Category: Arts, Culture & Entertainment

** ‘Art for Hope’: 25 Indian artists felicitated with grant of Rs 1 lakh by HMIF

The HMIF is the philanthropic and CSR arm of Hyundai Motor India Ltd.

As many as 25 multidisciplinary Indian artists were felicitated with a Rs 1 lakh grant under the ‘Art for Hope’ initiative by the Hyundai Motor India Foundation (HMIF) recently.

The initiative, aimed towards supporting and encouraging traditional artisans, small art businesses and traditional art forms, is currently hosting a four-day exhibition at Bikaner House showcasing an unparalleled experience of India’s heritage from multidisciplinary art fields created by the same artists.

** The BAFTA validation for promising creators

Directors Ajitpal Singh and Prateek Vats get candid about being part of BAFTA Breakthrough India honourees for 2022

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has selected 10 promising talents in cinema, television and gaming for its Breakthrough India initiative for 2022.

In the second year of this initiative, the honourees were selected by a jury that included music composer A R Rahman, writer Apurva Asrani, actors Anupam Kher and Ratna Pathak Shah, director Shonali Bose and producers Guneet Monga and Siddharth Roy Kapur.

The selection intends to help the new cohort explore international opportunities for networking and professional development, with the support of BAFTA and Netflix.

** First ever GI-tagged Kashmir carpets flagged off to Germany

The QR code will certify genuineness of hand-knotted carpets with info on manufacturer, weaver, raw material

The Jammu and Kashmir government has finally started a Geographical Indication (GI) registry for the famed Kashmiri carpet with a quick response (QR) code with details of artisans and the material used. The first ever consignment of GI-tagged carpets were exported to Germany from New Delhi on Friday.

The Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC), in collaboration with the Jammu and Kashmir Directorate of Handicrafts and Handloom, held a seminar in New Delhi to raise awareness about the GI registration of authentic carpets from Kashmir.

** Documentary on hockey Olympian Grahnandan Singh explores a Partition-era friendship

Bani Singh’s documentary ‘Taangh/Longing’ explores the life of her hockey champion father and the camaraderie he shared with his teammates on both sides of the Radcliffe Line

A frail old man leans heavily on his cane as he makes his way to a garden chair under a spreading tamarind tree. Those gnarled hands once held a hockey stick, those stooped shoulders once wore the rank of Commander in the Indian Navy. Grahnandan Singh or Nandy Singh was an old boy of Government College, Lahore, champion hockey player from the Punjab province of undivided India, Partition survivor, two-time Olympian, and keeper of a friendship that survived in the deep recesses of his heart for nearly 60 years.

“My father was a member of the Indian hockey team that won the gold in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. But I missed out on knowing him when he was a champion. It was only when he was fighting to stay afloat after a stroke that I met the champion,” says Bani Singh, Nandy’s daughter and the director of Taangh that was recently screened at Periyar Thidal as part of the 10th Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival.

Punjab

** Now, a library of French books in Kochi

Collection includes translations of Tagore and Basheer

Want to read Rabindranath Tagore or Vaikom Muhammed Basheer in French?

It is possible now, thanks to an initiative by 43-year-old Dominic Shyju.

This resident of Vadathula has opened a one-cupboard library that contains a host of French books from his home.

Literature, non-fiction and dictionaries are available for “students, teachers and lovers of the French language,” says Dominic, who plans to add more books and shift the library to a more central venue in the city.

The books are from the private collection of Claire Mathey, a French fashion designer who lived in Kochi for nearly four years. When she left during the COVID-19 crisis, she gifted her books to Dominic, who had been a guide in the Fort Kochi area.

France / Kochi

** Danseuse Geeta Chandran receives Lifetime Achievement Award

The Alumni Association of the Indian Institute of Mass Communications (IIMC) presented its first Lifetime Achievement Award to renowned classical dancer and Padmashri awardee Geeta Chandran at its 10th annual meet connections on February 27, 2022.

Sanjay Dwivedi, Director General of IIMC, presented Geeta with the award.

This year marks the sixth year of the IIMCAA Awards, which are given to alumni working in journalism, public relations, advertising and corporate communications. The Lifetime Achievement Awards will also begin this year.

According to the IIMC Alumni Association, after receiving her Masters degree from IIMC in 1984, Geeta Chandran worked as a Course Coordinator at IIMC for a year before joining NAMEDIA Foundation, where she worked alongside renowned media luminaries Nikhil Chakravorty and N.L. Chawla, former IIMC Director. She then worked briefly in NTPC’s public relations department before committing full-time to Bharatanatyam, her passion since the age of five.

Indian classical dancer (Padmashri) Geeta Chandran uses her exceptional skill in Bharatanatyam as a force multiplier for the widest range of dance issues that have captured her attention: exploring linkages between body and mind; forging relationships between solo dancing, group dancing and choreography; actualizing the links between the artist and society; and using dance as a medium for expressing abstract notions of joy, beauty, and values, aspirations, myth and spirituality.

New Delhi

** Indian restaurant Saathiya in Kyiv becomes shelter home; owner wins applause

Gujarat’s Manish Dave, 52, has won hearts for opening his restaurant door to Kyiv residents facing an unprecedented crisis as Russia ups its offensive against Ukraine.

Indian restaurant Saathiya was started for Indian students studying in Ukraine, and now before it could make a full-fledged run, the war broke out and now it is a safehouse for anyone who wants a respite from the airstrike, shelling, and a hot meal.

Gujarat / Ukraine

** Ujjain sets Guinness record by lighting over 11.7 lakh oil lamps on Mahashivratri

Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh broke the record set in Ayodhya last year, officials said. Ujjain is home to Mahakaleshwar, one of the 12 jyotirlingas associated with Shiva.

“You have not only created a record by lighting 11,71,878 lamps, but also written the history of this holy occasion in golden letters,” Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said in a tweet accompanied by a picture while accepting the certificate from Guinness World Records officials.(ANI)