Prarthana Mishra, an avid traveller, remembers how multi-modal commutes made her life easy in exploring the German city better.
While travelling from New Delhi to Berlin via Frankfurt, I flipped through the popular tourist destinations in Berlin to be put in sequence for my itinerary during the four-day stay. More or less, these were usual places which are distinct to Europe-museums, sprawling manicured gardens, historical sites, palaces, and castles. I recalled some common German phrases during the flight to prepare myself for some bargaining at local markets and communication with the locals. However, it was not much use as English is commonly used in the country to interact with tourists, at least at all major cities. However, Danke (Thank you) was a much used and helpful word.
Out of the Tegel Airport in Berlin, the first impression of a clean city was already imprinted in mind given my earlier visits to Europe. Well laid expressways with clear road signs and very few cars gave me the usual sigh of relief unlike what we encounter in our cities in India. The robust public transport system, which I used in next four days, is a preferred mode in Berlin as it is affordable, punctual and most importantly, it is definitely friendly. Another thing that caught my attention on the roads was the frequent use different types of bikes. Everyone rides their bike in Berlin and the variety of bikes used can actually amuse you. The city has dedicated bikeways offering safe and convenient travel routes for its two-wheeled commuters.
Among the many tourist attractions, the Berlin Wall still remains popular among tourists. It’s a memorial to the countless men, women and children who died while trying to get across the wall. When the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989, it was celebrated around the world. Today, it stands as a stunning piece of public art, brightly painted by international artists. I dedicated the next day to the famous river cruise of Berlin. If you want to see lots of things but only have a short amount of time, then this river cruise on the Spree is the ideal way to take in everything at the heart of this bustling city.
I opted for a one hour excursion which covered some of the Berlin’s landmark monuments like the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), the Government Quarter and the House of World Cultures. The Central Station, Berlin Cathedral, Museum Island, and the oldest residential area in Berlin are also covered during the cruise. You get an audio guide on the cruise to learn about the city in 8 different languages. The Spree Island is better known as Museum Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here, you’ll find many of the city’s oldest and most important museums, including the Old Museum which houses the Crown Jewels and other royal treasures. Potsdam was the next destination worth visiting. This bordering city, around 25 km from Berlin was a residence of the Prussian kings and the German Kaiser until 1918. Around the city there are a series of interconnected lakes and cultural landmarks, in particular the parks and palaces of Sanssouci, the largest World Heritage Site in Germany.
The Berlin trip is not complete without a visit to the fascinating city, Munich. The most noteworthy attraction of this city is The English Garden. One of the largest urban parks in the world, the English Garden is Munich’s most popular green space, boasting over 48 miles (78 kilometers) of walking and cycling trails. People can relax, sunbathe, swim and even surf in the man-made river-The Eisbach. The memories of the trip may fade over time but a few impressions are everlasting. I may forget everything about the trip, but will remember Berlin for its bike rides, its kindness to differently-abled persons and of course, the enchanting river cruise.
Writer: Prarthana Mishra
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Theatre actress and director Jalabala Vaidya recreated the legendary detective Hercule Poirot to commemorate Agatha Christie’s 128th birth anniversary.
Writer Agatha Christie once said, “I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.” Through her works and words, Christie is still alive in people’s hearts. They’d still vouch that her famous and legendary detective Hercule Poirot can still crack any modern day mystery.
To commemorate the legend’s 128th birth anniversary, with the same enthusiasm and vigour, actress-director Jalabala Vaidya, co-founder of the Akshara National Classical Theatre, recreates one of her most-loved murder mysteries, TheMystery of Three Quarters, as a play.
As the play is all set to be enacted tomorrow at the Akshara Theatre, Vaidya reveals why she chose a Christie legend, “We were in fact asked to enact this story and bring back the legendary Belgian private detective. We have done a lot of dramatised plays in the past which were very successful. Since it was a very well-known mystery, we thought it would be a good idea to pick up one of her stories.”
She adds, “Agatha Christie is practically a publishing juggernaut second only to the Holy Bible. People know her everywhere. She has written a number of detective novels which have interesting twists and turns. Everyone loves a murder mystery. The only problem was that we had very little time to prepare everything since it had to be performed on September 16 to mark the birth anniversary of the writer.”
Recreating the most loved of Christie’s detectives, Hercule Poirot, who is unsurpassed in his intelligence and understanding of the criminal mind, was certainly a task for Vaidya. Actor Suneet Tandon plays the role of the world-renowned Belgian private detective, who is respected and admired by police forces and heads of state across the globe and has been one of the greatest legends of all time, whose character despite his fictional existence is as real as any living being.
Vaidya recreated her own version of the mastermind, who is physically very different from Christie’s. She says, “Poirot is supposed to be a short, rather plump, man, who is five-feet-four inches and wears a moustache. However, Suneet Tandon doesn’t look like that at all. He is tall, not at all plump, doesn’t have a moustache nor does he wear a hat. But I would say that his great acting skills carried him through. This is what made him perfect for the role.”
As the story, set in the early 1930s’ London, unveils, four people are found accused of an old person’s murder although they do not seem to be closely connected to him. They all receive a letter that is apparently signed by Hercule Poirot but which in reality is fraudulent since the detective didn’t put his signature on it. So several questions pop up including why it was sent to the four people? Why was it signed in the name of Hercule Poirot? Who sent it? But that is for the readers, the audience would naturally be curious about how did the cast and crew recreate the old setting on the stage as well as enact these scenes?
