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Saturday, March 24, 2012

Evening of live painting with music & poetry


I got to know AliAdil Khan quite by accident. He was the curator of Picture House: The Art of Bollywood – an exhibition along with Asma Arshad Mahmood last year.

Adil runs the SouthAsian Gallery of Art in Oakville.

Recently, over a bowl of Aash Reshteh soup at a Persian restaurant in downtown Toronto, we discussed many things of mutual interest - from Mahatma Gandhi  to MF Husain, and Hindi movie posters to contemporary art in the subcontinent and rising religious fundamentalism.

Last week, he organised An evening of live painting with music and poetry – one of the finest cultural events I've ever attended in Canada.

Anwar Khurshid (playing the sitar) and Shahid Rassam (painting)
Both interpreted in their own media a poem on environment by Afsfaq Hussain 
It was an exquisite jugalbandi of sitar by Anwar Khurshid and painting by Shahid RassamAshfaq Hussain's poem set the tone for a truly memorable evening.

It revived memories of M. F. Hussain's similar experiment with Ustad Zakir Husain and Ustad Allah Rakah (tabla), and Ustad Sultan Khan (saarangi) during a cultural festival on Calicut Beach in December 1994. 

Congratulations Adil!

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