India
India known as the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh largest country by area and with more than 1.3 billion people, it is the second most populous country as well as the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, while its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia; the Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE. In the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, Buddhism and Jainism arose. Early political consolidations took place under the Gupta empires. In the medieval era, Zoroastrianism and Islam arrived, Sikhism emerged, all adding to the region's diverse culture.
Much of the north fell to the Delhi Sultanate. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal Empire. In the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, in the mid-19th under British Crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance and led to India's independence in 1947. In 2017, the Indian economy was the world's sixth largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the fastest-growing major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption and inadequate public healthcare. A nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the second largest standing army in the world and ranks fifth in military expenditure among nations. India is a federal republic governed under a parliamentary system and consists of 29 states and 7 union territories.
A pluralistic and multi-ethnic society, it is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindush, equivalent to the Sanskrit word Sindhu, the historical local appellation for the Indus River; the ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as "The people of the Indus". The geographical term Bharat, recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations, it is a modernisation of the historical name Bharatavarsha, which traditionally referred to the Indian subcontinent and gained increasing currency from the mid-19th century as a native name for India. Hindustan is a Middle Persian name for India, it was introduced into India by the Mughals and used since then. Its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety; the name may refer to either the northern part of India or the entire country.
The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to about 30,000 years ago. Nearly contemporaneous human rock art sites have been found in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, including at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh. After 6500 BCE, evidence for domestication of food crops and animals, construction of permanent structures, storage of agricultural surplus, appeared in Mehrgarh and other sites in what is now Balochistan; these developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation, the first urban culture in South Asia, which flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in what is now Pakistan and western India. Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and Kalibangan, relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilization engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade. During the period 2000–500 BCE, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic cultures to the Iron Age ones; the Vedas, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism, were composed during this period, historians have analysed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain.
Most historians consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west. The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labeling their occupations impure, arose during this period. On the Deccan Plateau, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation. In South India, a progression to sedentary life is indicated by the large number of megalithic monuments dating from this period, as well as by nearby traces of agriculture, irrigation tanks, craft traditions. In the late Vedic period, around the 6th century BCE, the small states and chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the north-western regions had consolidated into 16 major oligarchies and monarchies that were known as the mahajanapadas; the emerging urbanisation gave rise to non-Vedic religious movements, two of which became independent religions. Jainism came into prominence during the life of Mahavira.
Buddhism, based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, attracted followers from all social classes excepting the middle
Bertolt Brecht
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner and poet. Living in Munich during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes with theatre plays, whose themes were influenced by his Marxist thought, he was the main proponent of the genre named epic theatre. During the Nazi period and World War II he lived in exile, first in Scandinavia and in the United States. Returning to East Berlin after the war, he established the theatre company Berliner Ensemble with his wife and long-time collaborator, actress Helene Weigel. Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht was born in February 1898 in Augsburg, the son of Berthold Friedrich Brecht and his wife Sophie, née Brezing. Brecht's mother was his father a Roman Catholic; the modest house where he was born is today preserved as a Brecht Museum. His father worked for a paper mill, becoming its managing director in 1914. Due to his mother's influence, Brecht knew the Bible, a familiarity that would have a lifelong effect on his writing.
From her, came the "dangerous image of the self-denying woman" that recurs in his drama. Brecht's home life was comfortably middle class, despite what his occasional attempt to claim peasant origins implied. At school in Augsburg he met Caspar Neher. Neher designed many of the sets for Brecht's dramas and helped to forge the distinctive visual iconography of their epic theatre; when Brecht was 16, the First World War broke out. Enthusiastic, Brecht soon changed his mind on seeing his classmates "swallowed by the army". Brecht was nearly expelled from school in 1915 for writing an essay in response to the line "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" from the Roman poet Horace, calling it Zweckpropaganda and arguing that only an empty-headed person could be persuaded to die for their country, his expulsion was only prevented through the intervention of his religion teacher. On his father's recommendation, Brecht sought a loophole by registering for a medical course at Munich University, where he enrolled in 1917.
There he studied drama with Arthur Kutscher, who inspired in the young Brecht an admiration for the iconoclastic dramatist and cabaret-star Frank Wedekind. From July 1916, Brecht's newspaper articles began appearing under the new name "Bert Brecht". Brecht was drafted into military service in the autumn of 1918, only to be posted back to Augsburg as a medical orderly in a military VD clinic. In July 1919, Brecht and Paula Banholzer had Frank. In 1920 Brecht's mother died; some time in either 1920 or 1921, Brecht took a small part in the political cabaret of the Munich comedian Karl Valentin. Brecht's diaries for the next few years record numerous visits to see Valentin perform. Brecht compared Valentin to Charlie Chaplin, for his "virtually complete rejection of mimicry and cheap psychology". Writing in his Messingkauf Dialogues years Brecht identified Valentin, along with Wedekind and Büchner, as his "chief influences" at that time: But the man he learnt most from was the clown Valentin, who performed in a beer-hall.