Vaidya narrates how designing a stage and dialogues set in the early 1930s was challenging. “First, it is about picking up costumes which were in keeping with the fashion trends of that era. Second, the setting up of certain locations on the stage itself could be a challenging task. We have to make it look like a dramatisation. It’s like a set where actually people act. There is a dressing room, a cafe, lawyers office and so on. There is a bigger room where eventually Poirot announces how he found the murderer and solved the case. And then most excitingly is a bathtub where the older man drowned.”
So what goes into adapting a written story into a stage performance? Vaidya answers, “A great deal of work. While using the existing text, it is the dialogues between the characters that are the most important. What has been described in the book has to be dramatically visualised. The facts have to be spoken out aloud by the characters for them to reach the audience. The minutest details in the book need to be mentioned when you are watching the play. The dialogues need to be spoken in such a way that the story unfolds. These need to be logical enough for the audience who doesn’t know the story at all. You have to create a mystery on the stage, design the right costumes, background, furniture, prompts and sets. If the story is set in the early 1930s, you need to find such stuff that was prevalent in that era.”
So are there any particular plays or literary playwrights that influence her direction? Vaidya believes that “being in theatre has helped me get better and better day by day. It is not because of films or following any other playwrights religiously. I do like them, but experience is the biggest teacher.”
Vaidya, who is widely known for her one-woman role in Gopal Sharman’s The Ramayana, the play which toured around the world, finds her inspiration from the same concept and in the oneness of being. She says, “In The Ramayana, in which I performed, I realised that there was an understanding of a human as one’s own position in the entire cosmos and the manifestation; everything which you can see till infinity. The epic has a number of characters and I enacted each role from Sita, to Raavan, Ram, Laxman and even Mandodari. I felt that it is important to find the truth and beauty in the relationship with oneself. You could explore yourself to such an extent that there is not limit. Amidst joy and fear, the infinite universe or divinity is supposed to be joyous and awesome as well as frightening. This is where I find my biggest inspirations.”
Writer: Chahak Mittal
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Baluji Srivastav, a visually impaired musician and instrumentalist, tells how his new performance drew inspiration from the Bhagavad Gita.
Visually impaired but not lacking in vision — that can describe sitarist Baluji Srivastav’s journey with the British Council to seek out more musicians like him. His latest show, Antardrishti — Inner Vision, a production inspired by the Bhagavad Gita, brings together outstanding blind musicians and dancers from throughout India.
It is a global performance that merges the harmony of the West with that of the East. Performing with the group is his Inner Vision Orchestra.
The maestro said that the performance is based on Chapter 11 of the Bhagavad Gita in which Lord Krishna grants the Pandava Arjuna divine vision, a theme close to his heart. “I chose the Bhagavad Gita, which was the essence of Mahabharat. The chapter 11 was specially divine. It was written 5,000 years ago and is still relevant,” he said.
The performance will explore the complex interplay between light and darkness, examining what is sight and sightlessness. For the performance, he will be collaborating with Addictive TV, who are innovative digital artists and have used visuals and videos to create music that you can see. The use of multimedia through dance, music and digital format takes the audience on a sensory journey. Addictive TV will be using creating a digital canvas allowing the musicians to engage with their previous sample recordings. “We don’t see what they have shot but we can recognise by the sound, which reiterates my point that we don’t need eyes to see,” he said. “Even in my orchestra, we only hear each other to make links,” he added.
The musician, while delighted to be able to return to India annually to perform, laments that musicians are not honoured enough. While he has been recognised by the United Kingdom government with the Order of the British Empire, he still aspires to be given a Bharat Ratna in India. But he does say that the situation is improving in the country.
Asked if he faced any struggles bringing together his orchestra, he answered in the negative. “I made the orchestra in London, which is a cosmopolitan city. It was a little difficult to find blind musicians but we searched across the globe,” he said.
While working with Western musicians, he’s faced no difficulties despite there being less space for improvisation in the Western music tradition. Practising together for hours has made the performances flawless. “Indian musicians learn to improvise that helps us to synchronise with all musicians. There are only seven basic notes,” he added. “It can be difficult for them because we have 14 and 18 beats. They don’t have complicated rhythms,” he said. “They have harmony while Indian music has melody. The two are like brother and sister,” he added. The maestro can play multiple Indian instruments, including the sitar, dilruba, surbahar, pakhavaj and tabla.
The British Council and he have been coming to India since 2013 with different groups and projects. In 2013, they went to Kanpur and found local musicians who were visually impaired and next year they went to Kolkata, then Chennai, Bengaluru and Gujarat in subsequent years to spread his message.
“We are delighted to work with Baluji Shrivastav OBE and we are honoured to bring the inspirational performance of Antardrishti – Inner Vision, the multimedia interpretation of the Hindu philosophical epic, Bhagavad Gita, to India. We hope that this performance will evoke the spirit of the superhero in all of us as it celebrates the equal contribution made by the differently-abled people to all our communities. We’ve been inspired by India every day of the last 70 years — by its artists, performers and musicians we’ve worked with across India and are excited at the prospect of helping people get inspired by Balaji and other visually impaired artists from UK and India,” said Tom Birtwistle, Area Director — North India, British Council.
Writer: Asmita Sarkar
Courtesy: The Pioneer
The creative influence on script writer and author Kanika Dhillon’s works can be attributed to her social environment.
While most authors almost see it as a right to be on board while their books are adapted for the silver screen, Kanika Dhillon is different. The screenplay writer and author prefers to keep both separate. “When I have written a book, I’ve done my bit and told it the way I want to. And I don’t want to do its script. I keep telling everyone to get someone else to write the screenplay if you want to make a film,” she says sitting at a five-star hotel in NCR. She is a part of the promotion team of Manmarziyan, the movie which will see Abhishek Bachchan after a hiatus of two years alongside Vicky Kaushal and Taapsee Pannu exploring the layers of modern relationships.
