Triveni Journal

1927 | 11,233,916 words

Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....

Art Notes

R. K. M.

SHANTINIKETAN AND ADYAR

Shantiniketan will signify to most people a live centre of beauty, culture, and creative effort. Even for those who have not been fortunate enough to visit the abode of Rabindranath Tagore, the picture rises before the mind of a beauty-spot of Nature, filled with enthusiasts devoted to art.

Similar is the atmosphere that permeates Adyar today where Shrimati Rukmini Devi is gathering round her those who value art above everything else. The International Academy of the Arts, of which she is President, seeks to emphasise the essential unity of all true art and to work for the recognition of the Arts as inherent in effective individual, national, religious and international growth.

Every morning and evening, in the small cottage beautifully erected among mango trees with soft red flooring and a roof of thatched leaves, young girls are seen receiving instruction in South Indian Classical Dancing (Bharata-natya) and Music. The Academy is not only concerned with the promotion of art, but is trying also in various ways to create an artistic sense among the people. The spirit in which this difficult work will be attempted by the Academy is reflected in Shrimati Rukmini Devi’s words:

"Religion is emotion, mind, and body turned inwards to become one with the Divine; art is the Divine coming down and becoming one with the body, emotion, and mind. Religion is Divinity expressed inwardly; art is Divinity expressed outwardly. Religion and Art cannot be separated, and when one is creating a, piece of art, one should be inspired by the same lofty idealism as when one goes into a temple or church to worship."

In other words, art is not merely to entertain people for the time being, but to diffuse among them culture and refinement. Hence the Academy is working religiously and with devotion, even as Rabindranath Tagore has been working for so many years at Shantiniketan.

ART AND APPRECIATION

Very often it is thought that because an individual does not happen to be an artist, in the sense that he is unable to create, he may be excused for not appreciating beautiful works of art. On the other hand, the capacity for appreciation of art has to be developed as much as any other quality, and the more experience and understanding a person has of true art, the better the taste he creates in himself. The art of a particular age is bound up with the spirit of 'appreciation that pervades it. Not only does a decadence of art reflect a general lack of appreciation but when the appreciation is wrongly directed towards spurious and crude varieties of art, it is clear indication of a weakening of the moral vitality of the people. Art and Life cannot be separated, and where the one is specious the other is bound to be weak, futile, and lacking in beauty.

Hence it is of vital importance that artists should be true to their ideals, and scrupulously refrain from caricaturing and vulgarising their art for mercenary or other ignoble satisfactions. Art must cease to be looked upon as a casual pleasure but regarded as something vital, something of eternal value which stirs its votaries to the depths. That which Dr. Cousins said recently, speaking of The International Academy of the Arts, may well be taken to apply to every true artist:

"There is the great work of so adjusting education and life that an ever-increasing number of individuals will have the opportunity, through participation in art-creation, of being able to testify, even in face of a derisive and sceptical world, that true beauty is itself truth, and that truth truly lived cannot help being truly beautiful and truly good."

FILM PRODUCTION

Although there are various standards prevalent in the different parts of India in the field of film production, one may safely assert that in this art as a whole, our country lags very lamentably behind most other countries. An enthusiastic film-goer is apt to despair of India ever attaining the standards of Hollywood, Germany, and Russia, if he happens to see an Indian picture soon after an outstanding production from the West. But the despair can be only momentary to one who has the eye to see the advantages which the Indian producer has over others in the matter of story-material and in a certain indefinable Indian spirit which shines in the ordinary lives even of the masses of the people. A scene on the banks of the Ganges, despite the overlying filth and squalor, or in a South Indian temple on an evening when puja is performed, has a unique and ineffable charm which can be portrayed with much profit to any picture. In fact, if the Indian producer had the genius to discover the essential splendours of Indian civilisation and depict them as they disclose themselves in the common life of the people at the present time, he could produce a film which would compare favourably with any other in the world. But the fatal path is trodden of seeking to imitate Western pictures even in their details, thus giving most unpatriotic currency to an entirely false picture of Indian life. This is the unhappy phase through which the Indian film is passing today, an artificial imitation of Western pictures which is more ugly and unreal than the artificiality of the puranic pictures with which the market is flooded. Puranic or historical stories can be a success only in the hands of an experienced and clever artist, and when they are handled, as they have been, by those who are not so equipped, they are made ridiculous.

One of the most successful Indian film productions was the Bengalee Devdas. But unfortunately the producers of that picture have not learnt from its success but are now making films which are its very antithesis. Nowadays one sees more of motorcars, telephones and other modern appliances than of Life. The success of Devdas depended on the simple and moving story, against a ground depicting the charm of the daily life of Indians in villages. The touch of the town was added only for the sake of contrast. The scenes were genuine and there was very little of that crude artificiality which is hardly ever absent from the Indian film.

In Devdas we have had a touch of the real India in its simplicity, in all its charm. It is this coupled with the moderation in Music, and the dignity and restraint of the acting, that was the keynote of the unique success of the film. It is a tragedy to note that the makers of films have not profited from it but have subsequently produced such pictures as make us feel that perhaps Devdas was after all a sheer accident.

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