ARTS and CULTURE

Navaratri, or the Nine Nights, are celebrated by the Bengalis as Durga Puja, or ‘Pujo’, for short. Over a period of years, several community Pujas have sprung up, and a roundup of a few ‘pandals’ (shamianas) over the five days of the Pujo brought some interesting vignettes of Bengali culture in our city, between the 5th and 9th of October. Abstract at Ulsoor pandal (Pic: Deepa Mohan)Rites and ritualsDurga, in her aspect of Mahishasura Mardhini (slayer of the Buffalo-Demon) is fondly addressed as ‘Ma’, and the mother is invited with pomp and celebration as she is supposed to be coming…

PERCEPTIONS and PERSPECTIVESDispute and Resolution In CinemaA week long festival of films and discussionsOctober 13 – 19 To celebrate Conflict Resolution Day, October 16th, Meta-Culture Dialogics, Center for Dispute Transformation and Dialogue, in collaboration with Bangalore Film Society, and Alliance Francaise de Bangalore, and with the generous support of Arghyam, Citizen Matters and Visthar, are presenting a week long Festival of Films on Conflict and Resolution. After a very successful launch in 2007, with over a thousand viewers, Meta-Culture Dialogics is renewing its effort to reach out to the Bangalorean public, offering alternative ways of looking at disputes and conflicts…

The Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival '08 will include the second edition of its very successful Theatre and Arts Appreciation Course, designed on the lines of the well-known culture course at Neenasam, Heggodu.The course, launched at the Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival '07, provides a unique opportunity to learn the essence of theatre and arts appreciation by developing new ways "seeing and listening". Last year's course was a resounding success, with participants from various walks of life – from students to professors, software professionals to bankers - participating enthusiastically in the highly interactive sessions. The likes of Satyadev Dubey, Girish Karnad, UR…

Navarathri triggers colourful and vibrant memories of one's childhood. Visit Anupama's Navarathri setting at Banashankari II Stage, and you can be sure of being stunned. Elaborate arrangements of dolls, depicting particular stories from the epics are a treat for the eyes. This year the themes are 14th day of the Mahabharata war, Rama and Lakshmana protecting Vishwamitra's 'yagna', Krishnaleela, scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Each scene is meticulously laid out and care is taken to get every small detail right. Dolls are of varying sizes, from Snow White to Gograhana, you can find dolls across cultures, epics and history.…

I first noticed Dramanon when they put up a foyer performance at Ranga Shankara, and later watched two of their productions: ‘The Original Last Wish Baby’ and later, ‘Pizzazz’. I found Sharanya Ramprakash, the present "chief" of Dramanon, and her team of thespians to be a committed, sincere young theatre group, battling financial odds to stay in theatre. The group was established in Bangalore in 2007, with a group of youngsters who studied in Manipal. Dramanon has staged around 20 productions till date and has staged four shows of ‘The Original Last Wish Baby’, a political satire, at both Alliance…

“You know you’re in Bangalore, you know you’re in the Silicon Valley of India, when you go to play golf and the caddy on the first tee says you can either aim at the Microsoft building or the IBM building. You know you’re in Bangalore when you see the Pizza Hut advertisement says ‘gigabytes of taste’,” famously said the US journalist Thomas Friedman in 2004. Ever since, reams have been written on outsourcing, the software boom and the rise of the uber-smart, uber-rich new technogeeks of Bangalore. But whatever happened to the other Bangalores, the ones that shun the arc…

rafiki is a theatre group from Bangalore. Established in 1998, it comprises a group of youngsters working in the fields of theatre, with particular focus on socio-economically backward street and working children in the age group of 7 to 14 years. Woyzeck is a German play written by Georg Buechner set in Prussia in the 1830s. I had watched one version of Woyzeck staged by Koothu-p-Pattarai of Chennai, at Ranga Shankara, sometime ago. When I realised that rafiki was staging it at Ranga Shankara, I was compelled to watch the new performance too. I was very glad I went. The…

Since its commencement in 2004, the annual Ranga Shankara Theatre Festivals have brought the best of Indian and international theatre to Bangalore. This year's Festival will provide six interns the opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of how a theatre works and to work with India's leading theatre professionals in a positive and energised environment.The Festival Internships run for 45 full days, starting on 1 October 2008 and concluding on 15 November 2008. The internships are open to graduates available to work full time for the 45-day period. Graduates in Journalism, Mass Communication and Event Management are especially encouraged to apply.…

Looking at the schedules of various theatre venues in Bangalore, and there don't seem to be too many venues where theatre is happening on a regular basis. Indeed, when I went to this link on ‘Bengaluru Theatre’, asking for theatre performance spaces, www.bengalurutheatre.com, I found the message, "This Category is currently empty"! Chandrashekhar Kambar's "Thukra's Dream" - A play at Ranga Shankara (Pic: Deepa Mohan)The most used space, of course, is Ranga Shankara, with its commitment to ‘a play a day’; a variety of theatre groups have been putting up shows this month. English, Kannada, Punjabi, and multilingual theatre is…

‘Voices from the waters’ is a film festival with water as the theme, currently in its third edition at Bangalore. The film festival, a confluence of cinema and water, boasts of the largest collection of films in the world on water. The six-day celebration is being held in the Jnana Jyothi Auditorium of Central College Bangalore, during 13-18th September 2008. Organisers aim to spread awareness of water issues among the participants, provides a platform for students, scholars, visionaries and all concerned to learn, interact and debate on the water in all its forms. Worth fishing for: an art piece highlighting…