banies "feeding" on screen used Baby T Rex stunt puppet from Jurassic Park II as well as the Dilophosaurus display study are all mounted on a wooden base.

Also the Danny DeVito Penguin display study from the 1992 Warner Bros blockbuster 'Batman Returns' bought for USD 42,500 is a meticulously created full-scale model built and painted by the same artists responsible for designing and sculpting the original look of the Penguin.

Produced from molds used for makeup pieced and a 66 inch life cast of Danny DeVito, was purchased along with the hero penguin Henchman from the same film.

Kathakali training camp

jimmy elias — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:49:27 -0500

The Cheliya Kathakali Vidyalayam will conduct the annual Kathakali Padana Sibiram at Cheliya, Koyilandy, here from April 16 to May10. The camp will be organised under the guidance of Guru Chemancherry Kunhiraman Nair.

The topics that will be taken up at the camp include 'kathakali vesham', 'kathakali sangeetam', 'chenda melam' and 'chuttiyum koppunirmanavum' among others. Demonstration classes, literary lectures and symposia will be held as part of the study camp.

Kadammanitta Ramakrishnan passes away

webmaster — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:29:30 -0500

Eminent Malayalam poet Kadammanitta Ramakrishan died at a private hospital in Pathanamthitta district yesterday, family sources said. He was 73 and survived by wife and two children. Kadammanitta, as he is popularly known, had been undergoing treatment for the last few months.

M R Ramakrishna Panikkar, popularly known as Kadammanitta, was born on March 22, 1935 in Kadammanitta province of the present Pathanamthitta district. His childhood experiences, especially the Patayani songs, imparted strong influence in his literary work. With his powerful and mind provoking poems he became one of the gifted rebellious voices in modern Malayalam literature. More than anything, it was his style of reciting his own poems in a powerful and efficient manner made him darling of many progressives.

During his college days, he was involved with the student federation as well as communist party. In 1992 he became the vice president of Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham (Progressive Association for Art and Letters), and in 2002 its president. In 1996, he was elected to Kerala state legislative assembly from Aranmula constituency in Pathanamthitta district. He was awarded Kerala Sahithya Academy award in 1982.

His main works include Kadammanittayude Kavithakal, Kadammanittayude, Thiranjedutha Bharanippaattukal, Therikkavithakal, Kalayum Alpam Theriyum, Oru Communistkarante Laingeeka Cheshtakal, Kadinjool Pottan, Poottile Poonthottam, Ookkaan Poya Neram, Maadhaka Sundari, Mazha Peyyunnu Maddalam Kottunnu, Madammayude Ammakku Thooran Muttunnu and Muralidhara Kuruppum, Njanum Ente Pennumpillayum.