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Vol.20 No. 5 May - 2019

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FILM FESTIVAL : MAHATMA GANDHI-150......YET ANOTHER SUCESS STORY

Gandhiji’s life was an

extraordinary example of avisionary leader and acompassionate human being

whose heart beat for thedowntrodden. This being the150th year of his birthday,Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in

Shri Nagathihalli Chandrasekhar, Chairman, Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy,lighting the lamp to mark the inauguration of three days film festival on Mahatma Gandhi.

From left Shri H.B. Dinesh, Registrar, Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy, Shri H.N. Suresh,Director, BVB, Shri Chiranjiv Singh, IAS (Retd.) Former Ambassador of India to UNESCO

and Dr. Wooday P. Krishna, Chairman, Karnataka Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi.

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collaboration with KarnatakaChalanachitra Academyorganised the film festival:Mahatma Gandhi-150.The inaugural event washeld on April 9, 2019.

The inaugural event of thefilm festival Mahatma Gandhi-150 was an event of significantimportance and befittingly themembers who sat on the daiswere august personalities.

H N Suresh, Director ofBharatiya Vidya Bhavan,extended a warm welcome to allthose gathered on the dais as well

as in the audience to the filmfestival.

Inaugurating the event,Nagathihalli Chandrashekar,Chairman, KarnatakaChalanachitra Academy said,“When Sreedhara Murthy,director, Madhyama Bharathi,told me that Bharatiya VidyaBhavan would hold a festival onGandhi’s films, the KarnatakaChalanachitra Academy was veryhappy. We have read aboutGandhi in our childhood, we readhis book called My Experimentswith Truth. Knowing him, yetlooking at him again, he is even

Shri Nagathihalli Chandrasekhar, inaugurates the stamp exhibition onMahatma Gandhi from left Ms. Sridevi, Stamp Collector, Dr. Wooday

P. Krishna, Shri Chiranjiv Singh, Shri H.N. Suresh andDr. B. V. A. Rao, President of the Indian Montessori Centre.

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more meaningful in these moderntimes. Any film on Gandhi isnever a cliché. I have seenAttenborough’s Gandhi so manytimes, and learn something newevery time.”

He added that he was doinga film on Gandhi, but when helooked up the photographs onGandhi, he found very few ofthem. Most of them were badpictures. When he checked if hecouldn’t get good photographs,he was told they were available,but in London. “This shows howpoor our archival systems in Indiaare,” he remarked.

There was a reason why hefelt that he should make a film onGandhi. This was particularlybecause the reading habits ofpeople have decreased. Hence,a visual media product like a filmwas a must.

He also pointed out anirony about Gandhi: RichardAttenborough made Gandhifamous throughout the world,though Gandhi himself did notadmire films.

Dr. Wooday P. Krishna,Chairman, Gandhi SmarakaNidhi, congratulated BharatiyaVidya Bhavan and KarnatakaChalanachitra Academy oncollaborating on the film fest,saying, “We need a Gandhi verymuch today, especially in thesetimes when the world of war hasbeen created into a symbol ofnationalism, when there is noroom for criticism. Gandhiji saideven verbal violence was bad.”

Further, he said thatGandhiji’s philosophy could besummed up in two words – satyaand ahimsa. Ahimsa, according

Dr. Wooday P. Krishna, addressing the gathering. Seated from leftShri. H.N. Suresh, Shri Chiranjiv Singh, Shri Nagathihalli Chandrasekhar,

Shri. H.B. Dinesh, Shri. N.S. Sridharamurthy

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to Gandhi, was love (preethi).Satya, according to Gandhi,was courage (dhairya).

“There was no Gandhibefore Gandhi. The world needsGandhi today. Each of us can bea Gandhi -we must work withAhimsa. It is unfortunate that

we have not taken his wordsseriously. For a saner society,we need Gandhi today.”

Speaking of the connectionof Gandhiji to BharatiyaVidyaBhavan, Wooday P. Krishnaspoke of how KM Munshiwas influenced by Gandhi.

Gandhi my father - Direction : Feroze Abbas Khan

Gandhi - Direction : Richard Attenborough

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H B Dinesh, Registrar,Karnataka ChalanachitraAcademy, said that he hadwatched the film Gandhi manytimes. On behalf of theChalanachitra Academy, he saidthat they would support eventssuch as the film festival andwelcomed associations to takeup such events.”

Chiranjiv Singh in hisaddress said that Gandhiji was agreat writer, however the presentgeneration was not ready toread his books since the attention

span and reading habits ofpeople in general had decreased.“Therefore, making a film is abetter idea to make the currentgeneration learn to know aboutGandhi,” he believed. The filmGandhi won 8 Oscars, andbecame famous across the world.Hence it was befitting that thisfilm festival would start with thisfilm.

