Archive for the ‘Murmurings from Mumbai’

  • 11
    Celebrating the plays that celebrate Mumbai
    Mumbai Meri Mehbooba Hain (Mumbai through its plays) Its a poignant line in Vishal Bharadwaj’s MAQBOOL. Mumbai meri mehbooba hain. Its a mehbooba you love. And irrevocably hate. The great poets (Narayan Surve, Namdeo Dhasal, Annabhau Sathe, Amar Sheikh) and their ballads have celebrated this city. Then there were the Kamgar centres in Andheri, Worli, Naigaum, Kala...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at September 28th, 2008 at 07:09 pm
  • 19
    Goodbye Chetan Datar
    Goodbye Chetan Datar If you met Chetan Datar in the last months of his life, not that any of us knew it was going to be the last few months of his life, he was carrying the crucifix of the burden of sustaining Awishkar’s activity, Marathi theatre and perhaps the young people who flocked to him. The slender body, had begun to develop a hunch. But he would prowl and...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at August 4th, 2008 at 11:08 am
  • 11
    15 TRULY TRIVIAL TIPS FOR A WANNABE THESPIAN
    15 TRULY TRIVIAL TIPS FOR A WANNABE THESPIAN 1. When someone else is rehearsing, sit on the bench with sunglasses – and point an imaginary bazooka at passing actors. See if they die. 2. During a rehearsal send sms to yourself. Then reply. Repeat 200 times. 3. Every time the director asks you to do something, ask if it adheres to the Alexandria Technique. 4. Carry...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at July 6th, 2008 at 12:07 am
  • 14
    Vijay Tendulkar is no more
    Vijay Tendulkar is no more. The sms was short. A very dear friend, one who guarded Tendulkar’s life had sent it. It said: “He’s gone.” Gone? And what remains? Memories? Staccato conversations? Longish silences. Tendulkar’s body of work is formidable. He has penned 28 full length plays, seven collections of one-acts, six collections of children’s...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at May 20th, 2008 at 11:05 am
  • 3
    7 ISLANDS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
    7 ISLANDS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (3rd Edition) : VENUE: S P JAIN AUDITORIUM, BHAVANS CAMPUS, ANDHERI (W) The 7 Islands International Film Festival thus, intends to expose the Indian youth to film that brings new ideas, methodology, solutions and experimentation for social change through non violence and global disarmament. More than 5000 elite and intellectual people...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at January 24th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
  • 1
    Human Rights Watch International Film Festival
    *We’ve Extended Our Deadline to February 8, 2008 Dear friends of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival and Adobe Youth Voices are looking for youth produced works on human rights from around the globe to screen in our newly established YOUTH PRODUCING CHANGE program. We’re also hoping you’ll...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at January 23rd, 2008 at 06:01 am
  • 2
    Osian
    www.osians.com CALL FOR ENTRIES Osian’s-Cinefan, 10th Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema will be held in New Delhi from 10 – 20 July 2008. Osian’s-Cinefan is dedicated to promoting Asian, Indian and Arab cinema of high artistic quality, raising awareness in the audiences of the richness of these cinemas, nurturing young talent and encouraging interaction among...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at January 23rd, 2008 at 12:01 am
  • 35
    JAZZ in Bollywood – Part II
    A few of my favourite JAZZY things (with HUGE INPUTS by NARESH FERNANDES, Editor, TIME OUT, Mumbai and Denzil Smith, actor and producer of JAZZ) Sorry for the lecture, but here goes! If you’re in a hurry, please scroll to the bottom of this post, straight away! When Hindi film music entered a period of rapid evolution during the Second World War, composers realised...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at January 1st, 2008 at 07:01 am
  • 5
    Must See: Pina Bausch in India
    Pina Bausch in India German choreographer Pina Bausch has dubbed her new, Asian-inspired dance to be performed next month in India the “Bamboo Blues,”. The Wuppertal Dance Theatre is set to visit India January 7-19, playing in New Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. New Delhi: 7.01.07 Mumbai: 12.01.07 Kolkata: 18.01.07 & 19.01.07 Please nb: both in Delhi and...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at December 31st, 2007 at 08:12 am
  • 29
    PFCites: Please come for MEDHA & ZOOMBISH II
    2nd plug in a row. Sincere apologies to do this. But in desperate times, one resorts to desperate means. The thing is, we had a show of MEDHA & ZOOMBISH II, today, 26th December @ Prithvi House. AND we had a poor house. So please HELP the cause. Those of you who have the time (and inclination), to see a fun play, PLEASE drop in tomorrow for: MEDHA & ZOOMBISH...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at December 26th, 2007 at 01:12 am
  • 14
    JAZZ in Bollywood
