Reviews: Rakt Kalyan (Hindi play), "Little Does Matter" - a painting exhibition, Karnataka Restaurant.

India Habitat Centre on Lodhi Road is a convention centre with facilities for the simultaneous conduct of 20 odd meetings or conventions, and the marathon reading of newspapers the other day had lead to planning for various possible ways to kill time on a weekend.
I had initially set out that evening to watch the play "Me, Kash and Cruise", a play about three men and their years between 1984 and 2008 in Mumbai.
As my luck/fate would have it, the tickets for both Saturday and Sunday were sold out completely.
I am not sure if part of the reason for the sell out was the delay in my attempt at being calculative and thrifty.
I was waiting for the DTC buses for 15 minutes before I realised that even 50 bucks for an autorickshaw was not bad compared to what I would have spent in Bangalore. When one uses ones own transport, apart from the money one spends on petrol, one also has to shell out a lot of money for parking if one were to frequent malls. So, if I was in Bangalore, meeting up with old friends in a mall, I would have spent a lot of money on parking too, I thought and finally took an autorickshaw.
Lodhi Gardens and the monument ( I later found out that its called the Shish Gumbad) are probably for another day!
The India Habitat Centre near Lodhi Gardens, luckily that day also had an art exhibition and a Hindi play on. Luck, apparently is what people call this. Nothing really bad happens, unless one wants to feel victimised.
So, after a real long time, I guess I had a near ideal weekend, nearly as ideal as idle could be ;-)


Little Does Matter.

On going into the gallery, the first thing a visitor finds is the description of the idea behind "Little Does Matter". While I cannot recall all of it, and trying to type it into my cellphone would be nowhere close to covert, subtle or suppressed, I made a note of only this :

Sanjeev Verma, (http://www.sanjeevverma.com/) says:

For me, Art is a world in itself. A world in which an artist chooses to live with his creations; himself not ruling over it, but merely standing in the middle of this circle of a created beautiful life within the life, enjoying this potent gift that he inherits from the universe.


While I did make a note of the names of a select few of his works, I was badly missing Darshana (my camera), who, in keeping with the dual meanings of her name, would have helped both see and visualize at the same time ;-)

I do not really want to comment on any of Sanjeev Verma's works, especially since a novice is hardly ever a great critic. I did wonder about how much any or all of of the works on display would cost, and then, how they would appreciate in value over time. Investment in art is after all, an area that has recently been receiving attention from an investment perspective.

I must say, I could barely say what each of the paintings was trying to say at first glance; but on reading the title displayed alongside, I could reverse fit the theme onto the painting. I hope this a first step well taken, although appreciating and understanding art is a science in itself!

So...here are some of the names....Self descriptive only to an extent, because the painting cannot really be imagined only given the names...

Blue Streak, Little Does Matter (at the least, 7 variants on display), In between black and white, Beginning of the end, Dreamscape, Green patches, Regress in Progress, Even the mirage is vanishing.

I did like all of the Little Does Matter variants, but Dreamscape was easily my most favourite :-)


Finally, in defense of all artists, here is what I close this review with - An extract from one of Oscar Wilde's works -

We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he
does not admire it.  The only excuse for making a useless
thing is that one admires it intensely.
     All art is quite useless.

Rakt Kalyan - Asmita Group

The play is based on Dr. Girish Karnad's Tale Danda, and is set in the days of the Bhakti movement, largely lead by Basavanna in the southern geographies of India during the 12th century. The play has been translated to Hindi by Ramgopal Bajaj, and has been directed by one Mr. Arvind Gaur, who heads the Delhi based Asmita group.

Having paid only Rs. 50 for a ticket, I had found that the play was going to be staged at the amphitheatre, and to my continuing good luck of the evening, there were no mosquitoes to play spoil sport!

The play was absorbing, to say the least, and 2 hours went with less than 2 glances at the watch. The theme and backdrop were something I could associate with, but were really thought provoking, when portraying moral dilemmas, Basavanna's growing popularity and how he was uncomfortable being thought of as an incarnation of God, or being a Godman. The issues of religious faith and belief as against tradition and religious orthodoxy of the Brahmins driven laregely by self-interest, and the issues of inter-caste marriage - something that wouldn't be short of earthshaking in those days.

The acting, and portrayal in the case of a few actors was nothing short of brilliant, and Bajrag Bali Singh (Basavanna), Deepak Ochani (King Bijjala) and Viren Basoya (Jagdeva) easily stood out. The other characters were well enacted too, save for a few peripheral characters failing to recollect dialogues on a few occasions.

The sound and light were reasonably well co-ordinated, but I did think that the music could have been composed or compiled better.

On the whole, watching the play could easily be passed as an evening well spent, and even if it were a small way of promoting theatre, the entertainment and enlightenment angles to socially relevant theatre can never be ignored.

I hope to go back to more of Asmita's plays in the future.



Karnataka Restaurant

On not being able to find buses around 10 pm, time was running out and in about 10 minutes, my patience would give way and the autorickshaw would again come to the rescue of this "LoneWolf" in TheCapital.
Just when I was thinking of dinner, and how back in Bangalore, it would have been as easy as going to a Darshini and quickly downing either a Dosa or any thing North Indian and South Indian quickly and cheaply so what if a bit dirtily, I thought that one of the conveniences and "homely" feel Bangalore had for me was its food and eating out options.
Soon enough, at Yusuf Sarai near AIIMS, I saw this "Karnataka Restaurant" and almost jumped out of the auto ;-)

One of the hazards to running an affordable speciality cuisine restaurant in a city is I guess, having to cater to the local tastes as well. So, I think, when I excuse people around eating Rotis and Paneer curry in a Karnataka Restaurant!

The look and feel of the restaurant resembles that of a typical Karnataka restaurant one can find in some parts of Bangalore (untouched by the glitz and glam of malls) and tier-2 cities like Tumkur, Maddur, etc., Those wooden furniture with laminated plywood table tops are things that remind a Kannadiga of his homeland. The menu of course, is quite important!
The menu lists all that you can possibly imagine eating in a typical restaurant in Karnataka - except for the BisiBeleBath.

The Masala Dosa is TheLoneWolf's all time favourite anyway; so the missing BisiBeleBath doesn't bother him too much. But, if you have been badly missing Karnataka, you might want to have the Karnataka Platter.
At Rs. 60, you can have an Idli, a Vada, with authentic Sambar and Chutney, and a serving each of Kesari Bath and Upittu/Upma. Finally, you have a choice of Dosa between the Masala Dosa and the Uttapam.

Easily, the most authentic and yet affordable Karnataka Restaurant I have ever seen or heard of in Delhi.

Jai Kannada! (So much that I was listening to Kannada songs while walking back!)