There is a reason behind her quirk. “When adapting a book to a screenplay, you need to know what to cut and get rid of. When I am so involved in the story I will always have my darlings as I will be attached to this or that and I will never be able to be objective. I need a different voice which is brutal and fresh. Maybe I can be a part of it but I can’t be the only one doing both the things,” says Kanika who has authored books like Bombay Duck is a Fish(2011), a satire on the Indian film industry, the young adult superhero novel Shiva and the Rise of the Shadows(2013), and the drama
The Dance of Durga (2016).
She adds that brevity is the key while writing a screenplay. “It is more alive in the sense that it can constantly evolve till the time that it is shot. My process as an author once I hand over the book to the editor is over. But in a film I am on the set and can see the words come alive. The impact can change because someone else is interpreting it. A line could sound great in my head but it might sound terrible when the actor is actually saying it,” says Kanika who started out as an assistant director on the sets of Ra.One.
She is very clear cut that though both involve writing, books and films are very different media in the way that the audience consumes them and also the way she writes. “How I am going to approach a book and a film depends on the way the audience or the reader approaches the two. Writing a book or a novel is a very personal experience as there is no interpretation from any director or the team or costume designer. I get to design every colour, stroke, paint and the feel as well as the look of it and present it to my audience and they can enhance it further with their own imagination. It is a very direct medium,” she says.
But the two do meet for Kanika in the sense that both books and the screenplays are a factor of the environment that she is in. “These are people that surround me. Perhaps we are these characters that I write about,” she says. For Manmarziyan particularly she felt a need to bring out a complexity or dichotomy that exists in the society. “Our culture, stories and lores and our entire system of cultural experiences tell us that love is everlasting. India goes mad on marriages. But when I actually experienced love, I realised its limits. They can actually disable you. We’ve always seen that love is empowering, it isn’t. It can destroy you. It is not a divine emotion nor set in stone as it comes and also goes away. Then you find it again. But I am not saying that I don’t believe in it. I do and so do the characters of Manmarziyan, but how do we negotiate love in today’s day and time? That is what the film is about,” she explains.
She says that the film evolved out of a need to express a love story which was free of any kind of judgement and gave us the perspective about a woman’s choice to fall in love, fall out of it and fickle about it. “I wanted to be honest and have the freedom to create those characters which went beyond the sanitised ones that we see on screen. Love is very messy and we never get to see that side. It is messy, fickle, selfish and not pure or holier than thou.”
She goes on to add that the film is a contemporary take on today’s generation. “Love has become a curse of this generation because there is dichotomy. There is instant gratification as we have Tinder, multiple sexual partners but at the same time there is this caveman need for a life-changing relationship. Earlier, happily ever after was possible as we didn’t have multiple choices.” So even when there is a movie about a girl meets a boy and falls in love, there is a way forward and certainly a change in its treatment and content. Kanika says, “Content is changing as well as the audience. They have access to such varied and strong content. One can’t take the audience for granted which is good as we have to work harder to get retention and to entertain them. The audience wants to hear different kinds of stories because the exposure levels have changed.”
She believes that societal evolution and internet accessibility have pushed thematic change in our storylines. “When we have a different kind of exposure to technology and your life interactions are changing, this will naturally impact the way you get entertainment and the way you consume it. Both mirror each other. The influence of internet and technology is huge. And it is finding its way in new kinds of storytelling which are new and fresh,” she says.
This, she believes, is also reflected in the kind of heroes that the films throw up. “We create the heroes according to the needs of the time. The angry young man of the 70s, who lasted through to the 80s, was about challenging the establishment after a nation went through its honeymoon phase, and getting your worth and identity justly. Today, the common man is the hero who can change his destiny on his terms. So we have stopped looking out for messiahs to save us. We don’t have to look at NRIs or global influences to find heroism because we are the country that is leading everywhere now. It has percolated down to the stories that we are telling,” says the scriptwriter author dressed in ripped jeans, which invites a lot of leg-pulling from Abhishek who is in the same room as her.
Kanika’s flair will be seen next in Mental Hai Kya starring Kangana Ranaut and Rajkummar Rao as well as Kedarnath which stars Sara Ali Khan. She admits that she doesn’t have a disciplined approach to writing. “Before I sit down to type, a lot of it has to be in my mind. I need to get into the emotional zone of writing. There is a lot of preparation involved. If I am writing a love story then perhaps I would like to listen to a certain kind of music to get into the emotional state to write. People think that it is procrastination, which it is not. I might be thinking about it while shopping and getting to the point of writing,” she says.
Usually she takes about a year to get a script and screenplay along with the dialogues in place. “I need to have my own independent voice. I can’t do dialogues independently because I feel screenplay and dialogues are interlinked. There is no concept of separating the two. In a year’s time, I can give you a wholesome story but then it could be faster like the way it happened for Mental Hai Kya as I was going through anxiety. I just wrote it,” she says.
What is also interesting about Kanika is that she is not even remotely connected with the industry. “I always wanted to be a writer. My mother is a professor and teaches literature in Amritsar. So stories were a part of growing up. And then in Amritsar our biggest outing was watching movies. I loved to see those beautiful stories come alive. No wonder I landed here,” she ends with a laugh.
Writer: Saimi Sattar
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Ayushi Sharma talks about the beauty in artist Manisha Gawade’s art-furniture, and how it is worth passing on.
Why should something that we have to live with day in and day out be in boring brown colours? Why should our furniture be functional and not creative? Why should art be restricted to only the walls? It was with these thoughts in mind that Manisha Gawade started drawing various unconventional designs that could be easily embedded into tables, chairs, bars, wall units and cupboards.
