Cultural activities in Lahore regained momentum after Ashura. Several organizations dedicated to the promotion of different art forms, sponsored a number of events, including a couple of exhibitions, an arts show, the Spanish film festival, a music concert and a festival of plays sponsored by Ajoka Theatre.
****************An exhibition titled Cities, Countries and Borders by Zarina; the New York-based Indian artist, was held at the Rohtas Art Gallery in Model Town, Lahore on March 4. Pegged to such themes and issues as displacement, homes, war and geography, the exhibition of prints, the artist seemed to be fully conscious of events that occur in different countries in South Asia. It is Zarina's first ever show in Lahore although the Aligarh-born artist has been a frequent visitor to Pakistan, where in Karachi, a number of her relatives currently live. In her opening remarks, the director of the Rohtas Gallery praised the Aligarh-born artist Zarina as a printmaker of exquisite sensitivity and international repute, whose prints depict "the intensity of feeling carefully sifted and distilled to its deepest essence, making each image both poetic and profound"
****************Fuji Film, a Japanese firm, in cooperation with Pakistan Association of Printing and Graphic Arts industry held a three-day exhibition titled "Printpak 2004" from March 5. Held for the first time in the provincial metropolis, the exhibition provided a good opportunity to local businessmen to display such products as printing and pre-press machinery, paper and board products, calendars, diaries and greeting cards. Over 50 stalls were set up for this purpose. The sponsoring Japanese company also exhibited its technology, including graphic films, image setters, scanners, professional digital cameras and newspaper products.
****************A five-day Spanish film festival began at the National College of Arts on March 5. Sponsored jointly by National College of Arts, the honorary Consul of Spain in Lahore and the Embassy of Spain in Islamabad, the festival screened five movies, one on each day. Internationally known Spanish film critic and President of Spanish Association of Film Critics, Don Oscar Peyrou also conducted a workshop on all five days of the Spanish film festival. Both at the screening of Spanish films and the workshop on Spanish cinema were well attended by the leading lights of Pakistan Film industry, prominent artistes associated with mini-screen in the country and a large number of NCA students and staff attended both the events.
****************The nonagenarian actress of Indian theatre Zohra Saigal, whose equally talented younger sister Uzra Butt lives in Lahore, performed in a series of plays sponsored by the Ajnoka Theatre at the Lahore Arts Council. Over a dozen plays, including six produced by Ajoka Theatre are scheduled to be staged in the seven-day festival (March 5-12) providing an opportunity to the artistes of both the countries to interact and benefit from the experiences of each other.
Named the Ajoka's Zanani Festival, it provided an opportunity to sisters Zohra and Uzra to meet each other after their separation four decades ago. At a Press Conference, which she addressed after her arrival in Lahore, Zohra Segal talked about her long association with Indian theatre, which spanned some 70 years. She expressed her extreme happiness to meet and perform with her younger sister in plays to be staged in Lahore
****************Five Indian theatre groups also arrived in Lahore on March 7 to perform in the seven-day festival, which was time with the observance of the International Women Day on March 8. Theatre groups from other cities, especially the one headed by choreographer Sheema Kirmani from Karachi participated in the festival. By far, the Ajoka theatre festival was the highlight of cultural events of the week.
****************The annual World Wildlife Nature Carnival was held at Ali Auditorium in Lahore on March 7. Aimed at motivating school children to participate in conservation process, the Nature Carnival attracted entries from 26 local schools, whose students competed in categories as diverse as the Snow Leopard, Wildlife in Pakistan, Life in a Desert, Deforestation and the Karachi Oil spill, created by the grounding of a large oil-carrying tanker.
Arranged every year in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, the Carnival provides to school children an opportunity to participate in a mix of educational and sports activities.
****************The trans-continental melodic pollination has resulted in grooming a number of musicians in our classical music and instruments in Europe and the United States. Over the years, we have seen a number of European and American players of Pakistani musical instruments performing at private soirees and at formal concerts at the auditoriums of arts council in Lahore. The instruments they used for the _expression of their creative melodic ideas included tabla, santoor and sitar.
****************On March 5, Dr. Brian Q. Silver, Director of Urdu Service at Radio Voice of America in Washington DC, gave a demonstration of his skill at playing sitar, the most delicate instrument from the family of Pakistani string instruments. He performed at a soiree hosted by Mr. Raza Kazim, an affluent connoisseur of the city at his spacious residence. The usual motley crowd of music lovers from the elite of the city beside a few professional musicians heard Brian playing sitar after a long hiatus.
The American musician took lessons in sitar music from Ustad Ghulam Husain Khan of Indore, when he was a student in India on a Fulbright Scholarship Programme about four decades ago. When I watched him playing sitar several years ago in Lahore, he was following the classical traditions of our music as a matter of conviction. During a brief pre-concert chat, he informed me that he had changed his style and would play in the Persian style.
There was a visible change in his style of sitar playing from the old tradition of our classical music. He iterated that the change was in line with "the original" Persian style of sitar playing. A friend, who acted my eyes and ears at the soiree, told me later that the impact of his new style - the Persian style of sitar playing, failed to impress his knowledgeable listeners at the soiree. When I played back the recording of his music in a CD at my residence later in the night Brian's music of the new kind, I could easily fathom the import of the observations made by one of the most well informed votary of classical music.