Sunday, October 16, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
One Act Plays
A One Act Play, or more commonly "one act", is a short play that takes place in one act or scene, as opposed to plays that take place over a number of scenes in one or more acts. They tend to be simpler and have fewer props, scenery and cast members (sometimes only one). Such plays are often showcased in a series. Unlike other plays which usually are published one play per book, one acts are usually published in anthologies or collections.
For more details click here
One Act Play on Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Jagjit Singh: R.I.P - Tribute To The Legendry
From singing at small mehfils to Padma Bhushan, the magical journey of the 'Ghazal King'
New Delhi: ‘Chitthi na koi sandes, jane who kaunsa des jahan tum chale gaye’…has been one of the greatest ghazals of the legend Jagjit Singh that moved people to tears. And the sad demise of the ghazal king Jagjit has once again made the world to remember these lines by him.
A singer, composer and music director, was the man who took ghazals to the common genre. The pain and melancholy in his voice gave vent to the feelings of many a lonely heart.
He has sung in several languages including Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Nepali.
Recipient of Padma Bhushan award, Jagjit infused a new life in the dying genre of music in the seventies and carved a niche for himself in Bollywood.
The man behind churning out the finest ghazals, Jagjit was also known for modern approach and infusion of technology in the traditional art of ghazal singing. He was widely credited for the revival and popularity of Ghazal. Prior to Singh, Indian ghazal singers were considered relatively lesser authentic than their counterparts from Pakistan.
With a career spanning over five decades, his music became popular in mass media through films such as Prem Geet (1981), Arth and Saath Saath (1982), and TV serials Mirza Ghalib (1988) and Kahkashan (1991). His silky voice ruled during recent Bollywood flicks like Dushman, Sarfarosh, Tum Bin and Tarkeeb.
Life in Bombay was hard and Jagjit eked out a living doing small musical gatherings and house concerts. He sang at several film parties hoping to get a break in the movies.
Jagjit Singh broke this myth by coming up with songs such as 'Kaagaz ki kashti', 'Chaak jigar ke', 'Kal chadhanvi ki raat thi', and 'Shaam se aankh me name si hai'. Jagjit Singh was first offered to sing in a Gujarati Film. ‘Dharati Na Chhoru’ produced by Mr. Suresh Amin,
He gained acclaim together with his wife, another renowned Indian Ghazal singer Chitra Singh, in the 1970s and 1980s, as the first ever successful duo act (husband-wife) in the history of recorded Indian music.
Jagjit Singh is the first Indian composer, and together with his wife Chitra Singh the first recording artist in the history of Indian music to use digital multi-track recording for their (India's first digitally recorded) album, Beyond Time (1987). He is regarded as one of India's most influential artistes.
He was awarded India's third highest civilian honour, the Padma Bhushan, in 2003.
He is the only composer and singer to have composed and recorded songs written by Prime Minister - Atal Behari Vajpayee, also a critically acclaimed poet - in two albums, Nayi Disha (1999) and Samvedna (2002).
On May 10, 2007, in a milestone joint session held in the historic Central Hall of India's Parliament (Sansad Bhawan), Jagjit Singh rendered the last Moghul Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar's famous ghazal "Lagta nahin hai dil mera" to commemorate the 150th anniversary of India's First War of Independence (1857).
Often called the 'Ghazal King' by his fans and peers, Jagjit was born on February 8, 1941 in Sriganganagar, Rajasthan, to Amar Singh Dhiman, a government employee, and Bachan Kaur. He had four sisters and two brothers and was called Jeet by his family.
He was raised as a Sikh by religion. His birth name was Jagmohan but his Sikh father rechristened him as Jagjit following the advice of his guru.
It was his father, who first recognised his son's talent. He sent young Jagjit to learn the nuances of music under a blind teacher, Pandit Chhaganlal Sharma. He later trained under Ustad Jamal Khan of Sainia gharana for six-years and gained knowledge in Khayal, Thumri and Dhrupad forms.
A few of his famous ghazals
There are many successful ghazals composed by Jagjit Singh. Some of them are listed below:-
• Yeh daulat bhi le lo, yeh shohrat bhi le lo
• Hoshwalo ko khabar
• Honthon se chhoo lo tum
• Bahut khoobsurat hai
• Kiska Chehera
• Kal chodvi ki raat thi
• Baat niklegi to
• Tera chehera hai aaeene jaisa
• Chitthi na koi sandesh
• Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho
• Koi fariyaad
• Kahin duur jab din
• Jhuki jhuki si nazar
• Tumko dekha to yeh khayal
• Jab saamne tum
• Tere aane ki jab khabar mehke
• Woh kaaghaz ki kashti
• Badi Najuk he ye manzil mohabbat ka safar he
• Der lagi aane mein tumko
• Patta-patta boota-boota haal hamaara jaane hai
• Tere baare mein jab socha nahin thaa
• Tere aane ki jab khabar mehke
• Tamanna fir machal jaaye agar tum milne aa jaao
• Ab main ration ki kataron mein nazar aata hoon
• Tujhse milne ki saza denge tere shehar ke log
• Din aa gaye shabaab ke aanchal sambhaaliye
(With inputs from Wikipedia, PTI)
Saturday, October 08, 2011
Friday, October 07, 2011
Struggle for women’s rights wins Peace Nobel
Struggle for women’s rights wins Peace Nobel
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| The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (left), Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee (right top) and Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman for their work on women's rights. Photos: AP |
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer wins Nobel literature prize
Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer wins Nobel literature prize
The 2011 Nobel Prize in literature was awarded Thursday to Tomas Transtromer, a Swedish poet whose surrealistic works about the mysteries of the human mind won him acclaim as one of the most important Scandinavian writers since World War II.s
The Swedish Academy said it recognized the 80-year-old poet "because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality.''