Keepsakes, a first-of-its-kind exhibition of art-furniture along with paintings, explores the idea. It took Manisha three years of experimentation and tireless work to conceptualise the design and paint these pieces that are created to energise living spaces.
And if you thought that the art-furniture was designed merely by putting a painting on top of an existing furniture, look again. For the furniture was designed from scratch and then the painting was made on it. These are heirloom pieces that anybody would love to own and pass on to the next generation. The show is experimental, modern and yet contemporary expression of art, experimented with various surfaces, methodology, finishes, art materials and their application to ensure that the final product stands the test of time.
Manisha had a definite idea behind the name of the exhibition and said, “We want the art pieces to be passed on from one generation to the other. We have also insured the quality so that they last.”
High-grade materials are used including wood, fittings, polishes. The artist herself told us how she had packed up several layers for their protection. “We have used the best quality wood and experimented with different chemicals so that we can make it water-resistant. That is why it has taken three years to come up with something this unique. There are 15-18 layers depending upon the art piece, so that the art on the pieces doesn’t get ruined and can be passed on.”
However, it was hard for Manisha to decide upon her favourite piece and she said with a laugh, “It’s like asking about who is your favourite child when you love each one. There are few very impactful pieces but my favourite would have been the eight feet cloth peg one and only piece which shares its name with the exhibition title. It’s a long and beautiful sculpture. It is all about keeping memories alive forever.”
Manisha shared how affordable and reasonable the prices are, “They start around Rs 2.10 lakh, go up to Rs 4 lakh and for the art-furniture, prices start at Rs 1.25 lakh going up to around Rs 4.5 lakh. No piece exceeds Rs 4.5 lakh.”
The artist shared her journey to this exhibition, “My journey started 14 years ago when I learnt to work on wood in Dubai with an artist from Southeast Asia. I have never been shy of trying various materials in my work and have tried to experiment with many surfaces, including glass, textile, paper, wood, metal, cloth, fibre glass among other things.”
Writer: Ayushi Sharma
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Abhishek Bachchan gets candid about how the Indian cinema is becoming more visible because of social media platforms, and how he does no wish to be an overnight success, but rather mature over years.
Abhishek Bachchan strides in surrounded by a posse of guards but is completely devoid of any airs that most actors tend to ride high on. Wearing a grey-black jacket (even though it is quite warm outside) and strikingly flaming red shoes, the actor settles down to conversation while engaging in simultaneous banter with his co-stars Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal and the script writer Kanika Dhillon of his new film, Manmarziyan. It is this settled ease and comfort that makes him introspect and rationalise the industry with logic rather than gush. So when we ask him about the “content is king” formula that is sweeping the industry now, he doesn’t agree. “We have always made different kinds of cinema. The change is more visible now because of evolution of tastes and media. The platforms through which you can reach the audience form a wide and democratic bouquet by virtue of which we get a larger variety of subject matter,” says the actor.
As he talks, he emphasises words to make his point, taking care to select the appropriate one to describe what he wants to say. Believing that lines have blurred between media, he says the story is the only thing in focus. “If you go to these streaming devices, there are all kinds of cinema on offer. Even their original content spans a variety of subjects. They want to reach out to as many people as they can. You just have to make entertaining material. If whatever you do is entertaining and enriching, people will watch it. In a bid to understand why a film did well, we are breaking it down to more than it needs to be broken down. We attribute it to being set in a particular place or context. But most forget that it is a very simple tenet, make a good film, it will work,” says the 42-year-old actor.
This analytical mindspace is the reason that Abhishek is coming back after a break of two years with Anurag Kashyap’s unconventional love triangle Manmarziyaan. “I felt I was becoming complacent in my work space and that was the main reason why I decided to go on a break from film-making per se. Complacency is like slow poison. That is why I needed some time off. To just re-focus and I am glad that I did that.”
When he was ready to hear scripts again, this film came along. “It is the story that first attracted me. And when they told me that Anurag Kashyap was directing it, I was on. He was the reason I agreed to do the film. Anurag and a love story… I instinctively knew he was going to do something new, give it his magical spin. More than that I knew he would challenge me as an actor and that excited me. He is possibly one of the most gracious and loving directors that I have worked with but his standards are very high. He would not settle for just anything. So I knew he would be someone who would make you go to uncomfortable places that you need to go to for your job,” he says. Of course, there’s a degree of nostalgia too because his grandmother Teji Bachchan was a Sikh and Abhishek’s character dons a turban onscreen. “I think my Dadima would have been happy to see me as a sardar onscreen,” he says wistfully.
In the film Abhishek plays Robbie, an investment banker who lives in London. He comes to Amritsar where his parents live. He has agreed to an arranged marriage and meets Rumi, the character played by Taapsee, who in turn is marrying him because her boyfriend is commitment-phobic. “We sat down and Anurag came up with facets to his character. Although he looks a certain way and we worked on how he behaves, I worked on what he would not do. We thought of bringing in subtle elements of him being a banker in the way he would approach personal problems like his professional ones. Because you do tend to become a type when you work in a particular profession. He is not the kind of a definite character with a lot of attributes like the one I played in Guru. Keeping that in mind, I could explore a lot, which is nice, but at the same time tough because it took away a lot of the traditional armoury that an actor would get,” he adds.
And he does not want to characterise the film as his return to a character-driven role. “I think every film has its own journey and has its own story to tell. You should not try to characterise or slot a role as such,” he says and adds that Anurag incidentally worked on both Yuva and Guru – two films where he played unique characters. “He was one of the dialogue writers on Yuva and he was the writer of Guru but this is a unique and a very non-Anurag Kashyap kind of a film. It is new territory for him as well. That makes the journey exciting for him, too, because you have a director so out of his comfort mode.”
