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Limitless Luminosity of Lines at Bengal Shilpalaya
Safiuddin Ahmed's 86th birthday on June 23
Robab Rosan
The former students, disciples and well-wishers of the artist are preparing to celebrate the 86th birthday of the last living artist of Charukala (Fine Art Institute) establishment Safiuddin Ahmed. On this occasion, the Bengal Shilpalaya is prepared to arrange the first ever solo exhibition of the artist in Bangladesh.
The exhibition titled 'The Limitless Luminosity of Lines' will be inaugurated on June 23, on the day of the artist's 86th birthday at the gallery of Bengal Shilpalaya in city's Dhanmondi area. After nearly five decades, the artist known as reclusive and introvert has agreed to arrange his solo exhibition, which will be his first ever solo show in Bangladesh.
Safiuddin Ahmed is the pioneer printmaker of the Bangladeshi art world. He is also one of the eminent printmakers of modern printmaking in South Asia. Winning of his Academy President's Gold Medal in 1945, the first prize of his 'Happy Home' in the international contemporary art exhibition in 1946 and the first prize for 'Santal Maiden' (black and white, etching and drawing) in the inter Asian Art Exhibition, organised by the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society in New Delhi in 1847 prove that Safiuddin's works received critical recognition in the whole Asian region, especially in undivided India.
Born in 1922 in Kolkata, Safiuddin was admitted to Calcutta Government Art School in 1936. After graduating from the school in 1942, Safiuddin took another graduation on teaching from the Department of Teachers' Training and joined the school as a teacher in 1946. The artist also took a diploma with distinction in etching and engraving from the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London in 1958. During his stay in the United Kingdom, the artist's maiden solo exhibition was held at New Vision Centre Art Gallery in London in 1959.
The artist left his brilliant career in the undivided India and headed to the new state Pakistan just after the partition, along with his fellow Bengali Muslim artists, including Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin and Patua Quamrul Hassan from Kolkata, with the dream of establishing a new art school in Dhaka, the then capital of the eastern wing of the country. As one of the founder members he worked, albeit more passively than his famous contemporaries, in invigorating the art movement of this region. He worked a long time as the head of the printmaking department and was involved with this institution till 2004.
Though he was contemporary of eminent artists of Bangladesh art world, Shilpachariya Zainul Abedin and Patua Quamrul Hassan, he attracted the art connoisseurs with his distinctive style in presenting the rural and people of working class.
While talking about Safiuddin's difference from his contemporary masters, art critic Syed Azizul Haque says, 'We can compare the works of Zainul, Quamrul and Safiuddin in the field of oil painting and drawing. All of their drawings are very strong. They worked on the life of rural people and have used rural motifs in their own styles. Zainul in his sketches of Bengal Famine proved the power of lines when Quamrul mingled the features of Cubism with folk motifs. Unlike them, Safiuddin's drawings were not limited in lines. He has brought out the charms of hues mixing different colours.'
According to art critic Mahmud Al Zaman in his book on Safiuddin Ahmed, 'At a certain phase of their careers, the works of both Zainul Abedin and Quamrul Hassan were dominated by romantic, soft and sensuous female bodies. Quamrul has painted more women than Zainul but in their works, women are a living presence like green paddy fields. Safiuddin, a product of the same art school as Zainul and Quamrul, however considered this preoccupation with the female body self-limiting and simplistic.'
Safiuddin made some coloured engravings in memory of the martyrs of the country's war of independence in 1971. All these engravings have eyes as their central objects and symbols. The dominant feelings of these prints are helplessness and fear of death. Abdul Matin Sarkar, an art historian and critic beliefs, 'The eyes in 'In Memory of 1971' have both formal and symbolic functions. Through different compositions and expressions of the eyes, Safiuddin has depicted the whole history of our liberation war.'
Mahmud Al Zaman thinks that the eye became a central symbol for Safiuddin after the Language Movement. The eye has variously represented protest, anger, passion, and a plea for rich and meaningful existence. Prominent among these works are 'Before the coming storm' (aquatint, 1958), 'Pulling the boat' (copper engraving, 1968), 'Angry Fish' (copper engraving, 1964), 'In memory of 21st' (copper engraving), 'Weeping' (copper engraving) and others.
According to the artist's friends and fans, Safiuddin has little comments on the works of his contemporaries and even the artists of this generation. He visits the galleries of the city quite regularly despite his old age. Though the artist has worked in different media of fine arts, he is considered as the pioneer artist of modern printmaking in Bangladesh. He has continuously experimented with his own artworks and took art his lifeblood. Though the number of his works is not many, he is solely an artist.
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Discourse of a revolutionary
Samsur Rahman
I run on and on
Running in full speed, I know not where to go.
