With a line-up of events from across disciplines, a three-day annual festival gifts the Navi Mumbai its culture fix
For culture czars of SoBo and Bandra, this time of the year brings with it the problem of plenty. With literature, theatre and art festivals, and music and performing arts programmes, it sometimes comes down to flipping a coin to decide what to attend. Not so for residents of Navi Mumbai, who despite their sprawling environs and venues, often have to either make the 30 plus-km trek to Mumbai to get their culture fix or understandably, pass the opportunity up.
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The organising team
With the aim to make Navi Mumbai a cultural locus in its own right, members of the alumni association of Pillai College of Architecture in New Panvel decided to host an annual event that covers the larger spectrum of science, arts, performing arts and culture, while making architecture accessible to the public. Entering its sixth edition this year, Mindscape: The Festival of Ideas is packed with a line-up of talks, discussions, performances, film screenings and demonstrations at CIDCO's Urban Haat in Belapur.
Anuja Ghosalkar portrays many roles in the solo piece, Lady Anandi. Pic/Adrien Roche
"We are an independent, non-profit organisation with a simple idea - to bring together changemakers and ask them to tell us their story," says Sarita Ramamoorthy, one of the members of the organising team. "For many of our speakers, the fabulous venue comes as a surprise. People who walk into the haat, chance upon the festival and decide to stay back. Over the years, we have witnessed the following grow with those who have attended our earlier editions taking time out to visit."
A film still from Reading Architecture Practice: Mumbai
A multi-disciplinary mosaic
The festival kicks off with a screening of Reading Architecture Practice: Mumbai. The brainchild of a team of architects and filmmakers, the film delves into five architecture practices that engage with Mumbai through design, pedagogy, research, conservation and activism. The Carter Road promenade in Bandra explores the facet of activism. "It started out as a local residents' initiative, with other things falling into place later," says artist and architect Rajeev Thakker.
Pic/Ritesh Uttamchandani
With the aim to bridge the gap between photojournalism and newspaper readers, award-winning freelance photographer Ritesh Uttamchandani will give a first-person account of covering the events of 26/11 from ground zero. "The profession is either glamorised or ridiculed. I hope to strike that middle path and convey that it is purely instinct-based," he says. The audience can expect to hear about spine-chilling moments when, for instance, Uttamchandani had a narrow escape, even as the man hiding next to him by the Metro cinema divider was shot.
Every day of the festival packs in a performance, with Anuja Ghosalkar presenting a part performance-part talk on her well-received solo piece, Lady Anandi, on the final day. Called My Little History, the Bengaluru-based performer, writer and director will share the story of her great grandfather who was a well-known female impersonator in Marathi theatre. "Why can't a performance be a lesson in history? We live in the times of big narratives, so it's all the more important for me to talk about personal history through its relevance in making a theatre piece," she says.
Beyond architecture
For all the organisers, the festival requires them to take a break from their professional lives, huddle together and brainstorm. "We are helped immensely by the student council, while they get exposed to different fields," informs Ramamoorthy. "Architecture as a discipline and profession is so intense that even if one is interested in other streams, one can't keep up. This, then, is that opportunity."
On: January 12, 13 and 14, 6.30 pm
At: CIDCO Urban Haat, CBDâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Belapur
Log on to: mindscape.org
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