Transtromer has been a perennial favourite for the 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award, and in recent years Swedish journalists have waited outside his apartment in Stockholm on the day the literature prize was announced.
Transtromer's most famous works include the 1966 ''Windows and Stones," in which he depicts themes from his many travels and ''Baltics" from 1974.
His works have been translated into more than 50 languages and influenced poets around the globe, particularly in North America.
Monday, October 03, 2011
Sunday, October 02, 2011
Saturday, October 01, 2011
2nd Oct is Gandhi Jayanti in India
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Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Reading a Film and Writing a Film review
The film critic Christian Metz has written "A film is difficult to explain because it is easy to understand." We are used to sitting back in the dark and viewing a film uncritically; indeed, most Hollywood films are constructed to render “invisible” the carefully constructed nature of the medium. Further, because a film is constructed of visual, aural, and linguistic components that are manipulated in numerous ways, it is a challenge to take apart the totality of the film experience and to interpret how that experience was assembled.
Title/opening credits--Titles are chosen carefully--consider alternatives and why this title was chosen; consider ambiguities in the title .The opening credits establish a tone, and often are used to foreshadow events, themes, or metaphors--pay careful attention from the beginning.
Story/Plot/Narrative--The story consists of all of the information conveyed by the film (either directly or by inference) assembled in chronological order to communicate the overall sense of what occurred in the film. The plot is contructed as the basic building blocks of the story,conveying specific events. The narrative or narration is the process by which story information is conveyed to the
audience through all of the cinematic means listed below. While dialogue provides a good deal of information, pay attention to all the other audio and visual clues that convey information about the narrative.. In considering the narrative structure, note whether the film follows a standard chronological narrative or not and how time is used. What are the key moments and how are they established? What are the climaxes and anticlimaxes? How far ahead is the audience in understanding what is happening to the characters than the characters themselves are? What propels the story forward? What is the pace of the narrative? How do earlier parts of the narrative
set up later parts? Where are the key emotive moments when the audience is frieghtened, enraged,enraptured, feeling vindicated, etc., and how has the narrative helped to establish these feelings?
Motivation--Motivation is the justification given in the film for the presence of an element; it may appeal to the viewer's knowledge of the real world, to genre conventions, to narrative causality, or to a stylistic pattern within the film. Failure to provide proper motivation challenges the sense of "cinematic realism" in a film. (If a character's personal motivation is explained in a film as a reason for his/her action, that falls under "narrative causality." Do not confuse character motivation as revealed through narrative with your own expectations you bring to the film. Characters are not real people, and do not make choices outside of what is conveyed narratively.
Characterization--Who are the central characters? How are minor characters used? Are characters thinly or fully drawn, and why? Who in the audience is meant to relate to which characters, and what sort of emotion (fear, pleasure, anxiety) are audience members meant to feel because of this identification? Is there a clear or ambivalent hero or villain? What values do the characters represent, and do they change during the film? Are the characters meant to play a particular “type” and do they play against type at any time?
Point of view--Is the film in general told from a particular character's point of view, or is it “objective”? Is the film's perspective primarily intellectual or emotional, visionary or “realistic”? Within the film, is a particular shot viewed from a character's point of view ("subjective shot"), and how does the camera technically reinforce the point of view? Who is the audience meant to be focusing on at a particular moment?
Guide Steps for Writing Your Film Review
Contextual Analysis of the Film
Collect information on the movie plot, characterization, director, theme and locations used. Gather information about the story writing, production techniques and background information on the main theme.
Watch the Movie Twice
Before you start off with the review crafting process, you need to watch the assigned movie once or twice. While doing so, you need to make the best use of your sense of observation. Note down all minor and major details roughly on a piece of paper so that if your memory deludes you while gathering thoughts on writing, you can always refer to these keynotes (brilliant idea!).
Analyze the Movie Plot and Main Characters
Next off, spend a few hours analyzing the whole movie from beginning to the end. Sop deeply into the plot of the movie. Do not let your coloured opinions prevail here. Analysis should be done from the perspective of its category (comedy, action, romantic, historical), direction, acting, dialogues, script and quality.
Draft an Outline for Your Film Essay
Now that the pre-writing stage is realized, the real job begins—writing the film review paper. Start by giving a brief introduction of the movie. Apply the basic writing rule here; begin your write up with a catchy phrase or line. I personally recommend that you fire up with a dialogue or phrase taken from the movie which encloses its theme—this is likely to grab attention of your readers.
Get Help from Add-ons and Previous Reviews
You can make your review interesting by making use of analogies and metaphors, comparing plot of the movie to any other movie of similar category, giving dramatic explanations of best scenes or by throwing light on dimensions that add uniqueness to the movie.
Here’s a trap—mostly students read reviews written by critics on the same movie just to get an overall idea of how review writing is done; what they fail to realize is that without conscious volition, they adopt their ideas which are reflected in their paper. Consequently, the review produced is not up to the mark and affect grades.
Paragraph 1: Offer your overall impression of the film while mentioning the movie's title, director, and key actors.
Paragraph 2: Summarize the plot of the film
Paragraph 3: How did the actors portray key character roles? Did they fulfill your expectations given your knowledge of the original novel or play (if one exists)?
Paragraph 4: Were any particular film techniques used in key scenes? How did the film techniques anmd music enhance the setting and themes of the film? You may need two paragraphs to explain this information.
Paragraph 5: Address how well the film represents the novel or play. Offer evidence for your opinion. Remember to mention use of symbols and literary devices. Do they "transfer" from the novel/play into the movie well?
Paragraph 6: Ending paragraph--your last opportunity to guide the reader. Offer a clincher that tells the reader to attend the film or not.
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