Arts, Culture & Entertainment – Page 8

Artist who designed ‘Gandhi’ posters no more

Artist P. Sharath Chandran had designed over 800 cigarette covers, but is better known for his only movie poster

Noted artist P. Sharath Chandran (79) passed away at his residence at Eranhipalam here on Friday morning. Though a designer of more than 800 cigarette packets sold across the world, he is best known for his poster design for Richard Attenborough’s epic movie ‘Gandhi’. Ironically it is the only movie poster he had ever designed.

Born in Kozhikode, Sharath Chandran moved to Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1964, after completing his art education at the Thalassery School of Arts. He was employed as a designer at ‘Golden Tobacco’ there for which he designed the cigarette covers. He got the offer to design the ‘Gandhi Poster’ through an advertising agency. The poster, which depicts a side profile of Gandhi and a boy crying over the body of his dead mother after the Jalianwalah Bagh massacre, was used across the country for the movie’s promotion and Sharath Chandran’s work was much appreciated.

However, the artist went back to design cigarette covers. After 18 years of service, he quit his job and launched ‘Orbit’, an advertising agency, along with his friends and later on, became a freelance designer.

Call it fate, but all the posters and promotional materials Sharath Chandran had designed for ‘Gandhi’, besides a few of his paintings, were destroyed due to a leakage in his roof years ago, leaving no keepsakes for the artist.

The artist returned to Kozhikode in 2016 and his first come-back exhibition held at Kerala Lalithakala Akademi Art gallery in the same year was notable for the realism and attention to details in his works that made them life-like. He was a master at close up portraits of people, especially old people, monks, with detailed wrinkles and bright eyes. He went on to conduct 9 more exhibitions later.

The funeral of the artist will be held at Mavoor Road Crematorium in the city at 4 p.m. on Friday.

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George Uglow Pope’s legacy at Sawyerpuram

A video on George Uglow Pope who lived at Sawyerpuram in Tamil Nadu for eight years, did missionary work and translated Tamil classics

Sawyerpuram was created on 150 acres purchased by Samuel Sawyer, a merchant of the Portuguese East India Company.

When missionary and Tamil scholar George Uglow Pope arrived here 180 years ago, the area was nothing but acres of sand dunes. Before his arrival, he had learnt Tamil literary works from Suryanarayana Sastry, Ariyangavu Pillai and Ramanuja Kavirayar in Madras.

It was Pope who created Sawyerpuram and another missionary, Robert Caldwell, in his writings referred to him as its founder. Pope decided to set up a seminary at Sawerpuram as there were only two of them in Tamil Nadu.

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Stalin hands over awards to Aaroor Das, I. Shanmuganathan

amil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin handed over the Kalaignar Kalaithurai Vithagar Award to veteran screenwriter Aaroor Das at his residence in T. Nagar and the Kalaignar Ezhuthukol Award to senior journalist I. Shanmuganathan at the Secretariat on Friday, the birth anniversary of late DMK leader M. Karunanidhi.

At another event, the Chief Minister handed over orders for allotment of houses in Tamil Nadu Housing Board tenements under the ‘Kanavu Illam’ scheme to six writers: N. Jagadeesan alias Erode Tamilanban; S. Jagannathan alias Kavignar Puviyarasu; E. Sundaramoorthy; P. Manickavasagam alias Poomani; K. Mohanarasu; and V. Annamalai alias Imayam.

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Chef Vikas Khanna first Indian to make Gazette Review’s global top 10

Indian celebrity chef Vikas Khanna was ranked sixth in Gazette Review’s rankings of the top 10 global chefs. The list is topped by Gordon Ramsay.

Michelin star celebrity chef Vikas Khanna has been ranked among the top 10 global chefs in the world by Gazette Review, becoming the only Indian chef who has made it to the prestigious list. Gazette Review ranked Mr. Khanna sixth, with British chef Gordon Ramsay leading the list.

The 50-year-old Amritsar-born and New York-based Khanna is known for taking Indian cuisine across the globe and on the world food map. He is the only Indian origin chef who has made it to the list along with great names in the industry.

Mr. Khanna, who also wears other caps including that of being a writer, filmmaker and philanthropist, took to social media on Tuesday and shared his joy on being listed.

In elite company

Others on the list include Anthony Bourdain, Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, Emeril Lagasse, Marco Pierre White, Heston Blumenthal, Wolfgang Puck and Jamie Oliver.

Mr. Khanna is one of the first Indian chefs to receive international acclaim. Since 2011, his main restaurant Junoon in New York City has received a Michelin star, a hallmark of fine dining.

Mr. Khanna has served food to the former U. S. president Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and many other world leaders and celebrities.

Mr. Khanna is known for creating the most expensive cookbook in the world. From 2011, Khanna hosted five seasons of Master Chef India, a series based on the original British version.

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** Filmmaker Gitanjali Rao to be honoured at Locarno Film Festival

Filmmaker Gitanjali Rao is set to be honoured with an award during the 75th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, the organisers announced on Tuesday.

