Annual Report 2005-2006 - India Foundation for the Arts

‘Lav and Kush grew up and donned theyoung form of Ram and Lakshman. Thevery same actors became older still andappeared on stage as Bhishma andDronacharya, stroking their whitebeards. As time, the biggest theatre person,drew the curtains, these actorsbecame mere memories . . . the onething that did not change was the playsthey performed.’Filmmaker K M Madhusudhanan on Surabhi, a120-year old theatre company from Andhra Pradeshand the subject of his film.Vivek Narayanan, New DelhiRs 4,97,769 over two yearsFor research towards a novel on the rise and fallof Carnatic music as a dynamic social form fromthe 1920s to the 1960s. The researcher will consultarchival material on the lives of Carnatic musiciansand the technical innovations made within themusic during this period; interview performers andcritics associated with this phase of the music; andconsult scholars working on Carnatic music. Theproject will also lead to English translations ofselected memoirs written by Carnatic musicians,which will be useful for the novel but can also bemore widely disseminated.Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta,KolkataPrincipal Investigator: Manas RayRs 3,52,000 over two yearsFor research towards two novels––in Bengali andEnglish––on the journey of a refugee colony tourbanity in post-partition Calcutta. Envisaged as aborder-crossing genre, the proposed novels willexplore the interface between ethnography, history,memoir and fiction. Dwelling on the texture of theordinary and familial history to construct an archiveof pain, anguish and hope, the novels are expected tochallenge nostalgic accounts of the afterlife of theBengal partition.Saba Dewan, New DelhiRs 4,99,000 over one yearFor post-production work on a film titled InSearch of Umrao, exploring the social and cultural historyof the tawaifs of north India. The film focuses onthe art forms associated with the tawaifs and the relationshipbetween aesthetic expression and sexualidentity. Through the story of a lost thumri sung byRasoolan Bai, whose career as a performer overlappedwith significant transitions in both the practice ofmusic and public female sexualities, the film willexamine the major shifts in the tradition’s history.Sri Nilakanteshwara Natya Seva Sangha,Heggodu, KarnatakaRs 4,50,000 over one yearFor updating and digitising a database on performancespaces in Karnataka. The updated databasewill contain information on the location ofeach space, the nature of its stage and auditorium, itsseating capacity, rental details, spatial dimensions,the types of other spaces attached to it, and theequipment available. The database will be availableto theatre groups, students of theatre and researchscholars on a CD and will eventually be uploadedonto a website.K M Madhusudhanan, New DelhiRs 5,00,000 over one yearFor the making of a film on Surabhi, a 120-year old travelling theatre company from AndhraPradesh. Envisaged as a journey with the repertorycompany, the film, titled Mayabazar, will examinethe everyday activities of these travelling actors andtheir families, rehearsals, exercises, the staging ofthe plays based on the epics and the puranas, theaudience, sets, make-up and costume design. Thefilm will also explore the traces of Parsi theatre,silent cinema from the Phalke era and the paintingsof Raja Ravi Varma in the design of the theatrecompany’s sets and costumes. 11From the play Mayabazar, performed by Surabhi.Photograph by K M Madhusudhanan.