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Issue 12 Vol I, March 31, 2006 art & films Celebrating
Creativity: Silver Jubilee of Punjabi Akademi
Punjabi intellectuals and academia have extended all co-operations to the academy. Consequently, the level of seminars and discussions therein has been very stimulating. Many Punjabi scholars have been honoured by the akademi. Hundreds of Punjabi writers have been published in the Akademi organ Samdarsi, a very prestigious bimonthly brought out by the Akademi. Even the universities in Punjab have acknowledged the importance of this institution.
Now on the occasion of silver jubilee celebrations the Akademi has brought out 464 pages jumbo edition of its journal. All major Punjabi writers have contributed to this issue. Hun Mai Vida Hunda Han a poem by revolutionary Punjabi poet Paash goes like this, “Mai hun vida hunda han/Meri dost mai hun vida hunda han/Mai ik kavita likhni chahi si/Tu jis nu sari umar parh saken/Us kavita vich/Mehkde hoi dhanie da zikar hona si/Kamadan di sarsraht da zikar hona si/Te gandlan di nazak sokhi da zikar hona si/Us Kavita vich rukhan uton chondian dhundan/Ate balti vich choe dudh/Te gaundian chaggan da zikar hona si/Te jo vi hor/Mai tere jism vichon Takkia us sare kase da zikar hona si...” (I take your leave. My darling I take your leave now. I had longed for writing a poem, which you could croon throughout your life. This poem would have alluded to the fragrance of coriander leaves and also of the rustling sound of the sugarcanes. The poem would mention the delicate feel of the tender mustard stems and of the dripping fog from the trees. It would have alluded to the fresh frothy milk in the buckets and also to whatever I discovered in your limitless body.) There are many evocative poems, stories and plays in this collection. Therefore the issue is worth preserving not only because of its size but also because of the quality of its content. Punjabi Akademi Delhi has to be congratulated for this gesture. | ||||||||||||||||||
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Being Cyrus:
Get to know him!
Being Cyrus is another venture in this direction. Apart from being the directorial debut of Homi Adajania also happens to be Saif Ali Khan’s first film in English. Saif has proved his caliber and established himself as an actor of substance since his cameo role in Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai about five years back which introduced a new genre in films. One could call Being Cyrus a psychological drama than a film per se as the happy-go-lucky boy Saif adds another feather to his cap with the character of Cyrus Mistry, the protagonist in the film. The potential of the film can be gauged from the rave reviews that it got but rest of course depends on individual taste. Being Cyrus has been opened to great acclaim at film festivals in the recent past. While the Asian Film Festival at Lyon called it “...a film so quirky and intriguing, worthy of the great Hitchcock”, the South Asian Film Festival at New York wrote “...incredible and refreshing to see such unique cinema coming out of India”.
The story revolves around a Parsi family, Sethnas residing in the hills of Panchgani. The film depicts Saif’s maturity as an actor as he himself says: “Cyrus is a complex character almost existentialist who suffers from childhood traumas and sees life in a different way and sometimes damaging way. I would not want people to identify with this character.” The movie boasts of stalwarts like Naseerudin Shah as Dinshaw Sethna, a dope-smoking retired sculptor, struggling to make both ends meet who lives with his aged yet voluptuous wife Katy (Dimple Kapadia) at a dilapidated house in Panchgani. Dinshaw opens his house to a stranger called Cyrus, and allows him to stay at his house as his paying guest cum sculpting apprentice. Cyrus regularly shuttles between two dysfunctional units –- Dinshaw and Katy's Panchgani home and an old building in Mumbai where Dinshaw's aged and much neglected father Fardoonjee Sethna (Honey Chhaya), his brother Farokh (Boman Irani) and way-too-young wife Tina (Simone Singh) live. As Cyrus treads through the complicated households, the cracks begin to show and he soon realises there is a lot swept under the carpet. As Katy pours herself all over Cyrus in her attempt to win his passion and make him dance to her tune, Cyrus decides to play a different game altogether. His is a complicated round of chess, with each member of the Sethna family a pawn in his hands. Dimple Kapadia who is wooed by the much younger Saif Ali Khan in Being Cyrus reminds of similar kind of a liaison earlier in Somnath Sen's crossover film Leela, in which she played a 40-something professor and later in Dil Chahta Hai she played a divorcee and had a young painter (Akshaye Khanna) falling for her. Although various filmmakers have explored the relationship earlier, the acceptance with the audience has grown manifold. Being Cyrus takes various shades in its 90 minutes duration and leaves one wondering whether is it a drama or a family movie or is it a comedy, a thriller or a deep rooted psychological drama for that matter? As Saif himself says it cannot be slotted in any one category. It is a film about mind games where the audience is left guessing about what's in store at every instance. As per the film makers, Being Cyrus is a strange humane story about an outsider struggling to get inside himself. In sharp contrast to Bollywood masala films, Being Cyrus, makes sure you remain glued to the screen just to know what Cyrus will do next, if not for anything else. Timely comic relief ensures that the movie never gets too heavy for the audience. |
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P
Many
special numbers of the journal Samdarsi have been brought out in which a number
of well established Punjabi writers like Kartar Singh Duggal, Amrita Pritam,
Devinder Satyarthi, Haribhajan Singh, Ajit Kaur, Mohinder Singh Sarna, Tara
Singh and so on besides a host of younger Punjabi writers led by Surjit Patar,
Mohanjit, Mohan Bhandari, Prem Parkash, Ram Sarup Ankhi and so on have
contributed their writings. Since the Govt. of Delhi runs Punjabi Akademi, it
receives lavish government grants. The writers published in Samdarsi are paid
good remuneration that is very rare in the world of Punjabi letters. The most
prestigious project executed by the Akademi is the fourteen-volume history of
Punjabi literature. No other institution including the publication bureaus of
different universities of Punjab have been able to perform such a grand literary
feat.
F
The
movie is a psychological drama providing a rare treatment to complex
characters that explore various relationships while depicting a
gamut of emotions like greed, passion, boredom, jealousy, insanity
and loneliness in a new light. Nonetheless it is a complex movie,
not easy to understand.