He did short sketches in which he played refractory employees, orchestral musicians or photographers, who hated their employers and made them look ridiculous. The employer was played by his partner, Liesl Karlstadt, a popular woman comedian who used to pad herself out and speak in a deep bass voice. Brecht's first full-length play, arose in response to an argument in one of Kutscher's drama seminars, initiating a trend that persisted throughout his career of creative activity, generated by a desire to counter another work. "Anyone can be creative," he quipped, "it's rewriting other people that's a challenge." Brecht completed his second major play, Drums in the Night, in February 1919. Between November 1921 and April 1922 Brecht made acquaintance with many influential people in the Berlin cultural scene. Amongst them was the playwright Arnolt Bronnen with whom he established a joint venture, the Arnolt Bronnen / Bertolt Brecht Company. Brecht changed the spelling of his first name to Bertolt to rhyme with Arnolt.
In 1922 while still living in Munich, Brecht came to the attention of an influential Berlin critic, Herbert Ihering: "At 24 the writer Bert Brecht has changed Germany's literary complexion overnight"—he enthused in his review of Brecht's first play to be produced, Drums in the Night—" has given our time a new tone, a new melody, a new vision. It is a language you can feel on your tongue, in your gums, your ear, your spinal column." In November it was announced that Brecht had been awarded the prestigious Kleist Prize for his first three plays. The citation for the award insisted that: language is vivid without being deliberately poetic, symbolical without being over literary. Brecht is a dramatist; that year he married the Viennese opera-singer Marianne Zoff. Their daughter—Hanne Hiob —was a successful German actress. In 1923, Brecht wrote a scenario for what was to become a short slapstick film
Pestonjee
Pestonjee is a 1988 Hindi drama film directed by Vijaya Mehta, starring Anupam Kher, Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi, based on a story by film journalist B. K. Karanjia. At the 35th National Film Awards, it won the award for Best Feature Film in Hindi; the film is an intimate look into the life and manners of the Parsi community those living in the city of Bombay in the 1950s and 60s. Piroj Shah and Pestonjee are close friends, they like to do everything together though they are different in temperament. Piroj Shah is quiet and indecisive, while Pestonjee is an extrovert. Phiroj is unable to make up his mind about marrying a girl, selected for him by a matchmaker, it is Pesi. Piroj does not begrudge Pesi his happiness, he decides not to marry, moves to another city. They keep in touch by mail. Piroj is delighted to hear that Jeroo are expecting a baby, he decides to travel to Bombay to visit them. During his visit, Piroj learns that the married life of Jeroo is not as he had imagined it. Piroj is horrified to discover.
Jeroo has had a miscarriage which Pesi informs him, when confronted by Piroj about his mistress, was an abortion due to Jeroo's fear of dying in childbirth as her mother had. He is saddened by, she is no longer the pretty girl she appears cantankerous and uncaring. Both she and Pesi are unhappy in their marriage. Piroj resolves not to meet them. All three carry on with their unhappy lives until Pesi's sudden death. Piroj discovers that he cannot help Jeroo. Soona, Pesi's mistress whom Piroj Shah had thought of as a loose woman, ends up paying for the funeral which Piroj Shah repays to her as he cannot abide the thought that in his death, Pesi's mistress has a hold on him. In the end, Piroj realizes that life was not what he imagined it would be and it is everybody's journey in life to find and determine what their own happiness is. Naseeruddin Shah - Phirojshah Pithawala Anupam Kher - Pestonjee Shabana Azmi - Jeroo Kiron Kher - Soona Mistry Direction — Vijaya Mehta Screenplay — B. K. Karanjia and Vijaya Mehta Music – Vanraj Bhatia Cinematography — Apurba Kishore Bir and Rajan Kothari Editing – Renu Saluja Art Direction — Roshan Kalapesi Critically, the film was well appreciated, both for its meticulous depiction of Parsi life and for the performances by all the lead actors.
