Dolly Thakore and The Week That Was: The One-Man Art Destination

Dolly Thakore and The Week That Was: The One-Man Art Destination

Dolly ThakoreUpdated: Friday, February 21, 2020, 01:12 PM IST
article-image
Representative Image |

My life in Bombay– not Mumbai yet – began at Samovar, Jehangir Art Gallery, and Gallery Chemould… and with that started my love for art, artists and auctions. Kekoo Gandhy was synonymous with all three. So it was a trip down decades of my life with the film Kekee Manzil – a tribute from daughter Behroz Gandhy to her father Kekoo – which documents the evolution of Indian art and artists nurtured by the father of Indian art, Kekoo Gandhy. When my art journey began, Kekoo Gandhy was the first stop every time I needed information when invited to auction paintings for various charities – like Elephanta Caves, Concern India, Rotary Clubs et al before Sotheby's and Christie's turned it into an investment venture.

My walls bear witness to my relationship with Kekoo and later, his daughter Shireen, who now heads Chemould Gallery at its new premises on Prescott Road.

The canvases of Ram Kumar and Vivan Sundaram tell a tale - of my personal relationship with Kekoo and Shireen, while the dignified creativity of the framed MF Husain and Anjolie Ela Menon are evidence of the superiority and grace of their framing beginnings.

Genius Shows

The next stop was Shanmukhananda Hall in Sion, for Anoushka Shankar’s first tour of India, promoting her album Love Letters. It evoked emotions of my weeks spent with her father Pandit Ravi Shankar when he was composing the music track for Sir Richard Attenborough’s magnum opus Gandhi. My introduction to Indian classical musicians, their instruments and their raags and taals began in that decade. Then years later, Vipula Kadri invited me to compere her Pride India foundation for Save the Children with a rare fundraiser recital by Pandit Ravi Shankar. And a 12- or 13-year-old Anoushka Shankar was introduced.

On February 13, Shanmukhananda was filled to the rafters with young people applauding and responding to the gentle words and music with which Anoushka introduced her sitar and vocalists. What a dignified welcome the audience gave to her group – vocalists Alev Lenz and Nicki Wells, Danny Keane on the cello and piano, Nina Harris double bass -- and the biggest applause was for the only Indian troupe member, Prasanna Thevarajah, on the mridangam, ghatam, morsing (Indian Jewish Harp) and kanjira.

Every song - Voice of the Moon, Bright Eyes, Lovable, Those Words, Boat to Nowhere, Sister Susannah, Land of Gold, In this Mouth, Space, Wallet, The End, Traces of You, Opening Flowering Drinking and Réunion - communicated the sensitivity of young Anoushka and her awareness of the emotional problems and political differences faced by people today. She won every heart. Her sitar hummed with pain and passion and we saw reflections of her inherited genius.

The Play's The Thing

I have lost count of the number of plays Mahesh Dattani has served us since his first one in 1988, Where There’s a Will. Then came Dance Like a Man in 1989, which travels all over the world even today. I cast the film directed by my friend Pamela Rooks who we lost in a freak car accident in 1995.

Then came Bravely Fought the Queen in 1991 and Final Solutions, directed by Alyque Padamsee in 1993…then I lost count. I was not going to give up

the opportunity to see Snapshots Of A Fervid Sunrise, which I had never heard of before but it had myco-actor Swati Das, whose talent I have come to respect hugely.

Everything was a stunning surprise – the venue, the staging, the entire production – but most of all, the content and the performance. I am overwhelmed with the research and knowledge of Mahesh Dattani.Snapshots was about Khudiram Bose and Thillaiyadi Valliamai.

Khudiram was born in 1889 in Bengal, and became a volunteer at the age of 15, demanding freedom from the British regime – distributing pamphlets, planting bombs near police stations and targeting government officials – and was arrested.

South Africa-born Valliamai had never been to India, but grew up in an environment that was hostile to India. She joined the second batch of Transvaal women who went to Natal in October 1913 to protest against the three-pound tax levied on the workers, and was sentenced to three months of hard labour in Maritzburg Prison, where she fell ill. But she refused the offer of release and died in 1914 at the age of 16.

Swati Das and Shubham Chaudhary interchange roles in subsequent performances. It is a production not to be missed.

It is interesting to observe the graph of Indian theatre and writing. After Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par, spotting the name Darsheel Safary, who had played the autistic child in the film, made me dash to the Royal Opera House to see the Out Of The Box production of Kaise Karenge. It is an unusual comedy about a young man with multidimensional personalities. But it was Abhishek Pattnaik who surprised, playing three different personalities.

RECENT STORIES

Mumbai News: MSRDC Announces Toll Hike On Bandra-Worli Sea Link From April 1; Check New Rates Here

Mumbai News: MSRDC Announces Toll Hike On Bandra-Worli Sea Link From April 1; Check New Rates Here

Attention Mumbaikars! Fares Of Shared Cabs To Pune, Nashik & Shirdi Hiked; Check Details Here

Attention Mumbaikars! Fares Of Shared Cabs To Pune, Nashik & Shirdi Hiked; Check Details Here

Mumbai: Sena UBT Lok Sabha Candidate Amol Kirtikar Receives 2nd ED Summon In Khichdi Scam Case;...

Mumbai: Sena UBT Lok Sabha Candidate Amol Kirtikar Receives 2nd ED Summon In Khichdi Scam Case;...

Mumbai: Drugs Sent In Foreign Post; 1 Arrested

Mumbai: Drugs Sent In Foreign Post; 1 Arrested

Mumbai: Western Railway Official Gets 3-Year Jail In Corruption Case

Mumbai: Western Railway Official Gets 3-Year Jail In Corruption Case