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| Aamir Khan in Mangal Pandey and Sanjay Dutt in Munnabhai MBBS |
After the lull at the ticket window, thanks to the small-screen blitzkrieg in the form of Kaun Banega Crorepati, it?s time to return to the theatres again. The city multiplexes have come up with a series of offers as a run-up to I-Day week, which also sees the release of the most awaited movie of the year, Mangal Pandey: The Rising.
But before you travel back in time to 1857, you can do with a round of laughter. 89 Cinemas at Swabhumi has lined up a Comedy Film Festival screening recent laugh riots ? Munnabhai MBBS, Kya Kool Hai Hum, Mumbai Express, Hulchul and Masti ? everyday at noon till Thursday.
The prices have been slashed too, with tickets available for Rs 50 and 70 in an effort to provide ?good timepass for a low price?.
?Independence Day celebrations are all about happiness,? says 89 Cinemas general manager Prashant Srivastava. ?Also, since there are no new releases this week, the films would be kind of a filler. Now, thrillers and suspense movies do not have that many repeat audiences. But laughter is something you can always go back to.?
If the Swabhumi cineplex is tickling the funny bone, INOX (Forum and City Centre) is already rising to the return of Aamir Khan on the big screen after four years. The multiplex chain has lined up a series of contests and promotions to make every viewer of the period piece ?a part of history?.
INOX is also a co-producer of the big-budget movie along with Bobby Bedi?s Kaleidoscope Entertainment and Ketan Mehta?s Maya Movies.
Once the advances of ?the epic tale of friendship, love, loss and betrayal set against the backdrop of the Indian Mutiny? open on Monday, patrons buying a specific number of tickets get to win special Mangal Pandey movie merchandise at INOX.
The more the number of tickets booked in bulk, the better the prizes. Not just that, there are CDs and cassettes of the film?s soundtrack, composed by the inimitable A.R. Rahman, up for grabs through the special Mangal Pandey Contest.
In true INOX tradition, the Elgin Road and Salt Lake multiplexes have been decked up to welcome the Sepoy Mutiny on celluloid. The d?cor has been designed in tune with the period saga with large cutouts of Aamir Mangal Khan popping up at different places.
Refuel, the food counter, will also wear a new look with special Mangal Pandey cups used to serve popcorn. The staffers, too, will be dressed in period attire to build up the ambience. A Titan stall is also to be put up, which will showcase special watches created for the film promotion.
?There?s such a huge expectation from the film that we want to make Mangal Pandey an experience rather than just a movie,? said a spokesperson for INOX.
Rhythm is right
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| Michael Bawtree rehearses at the Calcutta School of Music. Picture by Aranya Sen |
The rhythms of Carnatic raga blended with Bach, a concert of Mozart and more with an English organist conducting a Calcutta orchestra? At two concerts this month, titled Music Mantra: At Home with the British Council, there promises to be a bit of a musical melange.
On Sunday evening, performing at Calcutta School of Music?s Sandre Hall, will be the Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Michael Bawtree. Having spent the past month in the city working with the orchestra, the keyboard player has lined up some Mozart, Warlock, Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst and Edvard Grieg for the event.
?But I won?t be performing on the keyboard. I?ll just be conducting this time,? he smiles. The man from Devon graduated in music from Cambridge University and was a church organist in Suffolk for five years. The Fellow of the Royal College of Organists has performed in countless music festivals, concerts and churches around the world.
Since last September, Bawtree has been studying conducting and teaching at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. It was a Calcuttan there who suggested a summer sojourn in the city. ?So here I am,? he grins, adding: ?I?ll be in Boston for three weeks after this, performing. Then it?s back to school.?
On Friday, August 12, once again at Calcutta School of Music, the ?east west musical encounter? will strike quite a different chord. The five performers are pianist Chris Thompson, his wife Dawn on the cello, Christopher Dreamer on the thrombone, British-born Pirishanna Thevarajan on Indian percussion instruments like mridangam and Anup Biswas on the cello.
The concert will feature items like Valentini?s sonata, Purcell, Carnatic Bach, Rabindrasangeet and Dance of Durga through joint and solo pieces. The Thompsons and Dreamer have spent around two months at the Mathieson School, of which Biswas is the founder-director. Although now UK-based, he returns regularly to the Thakurpukur school.
Says Christopher Thompson, director of music at Dauntsey?s School in Wiltshire, UK: ?I met Anup through a friend. Since our school adopts a charity every year, this time we chose Mathieson. My wife and I have been teaching the kids here, but also learning from them. I have been receiving tabla lessons from a 10-year-old boy.?
While Dreamer has been picking up a bit of Bengali ? ?I can write my name? ? and learning about Indian classical dance and tabla, he has been teaching western classical music.
Dawn Thompson has been working with the young cellists, and also ?trying to get to grips with the Indian version of the scales (sa re ga ma?) and Bengali music, so we can go back and teach our students?. She is all set to rehearse for the piece that will have her play western music to Indian raga rhythms.
The trio is almost over the culture shock. And the Thompsons will be back in October with a bunch of their students, for a concert in Calcutta with some of the Mathieson kids.
