Editorial

The readers and subscribers of Jamini had to put up with some irregularities in its publication in the last one year or so for which we duly apologized. There was no lack of efforts from our end, but we were thwarted mainly by gaps in communication: the visuals accompanying articles and reviews by our contributors abroad were often late arriving or did not arrive at all. There were also problems with printing, but we now have sorted them out. With this issue, we are happy to return to a regular publication schedule. From now on, Jamini will come out every June, September, December and March.
This issue of Jamini focuses on performance art. Although the range and scope of performance art is fairly wide, extending from dance to drama to pantomime, and their many subgenres, we have narrowed it down to areas where exciting new work is being done in Bangladesh, the region and elsewhere (Britain, for example). One such area is theatre. In Bangladesh, where theatre activities before independence were mostly confined to a handful of amateur groups who staged romantic or social dramas for various ‘office clubs’, a new and dynamic theatre movement emerged in the early 1970s, pioneered by university educated cultural activists. Soon there were full-fledged theatre groups competing against each other in setting higher standards with every production. One of the early theatre groups, Dhaka Theatre, is still active, staging plays that are marked by perceptive and intelligent experimentations. Jamini’s executive editor Ziaul Karim talks to the group’s director Nasiruddin Yousuff, and the celebrated playwright Salim Al-Deen for an insight into the history of the theatre movement in Bangladesh. The group’s recent production, Binodini drew huge audiences in Dhaka and Kolkata. Kaiser Haq’s review of the play takes a close look at the ’emotionally engaging and historically educative’ play.
Across the border, Anjum Hasan writes about the Youth Theatre in Banglore, which is presenting English plays in an improvisatory fashion, challenging the tradition of scripted plays. Michael Coveney introduces the latest in British drama, with a focus on the Court Theatre in London, highlighting both the challenges it now faces and the promises it holds. From Pakistan, Sheema Kirmani evaluates the contribution made by the Tehrik-e-Niswan Cultural Action Group to the women’s rights movement in that country through theatre and drama. Suryanandini Sinha writes on the nexus between performance and picture (the ‘painted stage’ as W. B. Yeats would have described). Her discussion draws on historical antecedents in establishing the close link between theatre and popular culture.
Moving to the music front: one person who is bringing the east and the west ever closer is Ustad Zakir Hossain, the Tabla maestro. Zafar Anjum recently met him in Singapore and writes a perceptive account of that meeting. From London, John A. Walker sends an account of a recent film on Amedeo Modigliani, a short-lived School of Paris painter and sculptor. Lubna Marium, a renowned classical dancer of Bangladesh writes a personal note that resonates with her optimism for a rebirth of the art in Bangladesh. Jeet Thayil, a regular contributor of Jamini, recounts an interview with S. H. Raza, the Paris based, 84 year old ‘Non Resident Indian’ painter.
This issue features a critical appreciation of the 12th Annual Asian Art Biennale in Dhaka. There are reviews of Dan Flavin’s Retrospective in the Hayward Gallery in London, Swapan Choudhury’s solo at Bengal Gallery in Dhaka, and a few other painting exhibitions in Bangladesh.
Our next issue will focus on photography.
Enjoy the issue!

The readers and subscribers of Jamini had to put up with some irregularities in its publication in the last one year or so for which we duly apologized. There was no lack of efforts from our end, but we were thwarted mainly by gaps in communication: the visuals accompanying articles and reviews by our contributors…