ARTS and CULTURE

Can a 15-year-old friendship jeopardise over a 5 X 4 painting? Can the egos of three friends play its villainous part in separating them in one single evening? Even with all such philosophies playing onstage, is it possible that comedy is created and people watching the scene laugh their hearts out? The three friends argue over a painting. Pic Courtesy: Evam Evam's production "Art" exactly did all that in a 1 hour 30 mins performance. And they did that brilliantly. The play was staged at Rangashankara on 5th, 6th and 7th April.  'Art ' is a play originally written in…

Thank You begins where Akshay Kumar signed off with Tees Maar Khan, faithfully fulfilling the promise of providing yet another weekend's dose of mindless entertainment. With shades of director Anees Bazmi's previous work like No Entry, it's also Anees' third film with Akshay after Welcome and Singh in Kinng. But this time the duo fails to make their magic work on audiences, let down primarily by a script that always manages to fall slightly short.The film begins with three friends Sanjana (Sonam Kapoor), Shivani (Rimi Sen)  and Maya (Celina Jaitley) who have something else in common - their husbands (Bobby…

The digital SLR and her obsession with it is what came to Koramangala resident Chitra Aiyer's  succour about a year and a half ago. Chitra tragically lost her father to an illness and in her own words, photography helped her cope. "I found that when I was looking through the viewfinder and clicking, it helped me deal with the whole thing a lot," says the photographer and blogger. Like Aiyer, who specialises in wedding, children and family photography, the camera opened several avenues for many in the city. Farmers of Bellandur. Pic: Vivek M Bangalore Photography Club's (BPC) Mayur Channagere…

Shutterbugs of Bangalore have reason to rejoice. 'Weekend of Photography', a three-day event is being organised by two photographers based in the city- Mahesh Bhat and Mahesh Shantaram. The event kicks off on 8th April. Speaking to Citizen Matters, Shantaram said that Weekend of Photography is an event of events which will unite photography enthusiasts, professionals who specialise in different kinds of photography such as wildlife, lifestyle fashion and many more. "Paris has a whole month for photography and we felt we could do something on a small scale," says Shantaram. The event is open to anyone interested in getting…

Prathibha Prahlad. Pic: Jyotsna B Rao. The sound of the beeja mantra echoes in space as the dancer  appears in an abhang posture. The shloka seamlessly woven into a jathi marked the beginning of the dance recital devised by dancer Prathibha Prahlad to trace the origin and  evolution of worship in Bharatanatyam through centuries. In the stage designed to look like a temple courtyard, Prathibha praised the divine feminine forms of Shakthi (untamable), Sri (domesticated) and Tara as invoked during the vedic times. This recital was presented  at the JSS auditorium on March 20th, on the occasion of Nirantara Narmada…

Moliere's "The Miser" was staged as "Kuberanigenirabeku" on 17th March at Rangashankara. Aneka, a Bengaluru based amateur theatre group, presented the play. Suresh Anagalli, a well-known name in the Bengaluru's theatre circle, directed the play, translated by Bhagavati M. Kuberappa venting his displeasure on his domestic help. Pic Courtesy: Aneka The original play is a satire and it had created a revolution during Moliere's time for questioning many French practices and traditions. Being a comedy actor and director himself, Moliere had written this play perhaps to ridicule the French society and its ways, back in 17th century. One of the…

Peace, solitude, glimpses of mythological past and a touch of divinity are what you get when you head for a trip to Mulbagilu. We set out from Bangalore by eight in the morning on Bangalore-Hoskote route. It was just me, my 5 year old and my husband. We reached Kurudamale by 10 am and covered both Maha Ganapathi and Someshwara temple. Chat with the Someshwara temple priest for some time if you can and he will gladly furnish you with details of the temple architecture and its history. Mulbagilu - View from Lav-Kusha hill. Pic: Usha Hariprasad. Our next stop…

A woman in a ghetto in Cambodia who will not let her house be pulled down. Elsewhere, in Rio Janeiro, a mother mourns the death of a son killed amidst the rivalry between favelas. In India, another woman wows that her son will only marry a rape victim. In Kibera (Kenya), the largest slum in Africa, a mother still dares to dream of a better world for her children. These are some of the protagonists of director JR's Women are Heroes, joined only by their gender and their undefeatable propensity to hope. Pic courtesy: JR's official website. The picture represents…

Kempe Gowda (Kannada)Kempe Gowda is a typical "cops and robbers" film from Indian cinema. But Kicha Sudeep brings together excellent production values and powerful performances to make for entertaining cinema. Source: Facebook Official Fan Page Based on the Tamil film Surya-starrer Singam, we see police officer Kempe Gowda (Sudeep) taking on the powerful underworld don Arumugham (Ravishankar). Backing him every step is the lady he loves (Ragini Dwivedi).The highlight of this film is Sudeep's performance as he breathes fire and power into his role. It's hard to find a single frame where he's not in character, and this gives the…

In Bengaluru's common spaces, an array of sculptures are placed in various venues, from street corners and traffic circles to important expanses of municipal land and strategic corners of private property that have large, open frontage. What kind of sculpture sits in these spaces? Is it always art and is it always public? A journey through the streets suggests that big questions about the politics of art and the poetics of the public are available for discussion in every neighbourhood. The artist places the work to initiate a very large dialogue in common space. Most of Bangalore's public sculptures, on…