En-cored..

I had known Pravin Kannanur only as a Theatre person and it was a pleasant surprise to discover his affair with the paint and the canvas when he had invited some of his friends to have a sneak peek at his paintings just before they were to be packed up for a show at Jehangir art gallery in Mumbai in September 2018. Memories of a huge painted canvas left to dry under the fan on the floor and walking around the studio space and discovering a mug that carried the remnants of a 'Core' in its core, still stay fresh from that visit. There was this lingering feeling that i could not catch the show in the gallery setting, and i was very elated and eager when i learnt that the show was opening in Chennai at the Inko center.

Pravin's Core is a meditation on the circular form. To the imaginative eye these paintings could invoke various manifestations of the circular frame in nature. It is fascinating to see so many varied versions of manifestations of the circular field. Though a 'genre'ification of these paintings would put them in the 'abstract' domain, i felt there was a definite rhythm and purpose to each of the painting. It's difficult to imagine that the rhythm was intended, it is more plausible that they are manifest and are dependent on the pluck of the viewer. The paintings appear to be like a piece of string tied to a bridge and waiting for the viewer to pluck them to play a flavour of music.

Just as one enters the main space of the gallery the huge painting, Luz, that faces the viewer invokes a grand cosmic event and easily steals the show. It invokes a brilliant explosion, frozen and pasted on wall; a brilliant yellowish plasma seeping through cracks in an exploding ball of the universe. 

The painting Lucent, invoked a microscopic image of an eye. An eye naked and revealing, looked at with a microscopic vision, revealing its prominent bloodish veins and its bluish pupa. An eye, projecting out of its socket. It's interesting to see how depth and texture manifest in these paintings. One painting invoked a brilliant blue sky as seen from lying down and through a gap in an yellowish thatched roof. A greenish painting brings to life the waves trembling off a pool, thick with mossy greenery. A painting invoked the cross section of a trunk of a huge tree with all its Cambrian circles there was another that invoked the vision off a sparkler being circled around.

The canvasses varied in size from around 10 feet to a few inches in size. one of the smaller paintings that was placed over a bigger one offered a newer perspective. 

I had chosen to visit the show on an evening when Pravin had planned to stage a performance pooling in music composer Martin Visser and performers Anoushka Kurien, Lakshmi Parthasarathy Athreya and Preethi Athreya to join him on an experimental exploration over two evenings of 'Score painting'.

pc: Inko Centre fb page

On the first evening, Martin was playing on a sax from a graphical score sheet. The Music sounded like bursts of chaos, Chaithanya added to the Chaos with her vocal support and Eldho was on the synthesizer adding effects to the music.

The three performers had an almost 10 feet wide canvas and cans of paint to themselves. The canvas had a few tapes stuck on it in a pattern of concentric circular sections. The performers worked on the canvas, splashing paint and working on it with their feet, fingers , scrapes and little broom like brushes. Though it all looked playful, random and chaotic, constrained only by those concentric sections of circular pattern stuck on the canvas, a pattern that was distantly related to the Core was emerging. 

The performers did not seem much bothered by the bursts of music from Martin's graphic score. However the music did set a mood for the viewers, adding zing to the chaos.

This performance offered one a glimpse of some of the methods of the artist and his techniques and i feel is very special for the artist opens up aspects of his process to the public.

The show and the performance was a beautiful culmination of the multi factedness of Pravin and his constant experiments with collaborative engagements.

Cinematic Imagination

Chennai owes a lot to Helmut Schippert, the Director of Goethe Institute, for bringing so much art, colour and discourse from across the world and the country to home. What a deprived time we would have had but for these culture evangelists. Talking of angels, i wish to also mention others who have done fantastic work on these lines for the city.

When you talk of Germans, the French can't be far behind. Pierre-Emmanuel who until recently was the Director here at AFM was also instrumental in bringing so much cultural activity to the city. One other thing that stands out in these two gentle men is that they were easily approachable, open to ideas and took heart to attend local cultural events and appreciate the arts and talents of the land.

The British council and US consulate though paler and understated in comparison, nevertheless have made their own contributions to the city's culturescape. Whereas the former two are more outgoing and enterprising establishments, the latter two are more withdrawn and engage on more cordial and conservative terms. 

It's not as if the city's culture oxygens are fed only by these foreign cultural attaches, our local players have treated the city to some fascinating and awesome shows matching these agencies in grandeur and vibrancy. Ranvir Shah's Prakriti Foundation is prominent among these. The city is a poorer place without the grand array of events like the Short and sweet plays( an exciting testing ground for identifying and nurturing theatre talents), Poetry Festival ( bringing poets from across the world and the country to different venues and more importantly to colleges across Chennai), Contemporary Dance festival and other engaging book launches and lectures that Prakriti had made possible in the city. The city had found in Ranvir a great connoisseur and patron of arts, theatre, literature and heritage. One wishes Ranvir could get back to doing what he does best - keeping the city informed and entertained. 