The 50-year-old filmmaker will receive the Locarno Kids Award la Mobiliare, the award dedicated to personalities capable of conveying the love of cinema to younger viewers, during the film gala, which is held every year in Locarno, Switzerland.

Rao will be presented with the award during a ceremony on August 8 at Locarno’s Piazza Grande, followed by the screening of her animated short film “Printed Rainbow”, the organisers said in a statement posted on the festival’s official website.

** Massachusetts hosts America’s first-ever Dalit art exhibition

Boston, Massachusetts :

Massachusetts’s Somerville city hosted the first-ever art exhibition in the United States, exclusively featuring Dalit and Bahujan artists on April 30. Titled ‘Where Art Belongs’, over 40 artists’ work was displayed, including visual art, poetry, and music.

Organized by Adavi Myah, an art collective led by Dalit and Bahujan women, the exhibition will run for four weeks until May 30, 2022.

Adavi Myah was founded in 2018 and is an amalgamation of words from Telugu and Chhattisgarhi, translated as “Love of the Forest.” It was formed to reflect the oppressed caste community struggles and stories of resilience through art.

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** Pope names 21 new cardinals, from India, Mongolia, elsewhere

Pope Francis said Sunday he will elevate 21 churchmen to the rank of cardinal in a ceremony at the Vatican this summer.

Among the churchmen tapped by the pontiff to receive the prestigious red hat will be two prelates from India and one each from Mongolia, Ghana, Nigeria, Singapore, East Timor, Paraguay, and Brazil, in keeping with Francis’ determination to have church leaders reflect the global face of the Catholic church.

** Learn about India’s biodiversity from this card game created by Chennai students

A new game developed by Chennai students spreads awareness about different ecosystems, species and what we can do to help them

Can a game of cards increase environmental awareness? A group of educators and students seem to think so. Having worked for five months on a project by city-based Palluyir Trust, they now present The Wilderness game.

The game is essentially a pack of cards — think cricket or wrestling cards — but with sea creatures instead of The Undertaker, and a flood of real-world information thrown in. Environmentalist M Yuvan and Chennai students Nanditha Ramsatagopan, Charlotte Jeffries and Rohit Srinivasan, designed it for people above the age of 10. The gameplay format keeps in mind millennial and Gen-Z mindsets.

** From Jharkhand to Singapore, Chandradev Sharma’s fairytale journey . Restaurant Entrepreneur.

Chandradev shared his story with IANS. He said that because of his family’s poor financial condition, he started distributing newspapers at the age of 15-16. In those days the undeclared rule of the Maoists was prevailing in their village and the surrounding areas. He used to give news and information of the area to a newspaper office in Hazaribagh district headquarters. Due to this people also started recognising him as a reporter in the rural areas.

During the year and a half, the company’s director Mahadevan got very impressed with Chandradev’s dedication, hard work and honesty. In those days, the company decided to open a restaurant in Singapore. Mahadevan sent some people, including Chandradev to Singapore. There also, Chandradev started working as a waiter, but his salary increased to Rs 30,000. After a few months, seeing his efficiency, he was made the manager of the restaurant.

Impressed by his behaviour, a frequent customer of the restaurant offered Chandradev to open a new restaurant in partnership. By that time Chandradev had saved about Rs 3 lakh from his salary money. The estimated cost of opening the restaurant was Rs 50 lakh. The person offering the partnership said that even if he invests Rs 6 lakh, he will make him a partner in the restaurant. Chandradev raised the money by borrowing from friends and then opened the first restaurant — Tandoori Culture — in partnership in 2011.

Chandradev did not leave the job of Oriental Cuisine even after opening his restaurant. He worked there during the day and at his restaurant at night. Within a year, his restaurant got established and made a profit of about Rs 50 lakh.

In 2013, another restaurant with a capacity of 70 people with the same name was opened by him on a partnership basis. Chandradev said that as per the rules of Singapore, a person who is not a citizen there is only allowed to do business in partnership with a local citizen.

In the year 2020, on February 28 and 29, on two consecutive days, he opened two different restaurants, namely ‘Tandoori Zaika’ and ‘Salaam Mumbai’.

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** Geetanjali Shree’s ‘Tomb of Sand’ first Hindi novel to win International Booker Prize

Indian author Geetanjali Shree has won the prestigious International Booker Prize for her Hindi novel Ret Samadhi, translated into English as Tomb of Sand by Daisy Rockwell.

The Mainpuri-born, 65-year-old Ms. Shree follows in the footsteps of Indian-origin author Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai, Arundhati Roy and Arvind Adiga to win the award.

The book was chosen among 135 longlisted ones.

The Hindi original was published in 2018 while the English translation hit the stores in India in March this year. “This rather chunky text,” as Ms. Rockwell said at the award ceremony, “is the first time the translation of a Hindi language book had been nominated for the award”.

“Shortlisting from 135 books was daunting. Choosing a single one from them has been agonising,” as the compere said before the announcement.

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