Mallika Sarabhai Speaks

Soorya Festival

Mallika — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:00:32 +0000

The Soorya Festival of Kerala Arts is on at Natarani amidst the winter winds. For many of us practitioners of art with an anthropological bend, it is fascinating to watch three different Tullal forms and compare them with Nangiar Koothu and Chakiar Koothu. For the non Malayalam speaking general public however the nearly static styles are a mystery. Are there no young bilingual practitioners who can keep the authenticity of the style but change the language to open the art up to a wider audience? Darpana started doing this is the 60s when Mrinalini started taking songs in local languages and setting Bharata Natyam and Kathakali to them. And the results are evidenced in the thousands of Gujarati girls learning the style.

Tagorenama

Mallika — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 06:54:08 +0000

Liz Lea, our choreographer from Australia is sprawled on the dance
floor. No she isn’t choreographing. SHe is surrounded by yards of cloth
which she is hand sewing for a costume! In the cafe, Sandeep Pillai, our
music director for two of the three shows for Tagorenama, is sitting
with headphones and computer, head bobbing up and down and all around.
He is periodically joined by director Symon Macintyre for the score for
Street of Voices. At other times Syumon is seen with Pandarinathan
talking heads – literally, for they seem to creating puppet heads for
the show.

In the meantime, Jayan and the musicians are holed up in the music room
from where an entirely different sound scape escapes. this one is for
the play we are directing in Valsad for Atul VIdyalaya’s 20th
anniversary. An epic with fifteen songs.

Yes the winter is in full swing at Datrpana with creations and
presentations. If you are going to be anywhere around, note dates down
in your diary, and show up. Great fun is promised to all.

Updates

Mallika — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 05:46:56 +0000

It has been many weeks since I updated this note and I apologize for that. Things became very hectic. We completed the KSWDC project and I ended up having spoken to and interacted with close to 35000 young women in Kerala. This has lead to an understanding of a need to put a long term mechanism of counseling and help in place and this is being done by the Chief Minister of Kerala through a programme called Nirbhaya of which I am a part.

We have created a new short performance Essences for Malyalam Manorama’s new entertainment channel and have just toured five cities with it. It has been a fun experience as we needed to create an interactive show on the five senses.
Tagorenama preparations are in full swing with all three foreign collaborators in Darpana. Symon Macintyre, the Director of Street of Voices will start work on Monday.

If you are in Ahmedabad, block your end December dates, and if in Kolkata then the 6th and 7th of January for the Tagorenama.

Monday musing

Mallika — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 06:11:37 +0000

Here I am once again in Kerala, in Kannur and Kozhikode, for the last stretch of the Unnarthapattu college intervention. I will work with students from 22 colleges over the next 8 days and will be joined by Darpana performers for a performance in Kochi’s JCPac on sunday. I look forward to that as we dance too infrequently in Kerala.

Films on Amma

Mallika — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 06:47:16 +0000

The shoot of all Mrinalini Sarabhai’s critical work, for the two films being made on her, is in full swing at the studio at Gujarat Vidyapeeth. We have already shot Chandalika, Tasher Desh, Manushya, Aspirations and The Dance of Life. Simultaneously, within the black box set we have created, we are interviewing Amma, Sasi Nair, Sunil Kothari about the choreography. We are hoping to wrap this up by the 10th of September.

South Korea

Mallika — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 05:34:07 +0000

Here we are in South Korea in the southern town of Geochang participating in the Geochang International Festival of Theater. Our journey here was somewhat fraught. The night before we left we saw images of a landslide and floods in Seoul, with cars and trucks floating on the streets! Once we arrived we found out that one of our bags, filled with property and costumes for three of the items on our show, had been lost. Having drived five and a half hours from Seoul, the entire day was spent in trying to trace it, with the kind Bhoomin from the Indian Embassy doing her best. Today, three days later there is still no trace of it. Worse, Jet Airways seems to have left one of our bags in the rain at Mumbai airport and all our beautiful new Chau masks are destroyed. We have spent the day trying to dry them out with hairdryers and repainting them. Unfortunately Drone, like Surpanaka, has lost his nose and surgery is being attempted by Manikandan, the most adept artist of the lot.