“My parents wanted me towatch the film, Gandhi. I thenthought that if I had children,I would want them to watch

Kurmavatara -

Direction :Girish

Kasaravalli

20th Century

Prophet -

Direction :A.K.

Chettiar

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Gandhi.That would be thebest summing up of the film,”.

He further mentionedT.G. Tendulkar’s 10-hour film onGandhi made with footage onGandhi. “Maybe the film can beshown in three parts,” he said.

As part of the film festival,collector Sridevi, who held anexhibition of stamps that hadbeen released in honour ofGandhi, was felicitated.

N.S. Sreedhara Murthy,Director, Madhyama Bharathi,BharatiyaVidyaBhavan, spokeon the films that would be shownat the festival. “When we thoughtof holding a festival on Gandhi’sfilms, we were told thatNagathihalli and Dinesh ofKarnataka ChalanachitraAcademy were also planningsuch an event. They held the

Bangalore International FilmFestival and showed 4 films onGandhi. We thought why not holdthe film festival on MahatmaGandhi-150 as a collaborationbetween BharatiyaVidya Bhavanand Karnataka ChalanachitraAcademy?”

Thus was born the filmfestival Mahatma Gandhi-150showcasing 7 films with the themeof Gandhi, held on the 9th, 10th,11th April 2019.

The films shown were:

1. Gandhi (English film);released in 1982; directed byRichard Attenborough

2. Gandhi my Father(Hindi),Year: 2007; directed byFeroze Abbas Khan

3. Kurmavatara (Kannada);Year 2011; directed by GirishKasaravalli

Makingof

Mahatma -Direction:

ShyamBenegal

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4. 20th Century Prophet(English); Year 1953; directed byA.K. Chettiar

5. Making of Mahatma(Hindi); Year 1996; directed byShyamBenegal

6. Gandhi Devi (Kannada);Year 2018; directed byNaganathaMadhavarao Joshi

7. Gandhinagara (Kannada)Year 1967; directed by K.S.L.Swamy

• “Gandhi”, directed byAttenborough, is a film that woneight Oscars, making peopleacross the world learn of Gandhiand marvel at his weapon of non-violence. Starring Ben Kingsleyas Gandhi, this is a landmark filmthat starts with Gandhi’s travailsas a brown-skinned Indian at thereceiving end of racism in SouthAfrica, and later takes the viewerto India, chronicling Gandhi’s

humongous role as Bapu, theFather of the Nation.

• “Gandhi my Father” givesthe viewer glimpses into the otherside of Gandhi, a far cry from theMahatma as the father of thenation to the father to his sons,especially in connection with histroubled relationship with his sonHarilal, and the conflicts betweenthem.

• “Kurmavatara,” by GirishKasaravalli, debates Gandhi intoday’s times. The story revolvesaround Anand Rao, an elderlygovernment employee who playsthe role of Gandhiji in a TV serialand how that changes his life.

• “20th Century Prophet”comes highly recommended bySreedhara Murthy as a very rarefilm based on actual footage onGandhi as also Jinnah, SardarPatel, Subhash Chandra Bose,

Gandhi Devi -Direction:Naganatha

MadhavaraoJoshi

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Sarojini Naidu, Khan AbdulGaffar Khan, Ambedkar, Nehruand others, and in that sense, istruly a rare treat. The film wasdirected by AK Chettiar in1934.It was also submitted as asupporting document forrecommending the Nobel Prizefor Gandhiji, using footage from128 photographers, and releasedin 1943 - however, the Britishbanned it and it was lost.But it was recovered in 2006 inSan Francisco, with another copyfound later at the University ofPennsylvania. The San FranciscoStudy Circle re-edited it, addingfootage to it from the IndianIndependence, Gandhiji’sassassination, and his final journeyand released it. Then the Indiangovernment recognised it as aauthenticated film, making it

technically very strong workingwith the Pune Film Institute ofArchives.

• “Making of the Mahatma”by Shyam Benegal was acollaboration with the SouthAfrican government.

• “Gandhi Devi” is basedon a real event that occurred inSiddapura which was recordedby historian Dr. SuryanathKamath, which was written as ascript by Umesh Kulkarni, andwhich was made into a film byNaganatha Madhavarao Joshi.The film makes one wonder asto how many more stories of theimpact of Gandhi on far-flungareas of India could have existed.