So while approaching roles, did Abhishek, who has often displayed a knack for comedy, engage in method acting or is it more of a spontaneous take for him? “You should ask my directors whether I am a method actor or a spontaneous actor. I have studied the method but everybody implements their own one. It cannot be categorised as method or spontaneous, it is too general. It changes according to everything around, including the director. Every day you grow as an actor. So you always use different kinds of approach. I have never found it easy to categorise that,” he says.
Having shared screen space with both his parents — Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan — as well as wife Aishwarya, who is the best co-star in the family? Undoubtedly, his dad. “As an actor, he disarms you, makes you very comfortable in front of the camera. But I know he is my dad, so I can go back home and can discuss my character with him. My experience with him is a combination of father-son and co-workers,” he tells us, adding, “I must mention that anybody who has worked with him would love to work with him again and again.”
And despite years of being subjected to constant comparisons with his illustrious parents, he has no qualms accepting his limitations. “I am okay with getting harsh comments if the audience doesn’t like my performance. They are spending money to watch my films and they have every right to be harsh. I have no problems with them being direct to me.”
Besides acting, Abhishek has also emerged as a successful sports promoter, having bought the pro-Kabaddi League franchise team, Jaipur Pink Panther and co-bought the Indian Super League football team Chennaiyin FC. However, he believes it would be too presumptuous of him to say that he was trying to rescue the two sports. “They are wonderful sports and they have had their fair share under the sun. Whatever the sports have achieved after the start of the leagues has entirely been due to these sportsmen. Sports is something that I am very passionate about and so the last five years have been very rewarding for me,” he says. Jaipur Pink Panther incidentally won the first championship held in 2014 and Chennaiyin FC won the ISL in 2015 and 2018.
Abhishek feels heartened by India’s recent showing at the Asian Games but goes on to add, “Today’s world expects overnight results. Nothing happens overnight, especially in sports. There is a very famous quote that says, ‘it takes years and years of sacrifice and hard work to become an overnight success.’ It will happen as we are on the right trajectory,” he says and points to the example of the Indian football team which in the last four years has climbed in FIFA rankings.
As one who embraces new media with glee, Abhishek feels that while the outreach is fantastic, the focus on celebrity children is a bit intrusive. “I wish it would not happen but it’s unlikely that I can wish it away. This is the life that Aishwarya and I chose but it is not the life Aradhya or any of the other children have chosen. Let them grow up as normally as possible. When they do grow up and if they decide to be a part of the industry, you can focus on them. Till then let them be just children,” he says, signing off.
Writer: Saimi Sattar
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Vicky Kaushal and Taapsee Pannu get candid with Asmita Sarkar about how India needs fresher content to take the cinema forward with grace.
Love has been explored repeatedly in films across the world because of how deep and universal the emotion is. Every human reacts differently to making stories more interesting and novel. In search of novelty, director Anurag Kashyap, known for dark films, has taken a page out of Anand L Rai’s book and made a foray into the romantic genre with actors like Vicky Kaushal, Taapsee Pannu and Abhishek Bachchan in a love triangle, Manmarziyan.
“The emotion of love is constant through the ages. There was a time when holding hands with a partner on the streets was a taboo but today it’s not. Nobody will judge or stare. This old couple in my building one day told me how he met his wife. She was his good friend’s sister. ‘When I saw her for the first time I sent a letter to her dad asking permission to marry her,’ he told me. Back then, you would seek the legit route like or meet chori chupe. My parents, for instance, met only once before the wedding. And my 25-year-old mother moved to Mumbai from a small village in Punjab. We might think that the emotion of love has changed but it hasn’t. Be it in the 1950s or now, you get the butterflies when you fall in love. You feel like doing something extra. Not just first love but every time love happens. It is only the identity of love that changes,” said Kaushal, who plays a brash and demonstrative lover in the film.
Pannu, on the other hand, believes that we’re getting closer to reality in terms of portrayals of man-woman relationships.
Both are director’s actors, but one seeks a thread of connection to the character she would play while the other seeks out the uncertain and the uncharted. As Pannu told us, “We have to connect to a part of the character. I’m not a trained actor who can brilliantly just become a different person altogether. I will become a different person but I need one common thread between me and the character. Once I find that, I build the character over that. That one thread I will find, be it as Shabana, Meenal or Aarti. In Manmarziyan, I connected to the character because she doesn’t believe in log kya kahenge. She has no inhibition whom she’s answerable to. There’s this line in the film, which I believe in as well, ‘joh log zyada sharm karte hain woh aage jaake suicide kar lete hain.’ She believes that there is one life and it’s short. I can live for myself or for others during it. But others aren’t living for her, so why should she? She takes decisions with what she’s happy without bothering about who’s looking or thinking what, which is quite close to how I am in real life.”
She said that playing the average Indian girl is her USP and she plays on it. “I need to understand what will my audience relate to. We have been making aspirational movies since generations. There are enough of them. Now, we make some relatable content. I’m not saying that the women playing divas on screen are in anyway lesser but that’s their forte, this is mine. I’m an average Indian girl, I represent an average Indian girl and I use that as my biggest strength and weapon, that I can be the voice of an average Indian girl. For me, they are the audience and they buy the tickets for my films. I choose to be relatable to them than be aspirational,” she added. To do a film, where she’s unsure, the director needs to be a Midas. Nothing short of it would convince her to take it on otherwise. “I’m a director’s actor. They have to bring out something from me which even I didn’t know existed,” she added.