The festival takes place around a dammed river flowing out of the mountains, where hundreds of families are camping, tents, babies, dogs and boats in tow. Theaters are built around this and the festival, now in its 23rd year, lasts a month. Our first performance went well last night, but the organization of the festival leaves everything to be desired. The lighting team of 8, sit around drinking beer and smoking while Vasant ended up hanging every single light. Then they could not find a ladder to focus the light. Every query is met by a NO, not possible. Intransigence seems the mantra.

Another show on the 1st of August and then off to flooded Seoul.

‘The Song Of Awakening’ and more

Mallika — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 09:30:27 +0000

So, it is launched, Unnartapattu, The Song Of Awakening, our short film for Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation and I have recently returned from having presented it to women in five colleges in Thiruvananthapuram , Chianganacherry and Kotayam. The response has been overwhelming and Yadavan Chandran’s film making has received many accolades. I have 35 more colleges to go to, accompnaied by Dr Jansy Jose from Anveshi and Ligin from the Corporation.

We are well into work mode again and classes too are in full swing. The monsoon has been kind in its timings and most classes are dry enough to not be disrupted.

Our eco quiz Srishti is in its final rounds, and gaining viewership steadily.

Our tryst with the world and work of Tagore continues with more readings, improvisations and most recently a viewing of Satyajit ray’s documentary on his life. Our collaborators for the project are now finalized – Symon Macintyre from Edinburg, a long time friend; Liz Lea from Australia, once a student here, and Sandeep Pillai, composer and an ex NID student who too has earlier worked with us. We are also about to announce the short fiction film competition, Citylights 2011, inviting entries based on Tagore’s short stories. We look forward to finding and creating exciting new work.

Mallika Sarabhai

‘Meza’ Summer Program

Mallika — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:02:53 +0000

Today Darpana for Development welcomed a group of fifteen students and two coordinators from the United World College/ Mahindra College summer program. The ‘Meza’ summer program brings together students from around the world interested in learning about how to “make a difference” and how that can be achieve through diverse medium such as art. Hailing from nine different countries spread out over five continents, today’s group spent the day with the Darpana for Development department head, Jignesh Patel. The group first watched films concerning DFD’s various projects, such as Shakti, the Peer Educators Project, Majama Chho? and the Anandshala Project. Then, Jignesh led the group in a discussion about the actual process of creating and implementing each of these projects. The afternoon consisted of a theater workshop, which included different theater exercises and improvisation. The participants were asked to create a short performance of their own around a specific issue of their choice -as they had seen in the films earlier- and present their plays with a plan to go along with their project. In this way, the students were able to reflect on how to engage in such a process and further their understanding on the ways to bring about change.

Films for KSWDC

Mallika — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 10:48:05 +0000

We are in the thick of shooting a series of short films on issues concerning adolescent girls, for the Kerala State Women’s Development Commission. Directed by Yadavan Chandran and involving the Darpana Communications and Natarani teams, the films talk of four major issues facing the young in India today – gender prejudice, blackmailing through sms or the internet; exam pressure and false expectations of married life which leads to the break up of marriages or depression. Once completed I will visit 40 colleges inKerala starting off discussions on the need for young women to talk of their problems and not to bottle them up. young suiceds are on the rise in the State, as are cases of severe depression. Colleges are being encouraged to set up counseling centres that can be there for students.

Meanwhile Darpana has started filling up with new admissions and returning staff and we look forward to another hectic year.

Birthday Month

Mallika — Wed, 25 May 2011 04:57:52 +0000

This is birthday month at Darpana. Amma, myself, Jayraj, Jayan, Sasi, Pappan, Anahita, Gaurav and Vanitha! That’s a lot for one month. And specially so for Sasi Nair whose 60th birthday celebrations unfold in Kottakal with an announcement of a scholarship set up for a young artist by his son Keerthik, and a Koodiyattam performance. Sasi has just finished a successful six week workshop in the UK and I attach photos. We all wish Sasi a wonderful next innings working, teaching and creating.

Our work on the film on adolescents for the Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation will be shot in the coming few days, directd by Yadavan Chandran. And the Jharkhand project came to a very successful end yesterday. More on that once the team returns.