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Washington:
Incredible India in its myriad wondrous colours is all set to make
a splash in this American capital with "Maximum India", a mega
festival celebrating its cultural diversity.
The 20-day cultural extravaganza opening Tuesday at the
prestigious John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts here on
the Potomac river also promises to transport one to a street
market in bustling Mumbai, a silk shop in Chennai and an airy
palace in Rajasthan.
"Maximum India may not be on the same scale as the Festival of
India, but it is a major effort to display the creativity,
ferment, and dynamism that characterises Indian arts," India's
Ambassador Meera Shankar said unveiling the programme.
Being held in cooperation with the Indian Council for Cultural
Relations (ICCR) and Embassy of India, "Maximum India" will
feature "perhaps not a million, but many wonderful and unusual
aspects of the country's diverse arts and culture, from folkloric
to classical and contemporary," the centre says.
It will feature dance, music, and theatre performed by India's
most acclaimed artists as also film selections from the world's
most robust movie industry, featuring both indie and Bollywood
films.
The show stealer is expected to be "The Manganiyar Seduction," an
eye-popping spectacle created by Indian-born director Roysten
Abel, featuring 43 Manganiars, a Sufi clan of folk musicians.
Every musician - the dhol drummers, the singers, the men playing
the accordion-like harmonium - performs in a lighted, red-walled
cubical, part of a structure that is 36 feet wide and 21 feet
high.
When a note rings out, the lights on that musician's box come to
life, creating an effect that at once recalls "Hollywood Squares"
and the street-peddling of Amsterdam's red-light district.
Prize-winning authors reading, debating, conversing, and sharing
their insights; exhibitions that astonish and confront; incredible
and unimaginable crafts from exquisite collections; jewels that
dazzle from the princely era of the Mughals and Maharajas, will be
another feature.
And, to top it all, there will be feasts of Indian food for the
entire three-week period of the festival, prepared by 12
world-class, award-winning Indian chefs, representing all regions
of the country.
Promising to transform the Kennedy Centre's two eateries into
full-fledged Indian restaurants is Hemant Oberoi, the executive
chef of Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, who prepared a
seven-course feast for the Obamas in Mumbai on their November
visit.
While most of the performances are ticketed with prices ranging
from $10 to $100, there are many free events, including those on
the millennium stage, which will also be webcast live.
The Maximum India logo is a coming together of all the languages
that make India the diverse land that it is.
It combines the many scripts India has; it showcases its oneness
in its diversity. Fusing the scripts with a contemporary type
style, the logo is traditional yet contemporary; just like India.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
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