However, Kaushal’s take on how he chooses his characters is wildly different. He calls himself a “greedy actor” who wants to explore and scare himself to the fullest. “I want to jump into territories in which I feel I can’t do this. I want to be unsure of the fact that I can do this,” he said, adding that the audience wants to be surprised and see different work, conceptually, by treatment or character while 15-20 years ago they preferred seeing actors in set roles.
His hardest role so far has been for Raman Raghav but he surrendered to the director’s vision without having doubts. “It’s like scuba diving, I am scared of deep water bodies. If I’m scared of a character, let me just dive in without doubt. The director will take me there. Raman Raghav was a character to which I couldn’t relate at all. I felt that character was emotionally, mentally very far away from me. He was edgy, had a drug problem, he had an unprotected and unsecured upbringing. No shade of that was applicable to me. We were shooting nonstop, the space of that character was claustrophobic,” he said.
Ask him about how he is in real life and pat comes the reply that he’s both Clark Kent and Superman. “As a person, I am diametrically opposite, I am very close to Deepak in Masaan and Vicky in Manmarziyan. Deepak is close to the guy you’re talking to and Manmarziyan is close to my alter ego. That character is flamboyant, eccentric and impulsive. You play Punjabi songs he can dance all day. He doesn’t think of consequences, he’s earnest and lives his emotions to the fullest. If he’s happy, angry, jealous or sad, he won’t bind it. He’ll cry like a baby. There’s red and then there’s yellow and no range between that. He doesn’t understand responsibilities and is terrified of commitment. There’s two sides of me, there’s a Clark Kent and a Superman. I’m both. Vicky Sandhu is the Superman, the one you’re talking to right now is Clark Kent,” he said.
Talk to both about stardom and they seem incredulous about it. While Pannu doesn’t take it seriously, Kaushal is very grateful to the love he’s been receiving.
“Thank god Abhishek is not sitting next to me. He hates this fact that I don’t take it seriously because I still don’t feel that I am a star. For me the definition of a star is someone in whose name a movie would sell. The audience buys tickets just because my name is on the poster and think that it’s worth spending my hard earned money and three hours which will never come back. When my audience has that mentality, then I will be a star. Then I will shout at the top of my voice that I am a star. But until then, I have to work for it,” she said.
For Kaushal, it still hasn’t sunk in. “One day somebody called from the trade and said you know everybody says you’re an A- lister now. I said, you’re saying this I don’t know.” He says he’s been working non-stop for two years which is why his movies are coming in like an avalanche and he’s grateful that they are well-loved. “The process of filmmaking is temporary but the reaction isn’t. It makes us immortal as a character and that’s the best thing,” he said.
Ask them about the pressures of being on social media and they seem unfazed. Unlike older actors who have a difficult relationship with showing a glimpse of their personal selves to the world, the younger lot takes it in their stride. “I handle my account myself. There is no agency handling it for me. I think I’m quite frequent updater of my profile and I visit it frequently. I don’t believe in what others would think. It’s my profile, if I don’t tell people what to post you can’t tell me either. So, I let myself free which is why I can come up with something fun to post in the first place. I post about what I am truly. Otherwise, it would be a dead profile,” said Pannu. While Kaushal says, it’s all subjective. “Sometimes I’ll just make a video out of my bedroom and post it, if I feel that’s right and making sense. I don’t think a lot about it,” he said.
Pannu will be seen romancing both, Abhishek and Vicky. So, when asked who’s the more fun co-actor among the two, she said both are “boring” and “Ramji types.” “Abhishek is a conventional prankster. I love his sense of humour. Vicky is the perfect good boy you want to take home to meet your mom. Nobody is buzzing with crazy energy or doing some crazy stuff. Both have a good sense of humour but they’re not naughty or bad boys. They’re not edgy,” she said. Asked if she’s a prankster too, she added, “I’m not a prankster, I’m a little bit of a bully. That’s what I did to Anurag, shamelessly, every day on the set. I do it even now.”
Writer: Asmita Sarkar
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Deepika Padukone talks to Chahak Mittal about her battle with depression.
Her character in Piku was replete with flaws and imperfections, despite being in the spotlight, actress Deepika Padukone has incorporated the idea of laying it bare in her real life as well. Fighting stigma over mental health and combating depression, sharing her stories with people and eventually leading an organisation that could reach out people in need, she has made it all possible.
“After what I have been through, I felt if I could save even one life, my life would be complete,” says Deepika, who has fought against people’s judgements and remarks about her imperfections while forcing the world, especially women to look beyond those insecurities to love themselves.
Anna Chandy, clinical counsellor and psychologist, who had assisted Deepika during her mental struggle, says that a large number of women are a prey of depression yet they are not able to recognise it due to their responsibilities.
She says, “Women are always under stress about their children and their activities, and they keep on exhausting themselves especially if they are working.”
Before talking about how it has impacted Deepika’s life, she asks the assembled people as to how many people know about depression? When only around 20-25 hands from the audience of around 70 persons, raise their hands, she exclaims that she is shocked.
She says it is important to recognise the difference between feeling sad and depressed, “It takes a lot of courage to be upfront and own up to it. In layman’s term, it is feeling low for a prolonged period of time. There is a huge difference between feeling sad and feeling depressed. Sadness is a passing emotion but when it stays for more than two weeks, it should be checked and in such a case, one should definitely seek help because it could grow into depression, which is a medical condition.”
Deepika, who has recently started her NGO, the Live Love Laugh Foundation, believes that there are certain myths around depression as a mental condition which need to be bursted. “A lot of us believe that depression is self-inflicted or may be just bad karma. You start questioning yourself that even if you have everything in the world that you could be contented with, why are you depressed? But these myths need to bursted. It is the need of the hour.”
