An exhibition of paintings by Sixth Sense at the Academy of Fine Arts indicates the frenzied but unsure youthfulness of a new generation of artists. Amalesh Das has developed a personal style. He fills a large area with a dark figure in various postures of imbalance. Atish Mukherjee crams colourful motifs within a compositional area like a child collecting toys. Binit Saha attempts to rephrase myths, but their significance is lost in the process. Shekhar Basu documents the plight of children with empathy, but forgets to move beyond photography. Kajal Chakravarty’s Durga series is executed with skill and feelings. Apparently they are still rotating round what they imbibed at the Art College.
Sandip Sarkar
Calcutta Blind Opera director Subhashish Gangopadhyay formed the theatre group, Onnodesh, to provide a forum for marginalised women ? poor, illiterate, disabled ? to express them selves through drama. Two of the group’s street plays, Behula Bhashan and Draupadi Katha, outside the Bangla Academy (April 29) was an attempt to have these women identify with the timeless struggles of women, symbolised by the mythological characters of Draupadi and Behula. Based on two poems by Professor Sabyasachi Deb, the dramatisation was lyrical and stylised with dance-like movements and rhythmic speech delivered in a tone of intense melodrama. Rinku Barman as Behula pleading for her husband’s life and Najma Khatun as Draupadi cursing the weakness of her husbands gave passionate performances.
Dola Mitra
Anagha Bharat delighted the rasiks (Gyan Manch, April 22) with alluring Bharatnatyam steps. The Varnam based on the Virahotkandhita nayika showed her mastery over the craft. The expressions evoked sympathy for the lovelorn Nayika. Bho Shambho, ode to Lord Shiva, and Ananda tandava, in ragam Revathi and set to aadi talam, was performed with vigour and a lot of energy. What also stood out was the dance composition on the Rabindrasangeet Basunthi-e-bhubano mohini. Usually Rabindrasangeet doesn’t find a place in Bharatnatyam. However in this case, the Carnatic vocalist Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar influenced Rabindranath Tagore to write the song. And Anagha did complete justice to it. Mangalam rounded off the pleasurable evening.
Shibani Chattopadhyay
