One need not be a connoisseur of art to appreciate the simple beauty and charm of Reghu’s ceramic sculptures being exhibited at the Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre (pictures left).

Reghu is from Kerala and he spent a good part of his career as a sculptor at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal. Of late he has settled down in Bangalore. In Kerala, he was close to the family of the architect Laurie Baker, famous for his mud houses.

One admires the courage of Reghu for giving shape to these folk doll-like creations with elongated torsos, tubular limbs, spatulate feet and hands, mask-like faces, button-like eyes and broad noses. They have apparently emerged from arcadia and seem to be cheerfully aloof from the cares of the world and even from their own troubles, although many of them quite clearly emerged from the villages and the backwaters not known for their prosperity.

They lie side by side on the ground, hold the hands of their children, splay out their limbs to relax or play in groups when uprooted from the village greens. The rich tones of earth such as a deep chocolate, mottled grey and ochre and their glazed skin underline the sense of tranquillity of these gregarious creatures.

A group of children looks poised while going through the motions of yoga. Outstretched palms spread out on the ground, they push themselves up with their faces turned heavenwards. Others lie on their belly, limbs stretched out without any sign of tension. There is a variant of these figures where the limbs have been reduced to radish-like shapes and the faces have turned into gingerbread. This is the closest he comes to abstraction.

The largest figures are those of a trio deep in conversation. A book lies open before them. A bottle is there to be opened. They have frozen limbs and animated expressions. The conversation hangs in mid-air.

Some of the women are hung from the wall like rag dolls, their necks outstretched. These peasant women have bead-like eyes, very similar to the babushkas of Russian villages. While these women are of uncertain geographic origin, there is a one-off piece with a face as round as a naan wearing a nose ring.

Reghu’s cows are the funniest of all. There is an entire herd of them sitting unconcernedly, killing time by masticating. The sculptor uses moulds to create these bovines.

Reghu’s human heads are often shaped like coconuts. There are two large works where he takes this to its logical conclusion. The head is a huge featureless coconut with ears like radishes.

This sculptor surely has the courage of conviction.

The outsider’s platform

The Greenwood Theatre Festival turns five years old this year. Organised by Bengal Shrachi, it will be held from October 30 to November 6 at Vidya Mandir and GD Birla Sabhagar. This year’s festival includes 16 groups, of which eight are from the districts, including Ankur which is staging Utpal Dutt’s Surya Shikar.

This year, too, the focus is on showcasing groups from outside Calcutta. “We want to provide them with a platform which might not be available on their home ground,” said Rahul Todi, managing director, Bengal Shrachi Housing Development Limited.

Manoj Mitra will be honoured with the Utpal Dutt Smarak Samman Lifetime Achievement Award, while Ishtishadi (The Suicide Squad), a Spandan production directed by Sangram Guha, will be awarded the Tripti Mitra Smriti Puraskar for the Best Production of the Year (City).

The district productions will be competing for the Bijan Bhattacharya Smriti Puraskar to be judged by theatre personality Shiv Sharma. The jury (picture above by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya shows some members) includes Roopa Ganguly, Satabdi Roy and Ansu Sur. Film-maker Goutam Ghose is the jury chairman. His daughter Anandi Ghose will be performing in Soumitra Chatterjee’s Homa Pakhi.

“The festival is an attempt to uphold the rich theatrical tradition in Bengal which people say is dying today. This year, we have attempted a pan-linguistic presence,” said Todi.

Ashoke Viswanathan will be staging Neil Simon’s Chapter Two in English, while Uma Jhunjhunwala of Little Thespian will put up Yaadon ke Bujhe Huye Savere in Hindi. The festival includes an audio drama by Srabyo. While Viswanathan spoke of the narrowing difference between theatre and film, Jhunjhunwala stressed the need to take theatrical tradition to pockets of Bengal like Darjeeling which have theatrical potential. Dolly Basu of Chupkatha spoke of going national with the festival.

Other groups from the districts include Ritwik (Murshidabad), Kalyani Kalamandalam (Nadia), Darpan (Madhyamgram), Sanskritik Shantipur (Nadia) and Anandyalok Natya Sanstha (Midnapore East).

SRK calling: Samapika Debnath

Calcutta girl Samapika is flying high, having bagged a role in Farah Khan’s next film Om Shanti Om, where she gets to rub shoulders with a certain Mr Shah Rukh Khan. “My friends had collected five Pepsi crowns which luckily got me a chance to audition for the Pepsi Khol Milega Role contest. I cleared the preliminary rounds and qualified as one of the seven contestants who made it to the finals in Mumbai. I was judged by Farah Khan who stressed on stage presence, good body language and the X-factor,” gushes the NIFD-trained fashion designer. Samapika has done some theatre, acted in Bengali serials Aastha, Projapataya Namah and Akash Kusum, and also worked in a Bhojpuri film. She is now busy shooting for Bappaditya’s Kaal. Then, she will wait for December when shooting starts for Om Shanti Om. Picture by Aranya Sen