Scholars Gokulsing and Dissanayake write: "... There is a strain of sentimentality in the film, but it is counterbalanced by the comic observations of the director and the humour generated by the dialogue as well as the acting."Academic and activist Ruth Vanita has a different take on the film. She sees it as an interesting attempt by a woman director to study the male psyche, she notes: "The film is about ways of seeing. Thus, though Feroze's is the central consciousness in the film, it is named for his dearest friend Pestonjee, known as Pesi; this titling after the one seen rather than the one seeing suggests how the imaginative life we live, which may be the life of another, can overshadow the life, our own." On Azmi's portrayal of Jeroo, she writes: "The portrait of Jeroo, as she develops from a naive, romantic but not intelligent girl into a cantankerous, hysterical wife is a brilliant study of a woman destroyed by the compulsions of an unsuitable marriage. The way her gift for piano playing, even her desire to play, are eroded by the stresses of domesticity and bondage to an uncaring husband, represents a drama enacted in the lives of many women."
National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi National Film Award for Best Costume Design - Ramilla Patel and Mani Rabadi BFJA Award for Best Indian Film BFJA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Anupam Kher Pestonjee on IMDb "Pestonjee, online". Cinemas of India, NFDC
National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress
The National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress is an honour presented annually at India's National Film Awards ceremony by the Directorate of Film Festivals, an organisation set up by the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Since 1984, the award is given by a national panel appointed annually by the DFF to an actress for the best performance in a supporting role within Indian cinema, it is presented by the President of India at a ceremony held in New Delhi. The winner is given a "Rajat Kamal" certificate and a cash prize of ₹50,000. Including ties and repeat winners, the DFF has presented a total of 33 Best Supporting Actress awards to 34 different actresses. Although Indian cinema produces films in more than 20 languages, the performances of films that have won awards are of ten languages: Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil and Urdu; the first recipient was Rohini Hattangadi, honoured at the 32nd National Film Awards for her performance in the Hindi film Party. As of 2017, two actresses— Surekha Sikri and K. P. A. C.
Lalitha— have been honoured twice. Sikri was awarded for the Hindi films Tamas and Mammo, while Lalitha won the awards for her work in the Malayalam films Amaram and Shantham. Egyptian actress Aida El-Kashef, honoured at the 61st National Film Awards for her performance in the English-Hindi film Ship of Theseus is the only non-Indian actress to win the award. Ties between two actresses have occurred in the years 1999, 2012 and 2013. Konkona Sen Sharma, Sharmila Tagore and Kangana Ranaut are the three actresses to receive honours in both acting categories: Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress; the most recent recipient is Divya Dutta, honoured at the 65th National Film Awards for her performance in the Hindi film Irada. List of Indian film actresses Official Page for Directorate of Film Festivals, India National Film Awards Archives
Kalyug (1981 film)
Kalyug is a 1981 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film, directed by Shyam Benegal. It is known as a modern-day version of the Indian epic Mahabharat, depicting an archetypal conflict between rival business houses. Kalyug went on to win the Filmfare Award for Best Film in 1982; the screenplay and plot are quite different from Mahabharat. However, the characterization and the critical events had a striking similarity with the epic. Shashi Kapoor, Raj Babbar, Supriya Pathak, Anant Nag, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Sushma Seth, Akash Khurana, Victor Bannerjee, Reema Lagoo, A. K. Hangal played major roles; this is a tale of intrigue and the inevitable war between two families. Ramchand and Bhishamchand were two pioneering brothers in business. Bhishamchand, a lifelong bachelor, brought up the two sons of Ramchand upon his demise, he gave the family business a firm foundation. Khubchand, the elder son of Ramchand begets two sons and Sandeepraj. Puranchand, Khubchand's younger brother, had died a few years ago.
His three sons are Dharamraj and Bharatraj. Another player in the game is an orphan brought up by Bhishamchand. A series of events brings the long-hidden feud between the two families to light. Despite Bhishamchand's efforts to mediate between the two, the situation gets out of hand and events take a tragic turn. Dhanraj's men accidentally kill the young son of Balraj and to take revenge, Bharatraj murders Karan. Quite a few skeletons from the family cupboard are brought into the open that only add to the tensions and hatred culminating in the destruction of the two families, showing the brittleness of our moral fabric. Anil Dharker, writing for International Film Guide, wrote a positive review, calling it "ambitious" and noting it as "the most complex of Benegal's films so far", "carefully paced" and "expertly put together". Dharker praised the cinematographic work and the acting: "Govind Nihalani, Benegal's regular cameraman, highlights each shifting mood with skillful lighting; the cast, most of it Benegal regulars, is excellent, with virtuoso performances from Victor Banerjee, Shashi Kapoor..."
