More promises than fulfilment: Arts scene in 1980 ran like a movie trailer

It was the year block-busters went bust, old palettes exploded on new canvas, young filmmakers were finding a voice and the only epic on a grand scale was undertaken by a knighted Englishman.Generally, the arts scene in 1980 ran like a movie trailer - more promises than fulfilment - but here and there erratic enthusiasms stood out. Some eccentricities blew up in lull force, some horizones broadened, and there were hints of better things to come. No singular movement was evident, and there was no regrouping of energies into a vital new force. Yet on the stage, and in the cinema, more than in the performing or plastic arts, there were spurts of creative effort that signalled optimism in the coming decade.Om Puri in Aakrosh: Singals a new era?When, for example, early last spring, B.V. Karanth, the new director of the National School of Drama, stagedBarnum Vana, a Hindi version ofMacbethperformed in Yakshagana-style. there was a fleeting moment of grandeur in the fusion of theatrical cultures.Or when, at the tail-end of summer. Bombay cameraman Govind Nihalani showed his first feature Aakrosh, about the harrowing experiences of a young lawyer fighting his conscience in the corrupt, autocratic confines of a small town, another moment of revelation seemed to have flowered. Between these two events, the year was crammed with scores of film premieres, faddist art shows, openings and closings of competitions and conferences that seemed like pre-digested computer fodder left over from other times.Rekha in Umrao Jan Ada: IncompleteNowhere was the unpredictability more evident than in the world of movies. Sai Paranjype's Sparsh,a sanctimonious foray into the world of the blind, won the best feature film award - predictably, thought some; Mrinal Sen's Ekdin Pratidin was the equally predictable Indian entry at the Cannes Film Festival but won nothing; K. A. Abbas'Naxalitescame as an unmitigated disaster; Muzaffar Ali's lavishUmrao JanAda, ostentatiously launched in Lucknow in March, remained incomplete; Saeed Mirza's AlbertPinto Ku Gussa Kyon Aata Haiwas still in search of an audience; and Shyam Benegal's new venture about the tribulations of modern-day tycoons, Kalyug, had just about made it to the editing table.Cinema Successes: For all that, critics thought it was a fairly good year. Said film-maker and critic Chidananda Dasgupta: "Two recent films, despite their weaknesses, bore for me the signs of Indian cinema lighting new fires: Shodh and Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai. I haven't yet seen Aakrosh though. Both these movies were forging a new language of direct, forceful expression for a new generation. The social conscience of both films was aroused and angry, and will be. I feel, in the films that they presage." Yet the irony was that few of the films critics admired were commercially aired. Both Mirza and Nihalani showed their films at private previews-a situation that Nihalani admitted was precarious, though late in the year Aakrosh had been released in some cities.Ramesh Sippy and Kulbhushan Kharbanda on the seats of Shaan (left) and a scene from Manoj Kumar's Kranti: In the mould of the Big MovieThe commercial cinema ran a similarly precarious course, its cloak-and-dagger liaison with the box-office heightened to jarring extremes. No tears were shed whenDev Anand's Loot Maar or Sanjay Khan'sAbdullah,their huge publicity budgets drained, nosedived within hours of opening. Raj Khosla's Doslana and B.R. Chopra'sInsaf Ka Tarazu made it - but not quite, given the eclectic hazards of big-budget financing and multiple starring, which seemed suddenly outmoded.Nothing proved this more than the smash-hit success of Feroz Khan's Qurbani, a medium-sized, tightly-budgeted movie that seemed almost old-fashioned fun in its plot and pace: close-ups of Zeenat Aman's undulating figure coupled with Nazia Hassan's seductive disco number made it the movie of the year. Small could still be commercially beautiful, proved Khan, but G. P. Sippy's Shaan and Manoj Kumar's Kranti, built in the mould of the BM (Big Movie) may yet prove him wrong.If the BMs crashed, the BNs (Big Names) survived: Amitabh Bachchan as the industry's topseller was reported in mid-year to have 25 films on hand, earning an estimated Rs 36.000 a day. In absolute affirmation of the star system's stronghold, his girl Rekha. outstripped Zeenat Aman and Hema Malini as the hottest property of the year, while significantly diversifying her sensuous energy and raw talent into prestige performances.The auditorium of the Tata theatre: Few memorable performancesThriving Theatre:In fact, Rekha's debul into serious films, and fiim actress Shabana Azmi's debut on the stage - she played the lead in a long run of Indian People's Theatre Association'sSufaid Kundali. a Hindi adaptation of Brecht'sCaucasianChalkCircle directed by M. S. Sathya were indicators of the increasing cross-fertilisation in the theatre and cinema. Says critic Kavita Nagpal: "To me it is one of the most significant developments of this year that a large number of stage actors migrated to films and, yet retained their affiliation with drama. Among the best examples are Naseeruddin Shah, Amrish Puri. Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Sushma Seth."Though large-scale successes in the theatre seemed sporadic, drama fared better than the other arts. There were hints of new ground being broken, obstacles being overcome, and resources being channelised. "There may not have been a definite movement," agrees Karanth. "but there was a sense of ferment." Scene from Ghasiram Kotwal: Triumphant revialKaranth quotes the effective partnership between East German director Fritz Benewitz and Sombhu Mitra to produce Brecht'sLife of Galileoin Calcutta. Critic Nagpal says that another strong feature of the year was the evolution of a "truly professional" repertory group attached to the National School of Drama in Delhi.In Bombay, theatrical ferment proved even more significant when, despite the strong derogatory pronouncements of Information and Broadcasting Minister Vasant Sathe, Marathi playwright Vijay Tendulkar's Ghasiram Kotwal, was successfully revived and proceeded on a triumphant six-week tour of Europe. Tendulkar himself thrived, emerging from the controversy as India's premier playwright. Indeed, theatre seemed to flourish in the cities whether it was in Alyque Padamsee's version of A Streetcar Named Desire running to packed houses in Bombay or as street plays on dowry deaths in Delhi or in the coming together of six top amateur groups in Calcutta, including Bahuropee and Theatre Group, to mount productions together.Shabana in Sufaid Kundali: Stage debutMediocre Music:Less dramatic was the impact in the field of music, dance and the visual arts. Though the Tata-sponsored Rs 5 crore National Centre for Performing Arts was inaugurated by the prime minister in early November as India's premier show-window, there were few memorable performances or discoveries of inspiration.Says critic Shanta Serbjeet Singh: "The only-memorable performances of the years I can remember in music and dance were by foreign groups brought in by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. Looking back, I can only recall the spectacle of the Cuban dancers or the Japanese puppeteers or the West Indian steel band. The only Indian exposition of the year I cherish is the display of sarodist Sharan Rani Backli-wafs collection of 300 Indian musical instruments which she bequeathed to the National Museum." Singh feels strongly about the crisis of mediocrity in Indian music and dance: in fact her conclusion is despairingly rooted in the belief that the "soloist's art is languishing".Satish Gupta (inset) and his muralSingh asks: "How can it be expected to prosper when the price of a musical instrument like the sarod has gone up from, Rs 100 to Rs 3,500?" But she is also quick to commend the talent displayed by the offspring of master-musicians: tabla player Alia Rakha's son Zakir Husain Khan whose tabla performances stole many a show, and the sarod recitals of Ali Akbar Khan's son, Ashish Khan and Vilayat Khan's son Shujaat Khan, which carry on the musical tradition.Arts Policy: "What is amazing is that there remains a colossal amount of major talent in this country, despite a total absence of enlightened and demanding patronage," says the former director of the National School of Drama, Ebrahim Alkazi, who now runs a leading art gallery in the capital. Alkazi doesn't think there has been any break-through on the arts scene in 1980. "It was," he says, "a year of wasted opportunity, like many before. How long will a few voices go on crying in the wilderness?" Alkazi, like many other cultural commissars, believes that without a coherent and discriminating cultural policy, without serious vision or conviction, the arts in India can hardly be expected to prosper. Krishen Khanna (inset) and two of his canvassesIn the field of visual arts, he has lately found the canvasses of Bombay-based painter Nalini Malani, who exhibited in Delhi this year, extraordinary: "Her disturbed, very penetrating exposure of middle class Indian society is excellent." Yet. he says, unless her talent or the gift inherent in Malayali film-maker Aravindan's movies is tapped, and provided with opportunity, the chance of producing memorable art will be missed forever.Perhaps it is significant that the visual arts have shown up poorest in the year, either in their tired repetitions or self-indulgent extravagances. Delhi artist Satish Gupta and Calcutta painter Bikash Bhattacharjee displayed their latest work in Bombay. Top Artist Krishen Khanna and Satish Gujral - both in the Rs 25,000-a-piece category - showed their latest work too, the latter euphoric in the presentation of charred pieces of wood embellished with beads, cowrie shells and strapped in leather thongs. Beyond the surreal, sado-masochistic preoccupations of Gujral, the innovative spirit wore thin in art galleries. Of the 2.047 entries by 1,004 artists for the National Exhibition in April, for example, only 188 works by 168 artists were thought worth displaying.Shakespears in Saffron by the Rajneesh Ashram (left) and Jagjit Chitra SinghAnd the award-winners, in the dearth of authentic patronage, were besieged by howls of protest, not an unusual by-product of Lalit Kala Akademi power-politics At times in the year, the rejectionist spirit in the contemporary art scene seemed so dis-piriting that a new preoccupation with antique bnc-a-brac - from period furniture to period photographs - manifested itself in exhibition halls everywhere. Serious pursuits notwithstanding, there were enough fads and fancies on the fringe to keep audiences enthused. Entertainers like Chitra and Jagjit Singh had a field day, cutting a gold disc and packaging their duets with buffet dinners on the tinsel-pop. tandoori circuit. Bikash Bhattacharjee (inset)) and his paintingThe Rajneesh Ashram drew full houses with its performances of Shakespeare in saffron-a clear case of Om and art proliferating hand-in-hand. Despite such dubious diversions, the art world survived bravely, but offered no spectacular surprises. It was erratic but exuberant, wayward but without a touch of greatness.Or as Alkazi succinctly summed up the scene by asking: "Can anything great be expected from the arts, when only the great buffoons of politics parading on the national stage are allowed all the limelight?"Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 30, 2013 08:12 IST--- ENDS ---

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More promises than fulfilment: Arts scene in 1980 ran like a movie trailer

The commercial cinema ran a similarly precarious course, its cloak-and-dagger liaison with the box-office heightened to jarring extremes. No tears were shed when Dev Anand's Loot Maar or Sanjay Khan's Abdullah, their huge publicity budgets drained, nosedived within hours of opening.

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