She wants to remind people that “it is a clinical condition” and “could happen to anyone, irrespective of their age or gender.”
India stands among the top lists of depressed countries in the world. It has impacted and even claimed innumerable lives. However, ever wondered why is it so?
Well, Deepika highlights a few broad points, “Firstly, acceptance of the condition of mental health. One of the biggest issues is that people in India call it by loose words such as, ‘madness’ or paagal, which not only worsens the condition but also doesn’t allow them to accept that it could be a medical problem.”
Adding to her, Pinky Reddy, national president of the FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), says, “Lack of awareness in people about where to go and get treatment for it is an issue as is the lack of good doctors who could give a proper help and treatment.”
She also adds, keeping in mind the impact of such an environment on young children, “Teaching the teachers as well as the kids is also very important. At a young age, they take mental illness as a joke.”
Deepika departs with a message saying that since the issue finds its roots deep within the society, removing the stigma around it and accepting it, looking forward to finding a motivation and a reason to live again, is very important.
She says, “Let us be honest to ourselves and the society, accept it with open arms. Be authentic, live love and laugh. It has been there for a long time, the change won’t take place overnight. Educating ourselves is very important. All this will take time but till then let us also work on the human relations, empathy and sympathy towards each other. Because, as you can see, human interaction is really diminishing.”
Writer: Chahak Mittal
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Rakesh Bedi’s new play Jab We Separated brings forth a message of how all of us deserve a second chance in life. The director and the female lead, Shweta Tiwari, get candid with Sangeeta Yadav.
From modern-day relationship issues like infidelity or nagging making couples resort to divorce, to sharing comic moments with neighbours — the play Jab We Separated, written and directed by Rakesh Bedi, has it all. It is a satire on contemporary society and relationships.
With a power-packed starcast that includes TV actress Shweta Tiwari, renowned theatre personality Rahul Bhuchar and multi-faceted actor Rakesh Bedi, the play promises to entertain you to the hilt. After a successful run in other cities, the play has come to Delhi and will be screened Kamani auditorium at 4 pm and 7pm on today.
Making a comeback to the theatre, TV diva Shweta Tiwari plays housewife Priya Sahni. “Jab We Separated is the narrative of Sanjay Sahni played by Rahul Bhuchar and Priya Maheshwari Sahni enacted by me. We live in Mumbai and have filed for divorce,” Tiwari says.
Priya feels her husband is cheating on her, while Sanjay feels Priya does not give him enough space and nags too much. The court has given the couple a time frame of six months to reconcile, if possible. But sadly, in this scenario, the couple desperately waits for these six months to get over and then subsequently get over with each other. Anyone who is married, getting divorced, already divorced and also those who are just in a relationship will identify with the references in this play. People will relate to the characters in this play on many levels and identify with the range of emotions,” Tiwari says.
Essaying the role of nagging neighbour Monty Mitha, Rakesh Bedi plays an integral part that makes people laugh and at the same time teach the couple to forgive each other. “I play a lonely elderly person who tries to buy time from people to talk about anything and everything. He goes to his neighbour Priya to borrow thread, then he comes back to buy a needle and again comes back to ask her help in putting the threat into it. Sometimes he comes to borrow a TV remote as his remote stops working. Amidst all the laughter, he tries to indirectly advice them the couple who are at loggerhead with each other. He brings a heart-wrenching twist in climax which is the best part of the play,” Bedi says who has been doing theatre for past 40 years and is currently acting in Bhabhiji Ghar Pe Hai as Angoori’s alcoholic but loving father Bhoorey Lal.
Walking down memory lane, Tiwari recalls her journey in theatre and TV. “I was apprehensive about getting on to the stage since I was scared about how the audiences will react to my performance. Unlike TV, you get an immediate reaction from the live audience. I haven’t been doing theatre for some time now since I am choosy when it comes to scripts. Frankly, there is not too much money in theatre and I feel that I need to be rewarded for all the hard work that needs to be put in. However, money is not everything and today if I do a play, it will only be thanks to a solid script. Jab We Separated is one of those scripts. When I heard it, I just couldn’t let it go,” Tiwari tells you.
Taking a cue from real-life stories for his popular plays Mera Woh Matlab Nahi Thha with Anupam Kher and Neena Gupta and Jab We Separated, Bedi feels the responsibility to not just entertain the audience but also reflect upon various situations and give possibilities to deal with it.
“My wife and I are into couple kitty parties for 25 years and all our friends meet every month and spend time together. The inspiration for my plays has been real life stories that I have seen in and around my friends’ circle. I started writing this play six years back and must have created 10-15 drafts. Jab We Separated will leave you looking for answers and meaning of life. It will make you ponder on why we are going so deep in the zone of being small hearted, selfish, egoistic and self-centred. Instead of being givers, we always want to be takers all the time. If even a single person can get the solution to their relationship issues or start thinking positively about the situations, I will be very happy,” Bedi says.
Enjoying the motherhood phase, Tiwari is busy with baby Reyaansh. “I am not concentrating on TV since the medium requires me to put in 12 hours of work, 25 days a month. My year-and-a-half-old baby Reyaansh needs all my attention love,” Tiwari says.
The development of industrial sector in India after Independence was completely depended on the growth of the public sector units.
Prior to Independence, sectors such as railways, post and telegraph services and ordnance factories were entirely under the Government control and constituted the bulk of the public sector business. Yet, the manner in which these functioned then was quite different from what has evolved in recent decades. The Indian Railways, for instance, was a highly professional organisation with decision-making in the hands of competent and well-trained executives, which is still very much the case today. But in terms of future directions and major financial powers, the role of the executive has been curtailed over time. Significantly, on matters other than those involving broad policy, earlier there was no interference from above in respect of operational and management issues.