    JAZZ in Bollywood Please excuse the “plug” for a play of mine – JAZZ. There are two reasons to do it. REASON ONE. To entice an audience into the auditoirum (my plays never have more than five persons in the auditorium). REASON TWO: JAZZ may interest some of you. The best things in life are a fluke. I was attending a sombre session between Girish Karnad...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at December 25th, 2007 at 04:12 am
  • 268
    Modi v/s Modi
    Modi v/s Modi As we ascend the ladder, viciousness wears a thicker mask Excerpts from my travails – while travelling through Gujarat during Phase I of an over-heated election. This is not an “art” piece, but it has all the “drama” of a Greek Tragedy! Imagine a town of dust, dispensaries and dharma where locals are sceptical about outsiders...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at December 18th, 2007 at 07:12 am
  • 4
    SAVE Namdeo Dhasal
    SAVE Namdeo Dhasal! Namdeo Dhasal, founder of the Dalit Panther, author of the literary classic Golpitha, bestowed with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 by the Sahitya Akademi, has suffered from myaesthenia gravis – a rare and irreversible neuromuscular disease – since the 1980s. He is undergoing treatment at the Bombay Hospital and Medical Research Centre. The...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at September 12th, 2007 at 12:09 am
  • 17
    Guess Which Plays Our MPs Are Reading …
    Best Read Plays in India The Parliament Library is one of the richest repositories of books in India, and was established in the year 1921 to assist members of the Indian Legislature. These days, with the number of adjournments and walk-outs, it seems our MPs have nothing to do. So they make a dash to the Parliamentary Library and instead of autobiographies, biographies...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at August 30th, 2007 at 08:08 pm
  • 5
    A Simple Test For The Argumentative Indian
    Greetings PFCites. If you’re prone to uttering things like Civil Liberty, Freedom of Expression and Constitutional Right then you must take the following test. To begin at the beginning, we celebrate 60 years of Independence by ruminating … - The Rupee is on a new high vis a vis the US Dollar. So the Rupee calls the Dollar; and enquires, Are you peeved? Will...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at August 28th, 2007 at 10:08 am
  • 5
    Performance Space in Mumbai : Auditorium Guidelines for Theatrewallahs
    Bombay’s first theatre was called the Bombay Amateur Theatre, it came to existence in 1776. During the days of the old Bombay Gujarati, Parsi and Urdu plays, there was a phenomenon of the times; an long tin board in front of the rows of the pit class which would be stamped on by the audience to create a din, this was the audience’s way of demanding an encore. ...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at June 29th, 2007 at 10:06 am
  • 10
    Nobel Prize for Namdeo Dhasal
    “Nobel Prize for Namdeo Dhasal” Namdeo Dhasal is in the news because of the translation of his poems into English by Dilip Chitre. What is curious is, after the mandatory 2-3 lines about his poetry, the reviews target Dhasal for betraying the secular, progressive cause. Dhasal, as all of us know, has joined hands with the “communal and corrupt”...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at June 21st, 2007 at 07:06 pm
  • 13
    An Ode to India and Bharat and Hindustan
    UP: Tis getting more and more confounding One week before the results of the UP Election results, the bahubalis from Sahaswan and Bisauli, Mau and Farukkhabad were on the run to Mumbai-nagari. I’m informed by Mohammed, a taxi driver, “Sab maidan chod kar bhaag rahein hain. Behenji is going to be the next CM.” I tell him the exit polls on TV predict...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at June 8th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
  • 5
    The Ghost of Emergency, Returns …
    The Ghost of Emergency I can’t sleep because my dreams have become an oddity. Everytime I shut my eyes, a nightmare, begins. I enter my parent’s house. The main door is ajar. My mother is sitaring; and my father is praying. There’s an elderly lady who is reading a newspaper; and making a check-list about which Breaking News is backed by which political...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at May 27th, 2007 at 07:05 pm
  • 3
    Literature Across Frontiers
    Literature Across Frontiers Abu Dhabi is a city on show. It aspires for bragging rights for the biggest, the best, the richest. The day I land there’s a buzz about the unveiling of a $21.250 million racecourse project, Meydan Race Course in Dubai (a hour’s drive from Abu Dhabi). It is the world’s richest horse race, the Dubai World Cup. A visit to the...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at May 6th, 2007 at 10:05 am
  • 0
    KAASH!THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
    Twenty years ago Mahesh Bhatt made another semi-autiobiographical statement with a movie Kaash. I just happened to watch it again last week. More than anything that struck me while watching it was its deja vu feeling. I had seen it somewhere. And then it dawned upon me that it has lots of resemblance to the recent release The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will smith and...
