The Brexit Conundrum

Panelists: Ambassador Yashvardan Kumar Sinha, former High Commissioner to UK & Central Information Commissioner; 

Prof. Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, Centre for Economic Studies & Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and 

Dr. John Cherian, Foreign Editor, The Frontline

 

Chair: Ambassador K.P. Fabian, Professor, Indian Society of International Law

 

The 2016 referendum held in the United Kingdom approved Brexit. In March 2017, after much delay, the UK invoked article 50 of the European Union Treaty to give notice of its decision to leave the Union. The long-winded negociations between London and Brussels resulted in an agreement of withdrawal. Yet to be approved by the House of Commons. As of now, the date of exit and whether it will be with or without an agreed deal is uncertain. The panelists will deal with the unfolding drama and its implications for UK, Europe, India, and the rest of the world 

 

A Tribute to Mrinal Sen

A tribute to the celebrated director with a screening of two very popular feature films featuring Mamata Shankar

 

Akaler Sandhaney

Director: Mrinal Sen

 

Recipient of the National Film Awards 1979 for Best Film in Bengali & Best Director

 

The daughter of a middle-class family fails to return home one night. Her worried family organizes a search party and the situation quickly deteriorates into a deeper crisis made worse by the fact that she is the only bread winner in the family

 

 

At 18:00

Kharij (95 min; 1982; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Mrinal Sen

 

Recipient of the National Film Award 1982 for Second Best Direction

 

The film tells the story of a middle-class family who’s child servant is found dead, and their efforts to pacify his grieving father

 

(Collaboration: Impresario India) 

 

Arts from the Banks of the Brahmaputra

 

Sattriya Dances

Choreographed and presented by Guru Meenakshi Medhi and her ensemble from Guwahati

 

Followed by

Popular Melodies of Bhupen Hazarika, Hemant Kumar and Other Bollywood Legends

Vocal recital by Sagnik Sen from Kolkata

 

(Collaboration: Impresario India)

The Zohra Segal Festival of the Arts

 

Dances from Films C.I.D. and Nau Do Gyarah

Composed by Zohra Segal

 

At 18:45

Film Ladoo

 

At 19:00

Hindustani Classical Vocal

By Kalapini Komkali

Anne Frank: A History for Today

An exhibition of photographs that recount Anne Frank’s life, conditions in the hideout, the war and her eventual death in a Nazi concentration camp. As part of this exhibition, on a screen, photo montages and video interviews with Anne Frank’s late father, Otto Frank, relatives and historians will run in a loop

 

(Collaboration: The Anne Frank House, Amsterdam; PeaceWorks, an initiative of The Seagull Foundation for the Arts; and Embassy of The Netherlands)

 

MUSIC APPRECIATION PROMOTION

 

Ustad Alla Rakha – The story of a hundred years

Illustrated lecture by Rohen Bose, a promising young tabla player who’s research on the tabla and its language, particularly the Benaras Baaz is well-known and widely accepted

 

The presentation will trace Ustad Saab’s journey as a legendary artist with a special focus on his association with Kolkata in the 1950s and his compositions for films

 

ART MATTERS

Talk by Dr. Roma Madan Soni on Amrita Shergil’s “Two Girls”

 

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)

FILMS OF THE SPIRIT

Curated by Rajiv Mehrotra

 

Kummatty (The Bogeyman; Malayalam)

(90 min; 1979; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: G. Aravindan

 

Based on a Pied Piper like figure in Malabari folklore about a partly mythic and partly real magician called Kummatty. Kummatty travels from place to place and entertains children with dancing, singing and performing magic. At one such performance at a village, Kummatty starts to mingle with and weave a spell of carefree abandon around the children of the village. He turns a group of children into animals. But one boy, who was changed into a dog, is chased away and misses the moment Kummatty changed the children back to their human form. The dog-boy has to wait a year until Kummatty returns to the village to get back his human form

 

(Collaboration: Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness The Dalai Lama)