Kalyug was entered into the 12th Moscow International Film Festival. Kalyug on IMDb
Vijay Tendulkar
Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar was a leading Indian playwright and television writer, literary essayist, political journalist, social commentator in Marāthi. He is best known for his plays Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe, Ghāshirām Kotwāl, Sakhārām Binder. Many of Tendulkar's plays derived inspiration from real-life incidents or social upheavals, which provides clear light on harsh realities, he has provided guidance to students studying "play writing" in US universities. For over five decades Tendulkar had been a influential dramatist and theatre personality in Mahārāshtra. Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar was born on 6 January 1928 in Girgaon, Maharashtra, where his father held a clerical job and ran a small publishing business; the literary environment at home prompted young Vijay to take up writing. He wrote his first story at age six, he grew up watching western plays and felt inspired to write plays himself. At age eleven, he wrote and acted in his first play. At age 14, he participated in the 1942 Indian freedom movement.
The latter alienated him from his family and friends. Writing became his outlet, though most of his early writings were of a personal nature, not intended for publication. During this period, he participated in the activities of Nabajiban Sanghatana, a splinter communist group, he said that he liked sense of discipline of the communists. Tendulkar began his career writing for newspapers, he had written a play, Āmcyāvar Koṇ Preṃ Karṇār, he wrote the play, Gṛhastha, in his early 20s. The latter did not receive much recognition from the audience, he vowed never to write again. Breaking the vow, in 1956 he wrote Śrīmant. Śrīmant jolted the conservative audience of the times with its radical storyline, wherein an unmarried young woman decides to keep her unborn child while her rich father tries to "buy" her a husband in an attempt to save his social prestige. Tendulkar's early struggle for survival and living for some time in tenements in Mumbai provided him first-hand experience about the life of urban lower middle class.
He thus brought new authenticity to their depiction in Marathi theatre. Tendulkar's writings changed the storyline of modern Marathi theatre in the 1950s and the 60s, with experimental presentations by theatre groups like Rangayan. Actors in these theatre groups like Shriram Lagoo, Mohan Agashe, Sulabha Deshpande brought new authenticity and power to Tendulkar's stories while introducing new sensibilities in Marathi theatre. Tendulkar wrote the play Gidhāḍe in 1961, but it was not produced until 1970; the play was explored the theme of violence. In his following creations, Tendulkar explored violence in its various forms: domestic, sexual and political. Thus, Gidhāḍe proved to be a turning point in Tendulkar's writings with regard to establishment of his own unique writing style. Based on a 1956 short story, Die Panne by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Tendulkar wrote the play, Śāntatā! Court Cālū Āhe, it was proved as one of his finest works. Satyadev Dubey presented it in movie form in 1971 with Tendulkar's collaboration as the screenplay writer.
In his 1972 play, Sakhārām Binder, Tendulkar dealt with the topic of domination of the male gender over the female. The main character, Sakhārām, is a man devoid of ethics and morality, professes not to believe in "outdated" social codes and conventional marriage, he accordingly uses the society for his own pleasure. He gives "shelter" to abandoned wives and uses them for his sexual gratification while remaining oblivious to the emotional and moral implications of his exploits, he justifies all his acts through claims of modern, unconventional thinking, comes up with hollow arguments meant in fact to enslave women. Paradoxically, some of the women which Sakhārām had enslaved buy into his arguments and badly want freedom from their enslavement. In 1972, Tendulkar wrote another much more acclaimed play, Ghāshirām Kotwāl, which dealt with political violence; the play is a political satire created as a musical drama set in 18th century Pune. It combined traditional Marathi folk music and drama with contemporary theatre techniques, creating a new paradigm for Marathi theatre.
The play demonstrates Tendulkar's deep study of group psychology, it brought him a Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship for a project titled, "An Enquiry into the Pattern of Growing Violence in Society and Its Relevance to Contemporary Theatre". With over 6,000 performances thus far in its original and translated versions, Ghāshirām Kotwāl remains one of the longest-running plays in the history of Indian theatre. Tendulkar wrote screenplays for the movies Nishānt, Ākrosh, Ardh Satya which established him as an important "Chronicler of Violence" of the present, he has written eight movies in Marathi. The latter include Sāmanā, Simhāasan, Umbartha; the last one is a groundbreaking feature film on women's activism in India. It was directed by stars Smitā Pātil and Girish Karnād. In 1991, Tendulkar wrote a metaphorical play, in 2001 he wrote the play, The Masseur, he next wrote two novels — Kādambari: Ek and Kādambari: Don — about sexual fantasies of an ageing man. In 2004, he wrote a single-act play, His Fifth Woman — his first play in the Englis
Vadodara
Vadodara is the third-largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat, after Ahmedabad and Surat. It is the administrative headquarters of Vadodara District and is located on the banks of the Vishwamitri river, 141 kilometres from the state capital Gandhinagar; the railway line and NH 8 that connect Mumbai pass through Vadodara. It is known as a Sanskari nagari of India; as of 2011, Vadodara had a population of 2.065 million people. The city is known for the Lakshmi Vilas Palace, the residence of Baroda State's Maratha royal family, the Gaekwads, it is the home of the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, the largest university in Gujarat. An important industrial and educational hub of western India, the city houses several institutions of national and regional importance while its major industries include petrochemicals, chemicals, plastics, IT and foreign exchange services; the first recorded history of the city is that of the early trader settlers who settled in the region in 812 AD. The province was Hindu-dominated with Hindu kings ruling until 1297.
