Within two months of its debut, Reflection returned for its second production, Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. Sixty years after its premiere, the Dame’s dramatisation of her own novel still grips audiences. Director Vivek Bothra sprang a pleasant surprise by making the end more complicated than she did herself, restoring some of the novel’s complexity that she had straightened out in her play. However, his backstage crew betrayed him, forgetting important cues like the diminishing number of dolls: after a character noticed that another one was missing, a hand emerged suddenly from the wings to remove it! Acting standards fluctuated considerably, with Vishaal Sethia the most composed as Sir Lawrence Wargrave.

Ananda Lal

Parama Prakriti and She Said were staged by Dancers Guild at Rabindra Sadan last Sunday. Parama Prakriti, a series of separate dances, reminded one of the late choreographer Manjushri Sircar’s approach to dance that was unique in the manner in which it blended traditional and modern forms. In pieces like Ananda and Jahnavi, the power of nava-nritya as a dance language was evident. She Said, an unfinished work by the late Ranjabati Sircar, combined narration, props, music and dance visuals to create glimpses of a woman’s world. The narrative had a strong poetic quality but altogether the piece failed to create an integrated impact, perhaps due to the “unfinishedness” that the group chose to adhere to. Moreover, the constant and immediate association with the person demised acted as a hindrance to art appreciation.

Vandana Alase Hazra

One reason why the watercolour as a medium fell into disuse except as a conventional, easily manoeuvrable pigment for basic academic exercises is that for a long while there seemed to be a dearth of imaginative mentors who could demonstrate to their pupils the original genius of the medium and the technical challenges thrown up by it. Newer generations of instructors at art institutions also tended to create the false impression that the oils (and subsequently acrylics) were more modern and, therefore, more respectable mediums. Sambhu Das, a young aficionado of the once disparaged medium, has mounted his latest creations at the Academy of Fine Arts. His works are, however, a bit too varied in respect of themes, the most impressive among them being Festival (I, VI, VIII), Monsoon I and Heritage V.

Samir Dasgupta