    by krysh at May 1st, 2007 at 04:05 am
  • 13
    Chatting with Satyadev Dubey
    The Architect of Modern Theatre What question would leading theatrewallahs put to Satyadev Dubey? Satish Alekar, Vijay Tendulkar, Chetan Datar, Mahesh Elkunchwar asked questions. And then, Satyadev Dubey responded. Rishi Mazumdar was entrusted with the onerous task of keeping pace with Dubey in his elements. It’s with this background, that I (Ramu Ramanathan) accompanied...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at April 9th, 2007 at 08:04 pm
  • 3
    Happy Birthday Theatre
    Happy World Theatre’s Day To All Of Us! 1. We are in 2007. Where Bollywood meets Hollywood meets Silicon Valley. Sillywood it can be called. And the one asset which is missing, is human imagination. 2. The theatre I grew up in, is having an identity crisis. What is it? Remember when we switched from extravaganzas to musical theatre to realism? Then to neo-realism....
    by Ramu Ramanathan at March 29th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
  • 10
    Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani
    MEET THE PLAYWRIGHT Girish Karnad in Conversation with Mahesh Dattani 11.00 am. Wednesday, 21st March 2007. Prithvi Theatre. OPEN TO ALL. ENTRY IS FREE. Girish Karnad’s new play FLOWERS, is based on a folktale from Chitradurga It’s about a priest whose life has become a balancing act between his passionate love for God and equally passionate love for his courtesan...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at March 19th, 2007 at 09:03 am
  • 10
    What is the Pune Tamasha, all about!!!
    Tis Getting Curioser & Curioser! The Pune of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Bhimrao Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule and D R Gadgil has a new kid on the block. Its Vishwas Nangare-Patil. He is a man on a mission. He raids rave parties. He gate-crashes into a tamasha kala kendra and detains 49 persons, including 21 women and two bureaucrats. Patil proclaims, the...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at March 14th, 2007 at 05:03 am
  • 4
    IBSEN IN INDIA
    IBSEN IN INDIA The Guru of Exposition / Complication / Resolution Henrik Ibsen says, “All that I have written these last ten years, I have lived through spiritually.” These are powerful words and they resonate in India. 2006 WAS the 100th death anniversary of Henrik Ibsen, the playwright who has an unerring influence on Indian Films (Especially, the 3-part...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at March 12th, 2007 at 06:03 am
  • 14
    The Importance of Being Vijay Tendulkar
    My Salaam To Vijay Tendulkar Vijay Tendulkar tends to be equated with the big plays, the controversial films, the dubious debates. But one of the reasons, Tendulkar remains a living playwright, is the manner in which he surfaces in the most unexpected of places. In the last summer, I saw the staging of two of Tendulkar’s one act plays, OLAKH and GOSHT in the boy’s...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at March 11th, 2007 at 09:03 pm
  • 5
    A Life Without Books
    About Books Being Banished Recently Mumbai hosted an International Literature Fest. Writers from India and 10 other countries spoke about books. It seemed like a continuation of themes that has been previously explored in the dark ages. Writers being prosecuted. Books being banished. But much more scary, is the slow and insidious nature of the author being co-opted by...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at February 26th, 2007 at 07:02 pm
  • 12
    Theatre Interpretations to Pop Theories
    Theatre Interpretations to Pop Theories - Plays come and go, but debts accumulate! - In this day and age, mounting a play is like attempting the high jump. So, you’ve a team and you’ve to win the high jump. But the seven people in your team can jump one foot each. Either you quit the theatre or you must launch a fulsome tirade against the unfair rules in high jump!...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at February 8th, 2007 at 10:02 am
  • 13
    My Prithvi Story …
    My Prithvi Story … Like everyone I’ve got a solid piece of advise. After a particularly poor house of an “award winning” play of mine that nobody understood: COLLABORATORS, I was consoled by Tiwariji at Prithvi Theatre. He consoled me, by saying, look into the sky, sometimes even the sky is empty! Since that day, I’ve always paid heed to...
    by Ramu Ramanathan at January 19th, 2007 at 10:01 am
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