With that wishful thinking, i wish to get back to my present brief of what Goethe institute has brought in its latest serving of cultural treat. In this post i am talking about three servings- one an Exhibition at LKA, Chennai; two, a curated screening of films at the Goethe Institute; and three, about the film Achyut Kanya that features both in the Exhibition and the curated film screening.

In collabration with CPB foundation and In sprucing up the premises of Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai in Hosting a Photographic exhibition, reminiscing a glorious piece of Indian Cinema History, they have brought home the glorious pages of history of the birth, grooming and flourish of the Bombay Talkies; featuring, the splendid dreamy stories of Devika Rani, Himanshu Rai, Niranjan Pal; the stories of German collaborations- Jews finding refuge and bringing with them a new sense of enterprise and finesse of technique and glimpses of the vision of a man Josef Wirsching. In the process the Goethe Institute has also brought to the city the contagious and enterprising aura of the Serendipity Arts Festival.

While Devika Rani steals the show with her towering and ubiquitous presence in the show, one also gets a good feel of the contributions of Josef Wirschng, Niranjan Pal and other technicians of Bombay talkies during the 20s and the 30s. It's a celebration  of a production house, leaving us wondering what fascinating history lies waiting to be showcased in other production houses of the period. 

The exhibition could have easily ended as a romantic reminiscing of a piece of the past but for some interesting stories hidden in the narrative. For instance, a Photograph showing Josef in an internment during war period, putting together a picture book for his son has so much to say.

One is also left awestruck by the variety and depth of social consciousness beaming in the stories and scripts the BT had chosen for its movies. Izzat is a movie based on the historical conflict between the Bhils and the Marathas and Jawani ki Hawa is another with it's novel treatment of capturing a major part of the movie on a moving train stand out among the exhibits.

It was very thoughtful of the Goethe institute to arrange for the screening of some of these films from the 1920s and 30s and also set a context to appreciate the aesthetics of German expressionism as featured in films like Metropolis by Fritz Lanz, 1926 and Dr. Calligiri by  Robert Wiene, 1919, that the technicians like Franz Osten ( Sjiraz, Achyut Kanya) , Joe May ( The Indian Tomb, 1921) bring to Indian cinema.  The parallel screening of these movies by arranging a studied curation called ' Indian Expressionism through German Lens'  by the expert hands of Hariharan and Uma Vangal, who were also pitching in with their thoughts and inviting discussions from the audience. It was a very heartening sight to see a  dedicated bunch of students learnig film engaging with these films from a century ago, not for a moment whining or flinching in attention during the screening of these films from a very early era of Cinema.

Among the invited speakers, Suresh Chabria in his talk brought a context to expressionism as seen in Edward Munch's Scream painting and outlined the features of German expressionism in its manifestation in the movies in prominent play of Shadows, diagonal and distorted lines, animate sets, etc. and amply illustrated the talk with clippings from the films Dr Calligari, Metropolis, etc.

The screening of Achyut Kanya featuring Devika Rani, and Ashok Kumar and directed by Franz osten, Camera by Josef Wirsching complemented and completed the experience of the Exhibition 'Cinematic Imagination' to perfection. 

The plot of the film aspires to highlight the effect of caste in Indian life by lacing it with a bunch of love stories. Even though the film is very subdued in its treatment of the subject of caste it doesn't restrain from landing a few deep punches that resonate even to this day. For instance, when one character invokes Hindu Dharma to castigate another and settle scores from elsewhere, one is surprised how pertinent those dialogues and situations are and still resonate in our midst. 

 Every character in the movie is given a very gentle, sympathetic and wholesome treatment, and yet Devika Rani and Ashok kumar stand out with their subdued performance. 

It was interesting to see the lead characters sing their lines too. The songs were very memorable ones. There was also one of the earliest instances of Play back singing of a very touching 'Boat man song'. The boat man song keeps recurring in the movie. in an earlier instance in the movie it is sung in another version, when women from the neighbourhood work together preparing for some festivity.

The film also doesn't fail to capture the spirit and festivity of a village fair in it all its glory, the simple ways of the village folks and finally the different problems faced by married couple. 

The film is so very tightly and richly woven that not one sequence is out of place or unwarranted. It was a fantastic experience to watch a very sensible and a well meaning from almost a century ago.