• “Gandhinagara” is aKannada film based on Gandhi’sprinciples. •

Gandhinagara Direction: K.S.L. Swamy

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SWADESHI INDOLOGY CONFERENCE - 5“KARNATAKA SASTRIYA SANGITA:ITS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE”

The fifth Swadeshi Indology

Conference titled “KarnatakaSastriya Sangita: Its Past, Presentand Future” was organised byInfinity Foundation India incollaboration with Bharatiya VidyaBhavan, Bengaluru, and IndiraGandhi National Centre for Arts -Regional Centre, Bengaluru. Itwas held at Khincha Auditorium,BharatiyaVidya Bhavan, onSaturday, March 30, 2019.

Nâgasvara recital waspresented by Vidushi Prabhavatiand Vidvan Palanivel. Theconference was inauguratedwith lighting of the lamp by

Paramapujya Sri Sri YadugiriYatiraja Jiyar Swamiji,Padma Bhushan awardeeDr. R. Nagaswamy, ShriMohandas Pai and Dr.SumathiKrishnan.

Mohandas Pai, Chairman ofManipal Global Education, spokeabout cultural appropriation andthe multiple dimensions of attackson our civilisation. Dr.SumathiKrishnan, Secretary of theMadras Music Academy, offereda balanced view on tradition inthe context of our music. Swâmijithrew light on the onslaughts onSanâtana Dharma and on

Dr. Sumathi Krishnan, Secretary, Music Academy, Chennai, welcoming the Guestsand Dignataries. from left : Shri. Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global

Education Services Sri Sri Yathiraja Jeeyar Swamiji, Sri. Yadugiri Yathiraja Muttwho inaugurated the Conference. and Padma Bhushan Awardee

Dr. R. Nagaswamy, Historian.

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Karnatic music, in the past fewdecades.

Shri Rajiv Malhotra deliveredthe key note address through avideo recording, talking about theBhakti performing arts of ourculture being systematicallydestroyed and hijacked byalien-colonial forces and ourscholars/artists themselves.Dr. R Nagaswamy (renownedhistorian, archaeologist andepigraphist) traced the origins ofKarnataka Sangita.

The academic sessions hada total of 8 paper presentationswhich covered the variousaspects of the classical musicalform. The first session chaired byDr. T S Sathyavathi, musician andmusicologist included Dr.KoradaSubrahmanyam’s paper on thephilosophy underlying Shri

Tyagaraja’s kritis, and rebuttalsto allegations of casteism andoppression;Vidushi GayathriGirish’s paper on the music ofMuttusvami Dîkshitar – awindow to his world, andVidushi Vrinda Achary’s paperon the nontranslatables of(South) Indian music.

Shri N S Krishnamurthy,Former Director of AIR andreputed scholar, chaired thesecond academic session whichincluded a paper by Dr. RadhaBhaskar, musician, musicologistand organiser of repute, onExperimentation in KarnaticMusic - How far is too far; anda presentation by Shri AravindBrahmakal of Ranjani Fine Arts,on Role of Patronage in Karnaticmusic – Past, Present andFuture.

A view of Panal Discussion - from L to R - Melakaveri Balaji, Dr. T.S. Sathyavathi,Dr. Radha Bhaskar, Shri. Lalitharam and Shri. N.S. Krishnamurthy

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This was followed by apanel discussion moderated byDr. Radha Bhaskar, withpanellists Dr. T S Sathyavathi,Shri N S Krishnamurthy,Vidwan Melkaveri Balaji andShri Lalitharam on the topic,“Recent trends in Karnatic Music- Is there anything wrong? If yes,what needs to be done?

The third and finalacademic session was chairedby Prof. K S Kannan, theAcademic Director ofSwadeshi Indology. The paperpresentations included a paperby Shri Jataayu, blogger onHindu culture and Tamilliterature, on the Christian

attempts to appropriateKarnataka Sangîta: A historicalPerspective; a paper byDr. V B Arathi on “Is Carnaticmusic a Bastion of BrahminicalPatriarchy?; and a paper byDr. V Ramanathan of IITBHU:“A critique of ‘A Southern Music– The Karnatic Story’.

The valedictory was offeredby Shri V Nagaraj, Secretary ofthe Mythic Society (which ispartnering with IFI to bring outthe conference proceedings)and Dr.Deepti Navaratna,Director of IGNCA - RegionalCentre, Bengaluru, followedby the Vote of thanks byProf. Kannan. •

Dr. Deepti Navaratna, Director, IGNCA Regional Centrebeing honoured by Smt. Meera Kannan.

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A ONE-DAY SYMPOSIUM –ON MUSIC THERAPY

Inaugurating the symposium by lighting the lamp from L to R Dr. Meenakshi Ravi,Shri Shastri, Dr.V. Parameshwara Shri. H.N. Suresh and Dr. Geetha K. Bhat

BharatiyaVidya Bhavan,

Bengaluru, in collaboration withHamsakutira Foundation (ShriLakshmi Narayana Trust) andMeera Centre for Music Therapyand Research (Manollasini Trust)presented a one-day symposiumon “Different Perspectives ofIndian Music Therapy on thebasis of Systematic Study andResearch” on Sunday, April 7,2019.