However, particularly since the 1970s, there has been a growing interference in the functioning of the Indian Railways, the state electricity boards as well as other public sector organisations, which were seen essentially as milch cows for the benefit of the politicians and the establishment in general. The result is that these organisations have become overstaffed with a decline in the calibre of employees and a reduction in the quality of human resources. The public sector has become a convenient place for providing employment to large number of people who are followers or constituents of those in power. This is one of the chronic problems ailing Air India as well, due to which the airline has been unable to attract any offers in response to the recent effort at privatisation.
The case of Air India is particularly pathetic. This was one of the finest airlines in the world and had a remarkable head start over several others which are thriving today, such as Emirates, Lufthansa and even Singapore Airlines. Among many factors on account of which this move failed is that the retention of 24 percent of stake in the hands of the Government of India scared away potential investors who were concerned at the possibility of interference by the Government.
But the main drawback to an enthusiastic response was the pathetic state of the financial state of Air India. Any potential investor would have been saddled with a huge debt burden, a large number of permanent staff who are perhaps of questionable value to the organisation and a decline in Air India’s share in the domestic market, partly as an outcome of the ill-conceived merger of Air India and Indian Airlines. Any passenger for whom Air India was the airline of choice in the 1980s, as in the case of this writer, would feel sad at flying the national carrier now. The class of service on board is nowhere near what it used to be.
The state of the aircraft and its interior are shabby, and even the cuisine served in every class, including business class, has declined. On a recent flight from New York to Delhi, happily, the punctuality at takeoff was perfect. But curiously what used to be a cabin only for business class now incorporates a row of first class, which was empty. No doubt this innovation must have been carried out to ensure that politicians and senior bureaucrats do not have to travel in the ignominy of humble business class. It was not long ago that politicians, both in and out of power, as well as bureaucrats of the rank of Joint Secretary and above, were routinely upgraded to first class along with their families.
Unfortunately, India has not allowed the public sector to reach the levels of excellence which would serve the country and the public well. The result has been a record of recurrent losses, an absence of innovation and vision which are the defining qualities of a successful business enterprise. Typically, it is much too often that the Government, official designated to serve on the board of a public sector enterprise, has the last word in decision-making, far above that of the chairman of the board. The entire body language and dynamics in the boardroom reflect that reality.
If we were to study the functioning of public enterprise in other countries, where success is evident, the relationship between the Government and the enterprise is distinctly different from what is evident in India. It is for this reason that organisations like, Électricité de France (EDF) and the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF), the French National Railways, are shining examples of outstanding professionalism, world-class innovation and overall performance, which have been the pride of France and an emblem of economic success over a long time.
Significantly, in India too, there have been periods of notable success of specific public sector organisations but this was essentially the result of competent and influential leaders, such as V Krishnamurthy of BHEL and Maruti, Mantosh Sondhi of the Bokaro Steel Plant, Dr Verghese Kurien of Amul and Dr NB Prasad of ONGC. These were industrial managers and captains of enterprises who would not allow any undue interference in the organisations they headed.
Even more impressive than the two above-mentioned public sector organisations in France is the case of a developing country initiative in Brazil, which goes by the name of Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica (Embraer), which is now a world-class producer of aircraft and aeronautical equipment. Embraer was created in 1969, and by contrast, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited was established through the visionary initiative of Walchand Hirachand in 1940 in association with the Government of Mysore and one-third participation of the Government of India. In 1963 the latter was established as a totally Government-owned company, and the rest, as they say, is history.
It is often said that business should not be the business of the Government. But given the large investments that we have in the public sector in India, a new dynamic is essential for defining the nexus between the Government and the public sector, by which accountability to Parliament and the people is not diluted. And it should be carried out in a manner that ensures innovation and success in the market are not compromised for any public sector enterprise. Is this an issue that perhaps Parliament needs to debate on the basis of enlightened analysis and global experiences? Even for privatisation of the public sector, its dynamism and success in the market are essential.
(The writer is former chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2002-15)
Writer: RK Pachauri
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Actress Rani Mukerji, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan had the most interesting conversation on the sets of 10 Ka Dum recently. During the show, Shah Rukh Khan mentioned that his younger son AbRam is like Salman Khan, in the sense that he doesn’t shy away from projecting his love for any girl that he meets. Rani Mukerji said, “i Wish Salman Khan had a daughter who could marry Shah Rukh Khan’s son AbRam.”
SRK added to this, “We should call you ‘Shaadi Mukerji.’”
‘As actors, we play a very important part in everyone’s life. We are considered role models and it is necessary on our part to set the right examples for people. I am someone who has always lived from the heart. I did not want to do things because everyone else was doing them.’
—Kareena Kapoor Khan
Actor Salman Khan said that he doesn’t do “meaningful films” but his films definitely carry a “huge message.” Asked him what about playing a villain? He said, “I don’t want to play a villain because if I play it really well then people will be impressed by me and will start behaving like villains. My films have huge messages, which is keeping them away from the wrong and they’re doing the right thing.”
Donald honoured at Zurich Veteran actor Donald Sutherland will be honoured with the lifetime achievement award at the 14th edition of the Zurich Film Festival.
The 83-year-old actor will also present his recently released movie The Leisure Seeker at the festival.
Having worked in more than hundred films, Sutherland is a recipient of many prestigious awards including Emmy and Oscar.
He has received Emmy and Golden Globe awards as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film Citizen X and won a Golden Globe for Path to War.
Sutherland’s recent work also includes roles in The Hunger Games and TV series Trust.
Writer: Team Viva
Courtesy: The Pioneer
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