The Gupta Empire was the first power in the region in the early years of the CE. The region was taken over by the Chaulukya dynasty. By this time Muslim rule had spread across India, the reins of power were snatched by the Delhi Sultans; the city was ruled for a long time by these Sultans. The city used to be called Chandanavati after its ruler Raja Chandan of the Dor tribe of Rajputs; the capital was known as Virakshetra or Viravati. On, it was known as Vadpatraka or Vadodará, which according to tradition is a corrupt form of the Sanskrit word vatodar meaning in the belly of the Banyan tree, it is now impossible to ascertain when the various changes in the name were made. In 1974, the official name of the city was changed to Vadodara. In 1907, a small village and township in Michigan, United States, were named after Baroda, it is believed that early man lived on the banks of the Mahi River, which formed the floodplain during that age. The movements of these hunter-gatherers, living on the banks of the river, grubbing the roots and killing animals with crude stone tools made out of the cobbles and pebbles available on the river bank, were controlled by the availability of convenient raw materials for their tools.
There is evidence of the existence of early man in the Mahi River valley at a number of sites within 10 to 20 kilometres to the north-east of Vadodara. However, no evidence of the existence of these people is found around present-day Vadodara; this may be because of the absence of cobbles on the banks of the Vishwamitri rivulet. Baroda State was a former Indian State. Vadodara's more recent history began when the Maratha general Pilaji Gaekwad conquered Songadh from the Mughals in 1726. Before the Gaekwads captured Baroda, it was ruled by the Babi Nawabs, who were the officers of the Mughal rulers. Most notably, from 1705–1716, Sardar Senapati Khanderao Dabhade led the Maratha Empire forces in Baroda. Except for a short period, Baroda continued to be in the reign of the Gaekwads from 1734 to 1948. Detailed to collect revenue on behalf of the Peshwa in Gujarat, Pilaji Gaekwad remained there to carve out a kingdom for himself. Damajirao, son and successor of Pilaji Gaekwad, defeated the Mughal armies and conquered Baroda in 1734.
His successors consolidated their power over large tracts of Gujarat, becoming the most powerful rulers in the region. After the Maratha defeat in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761, control of the empire by the Peshwas weakened as it became a loose confederacy, the Gaekwad Maharajas ruled the kingdom until it acceded to Independent Republic of India in 1949. In 1802, the British intervened to defend a Maharaja that had inherited the throne from rival claimants, Vadodara concluded a subsidiary alliance with the British that recognised the Kingdom as a Princely state and allowed the Maharajas of Baroda internal political sovereignty in return for recognising British'Paramountcy', a form of suzerainty in which the control of the state's foreign affairs was surrendered; the golden period in the Maratha rule of Vadodara started with the accession of Maharaja Sayajirao III in 1875. Near Maharaja Sayaji Gaekwad University there is a well known garden, built by Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwad himself in 1879 A.
D. This garden is known as Sayaji Baug known for visitors centre; this place is situated on river Vishwamitri. Vadodara is located at 22.30°N 73.19°E / 22.30. It is the 18th-largest city in India with an area of 235 square kilometres and a population of 2.1 million, according to the 2010–11 census. The city sits in central Gujarat; the Vishwamitri dries up in the summer, leaving only a small stream of water. The city is located on the fertile plain between the Narmada Rivers. According to the Bureau of Indian Standards, the cosmopolis falls under seismic zone-III, in a scale of I to V. Despite the 800 mm of precipitation that the city receives annually, Vadodara features a semi-arid climate under Köppen's Climate classification due to the area's high potential evapotranspiration. There are three main seasons: Summer and Winter. Aside from the monsoon season, the climate is dry; the weather is hot during March to July, when the average ma