The chief guests wereShri H.N. Suresh, Director,Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan andDr.V. Parameshvara, Consulting

Physician and Cardiologist andVice Chairman, BVB

The event began with aninvocation by Ms. AnusooyaVasudevan followed by thelighting of the lamp by the guestsand a welcome address byDr. Meenakshi Ravi.

Shri H N Suresh welcomedone and all to the symposium.Speaking about music,Dr. Parameshvara said, “Music isa universal phenomenon spanningall cultures and is the most socialof the arts. Music has a profoundeffect on the body and psyche.

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Historically, the healing power ofmusic dates back to the writingsof Plato and Aristotle, and theearliest reference is found inColumbia magazine in 1789.However, till the 19th century,music therapy was confined toanecdotes, but since 1940,music therapy became anaccepted modality of treatment.Music was widely used forveteran sepoys of World Warsat rehabilitation centres.”

Further, “Research hasfound that Raga Neelambari isuseful in curing sleep disorders,Raga Kapi for inducing a divinemood (sleep) and Raga Mohanafor curing tension (stress)headache,” he said, adding,“I am all for music and musictherapy.”

Dr. Deepti Navaratna,Neuroscientist, Director of IndiraGandhi National Centre for theArts (IGNCA), Bangaloredelivered the key note addresson “Indian music as Therapy;issues, promises and challenges.”

The first session hadDr. Meenakshi Ravi speakon the topic: TherapeuticElements in Carnatic music andits application, followed by the

second session by Dr. GeethaR. Bhat on: The use of musicas an adjunctive therapy in thetreatment of neurological andbehavioral disorders andchildren with special needs.Dr. Suguna Varadarajan spokeon Music Therapy for wellnessduring the third session.

The fourth session hadMs. Anusooya Vasudevanspeaking on “Benefits of earlyintervention music to childrenwith special needs” (a Case studypresentation). For the fifth session,Smt. Ruma Chakravarty threwlight on the topic: Significance ofIndian Music intervention forprofessionals in balancing theirinner and outer core. VidwanN.G. Ravi spoke on “Why rhythmis important in the well-being ofhuman self,” which was followedby performances by divinely-abled students (Meera Centre forMusic Therapy and Research)and performances by divinely-abled students (HamsakutiraFoundation). Following thevote of thanks by Dr. GeethaR. Bhat, there was a TherapeuticConcert Ras Anubhav (byDr. Meenakshi Ravi, Dr. GeethaR. Bhat and team). •

Fri 6.30 p.m. - Khincha Hall03. Bharatanatya duet recital:Ms. Zuairiyah Mouli andMs. Anjana Ramesh Sarma

Wed 6.00 p.m. - KRG Hall08. Shri G.V. Bhave andSmt. Lakshimi G. Bhave endowment -Carnnatic music concert by Smt.Lavanya Krishnamurthy and party

Fri 6.30 p.m. - Khincha Hall10. Bharatanatya Recital :Ms. Ranjana N.

Sat 6.30 p.m. - Khincha Hall11. Horizon series -

Kathak recital :Smt. Amartyya Chatterjee Ghosh(in association with Indian Councilfor Cultural Relations)

Fri 6.30 p.m. - Khincha Hall17. Kathak Recital :Ms. Ashitha Rajesh Kumar

PROGRAMME :MAY - 2019Fri 6.30 p.m. - KRG Hall24. Bharatanatya Recital :Ms. Sonia Lobo

Sat 6.00 p.m.25. BVB -Infosys FoundationCultural outreach programme :Devotional music

Vocal : Vid Ashwini Satish and Vid Shilpa ShashidarViolin : Vid Jyosna ManjunathMridanga : Vid Vinod Shyam AnoorKhanjira : Vid Sunad AnoorTabla : Vid L.S. SudattaVenue : Vasantha Vallabha Kalyani,Konanakunte, Vasanthapura,Bengaluru.

Fri 6.30 p.m. - Khincha Hall31. Bharatanatya Recital :Smt. Priyadarshini Vasudev

We are happy to announce that under Kalabharathi Admissionfor Kathak classes are open.The renowned Kathak artiste Mrs. Mijink Rani Brahma andSmt. Dhara Mavani at BVB South Centre, Bhavan-BangalorePress School, Chamarajpet, will train students.

Those who are interested may please enrol their names at BVBoffice between 10.30 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. during working days.

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