To fix up a destination needs some deliberation
And I have no such scope in this topsy-turvy road.
The only thing I know
I have to flee, despite my feet
Are bled by prickles, I must have to run
Away fast from the cruel grip of the impetuous.
I know I am not lonely
So many of us hither and thither, as myself
Have taken up the task of lightning the dark
Still a few entrapped by tyrant's spiky net
Are on the verge of death.
Many of us as myself self exiled
In the bushes and dense of wilderness
Continue to live on wild fruits and leaves.
With long hair grown uncared on head
The unshaven face wearing long beard
My appearance assumes a peculiar form.
To ignite the light of liberty, this is the life I lead.
Translated by MA Taher
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Ketan Mehta plans film on Laxmibai
Agencies . Mumbai
Filmmaker Ketan Mehta, whose upcoming film Rang Rasiya is based on legendary painter Raja Ravi Varma's life, says his next project would be on Rani Laxmibai, followed by another on last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.
Mehta has earlier made a number of movies on historical personalities like Sardar, a biopic of freedom fighter Sardar Vallabh bhai Patel, and Mangal Pandey, which had Aamir Khan in the title role.
'Actually Mangal Pandey was a three-part series. It was designed as a trilogy. It starts with Mangal Pandey followed by Rani Laxmibai, ending with Bahadur Shah Zafar,' Mehta told IANS.
So when is he starting the other two projects?
'Once Rang Rasiya is released, I will start with the Rani Laxmibai project and once I am through with it I will start the next one because I can do only one project at a time,' he said.
And who will play Rani Laxmibai, the queen of Jhansi who fought bravely against British rule?
'Nothing is finalised yet ... talks are on with Aishwarya Rai. A lot of international cast will also be seen in the film,' Mehta revealed.
'It will be a big project with international finance and co-producers. The script is ready and shooting will start as soon as other formalities are over,' he added.
The film on Ravi Varma, set for a July release, is a bilingual, Rang Rasiya in Hindi and Colours of Passion in English.
The movie was showcased at the recently held Cannes Film Festival, where Mehta was also honoured as an Officer of The Order of Arts and Literature - a recognition by the French government to people who have contributed to the enrichment of art and literature. The award will be presented in August. 'The film got an overwhelming response at Cannes. As a result, it has been invited to various film festivals across the globe,' Mehta said.
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Hindus upset over Hollywood film
BBC Online
Hindus in the US have started a protest against a Hollywood comedy, saying the film will hurt the religious sentiments of millions of Hindus worldwide.
More than 5,000 people have signed an online petition protesting against the film Love Guru, starring actor Mike Myers and due to be released on Friday.
Some Hindu groups are considering a boycott of Paramount Pictures which produced the film.
Paramount says the film does not make reference to any particular religion.
The company says Love Guru portrays a purely fictional faith.
In the film, Myers plays the main character, Guru Pitka - who is raised by gurus in an ashram in India and then moves to the US to seek fame as a self-help coach resolving the marital problems of a Canadian hockey player.
The film includes a character played by the British Iranian comedian Omid Djalili called Guru Satchabigknoba and a hockey player called Coach Cherkov.
The argument that it's slapstick and farce rather than real religion doesn't wash with Hindu activists in the US.
They say that in the West so little is known about Hinduism that even a parody like Love Guru could be misinterpreted by teenagers and give them a skewed view of the religion.
'They should draw a line when it comes to people's faith,' says Bhavna Shinde of the Sanatan Society in the US.
She is upset that the main character wears sacred Hindu saffron robes and carries holy prayer beads.
Mike Myers himself has described the religion he lampoons as a 'mythical creation - it's like the Force in Star Wars'.
And Paramount Pictures have quoted the spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra rebutting criticism of the film based on only the two-and-a-half-minute trailer.
'The premature outcry against the movie is itself religious propaganda,' said Mr Chopra.
But Bhavna Shinde is not convinced - indeed she says it's ironic the film company quotes a man who doesn't even consider himself to be a Hindu.
'We all know when you show a person with a sari and a mark on their forehead that will be associated with Hinduism.'
She argues that terms used in the film like 'guru', 'karma' and 'ashram' are 'signature Hindu concepts' clearly pointing to Hinduism.
'Which other religion are they talking about?' she asks.
So far it's only the trailer that's caused concern - two Hindu groups in the US have complained that they were promised an early screening before the film is released but were never shown it.
In the UK, Paramount Pictures says it will arrange a pre-screening for Hindus before the film opens in August.
Hindu activists in the US have appealed to the rating body to change the classification for the film - which warns some material may be inappropriate for children under 13 years of age - to make it impossible for anyone under 17 to see it.
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