Kings, Kinship and Valour

Tales of Adventure

"Stories of kings and battles of long ago."

The Hindu
(The Young World, 12th January 2007)

Abanindranath Tagore's Rajkahini is a series of tales about kings, kinship and valour. The stories also prove that kingship isn't just about grandeur and luxury. He was a painter and perhaps that's why his novel at most parts seem to be word pictures of forts, battle and kings of long ago.

Rajkahini may at times, when the details get too much, seem very like a very colourful history book. The first few stories may seem superior in terms of characters, situations and the settings while in the later tales the decline of circumstances and grandeur in the personal characteristics of the royalty is striking. Their descendants undergo a natural decline and this is subtly indicated throughout the stories. The earlier stories are tales of valour where men live by the sword and in the latter ones the battlefield is abandoned and treacherous methods of poisoning are adopted to ensnare and kill.

Translated from the original Bengali version, it almost seems as if the translator has superimposed English over the work.

- Paromita Pain

About the author

Abanindranath Tagore

Illustrations and Inside Drawings

Vikram Nayak

Publishers: Katha
Series: Katha Pocket Plus Series

Age Group: 13-17 years

200 pages

ISBN 81-89020-52-8 [PB]

Price: Rs 120 [in India and the subcontinent]

The Kala Ghoda Festival!

Greetings from the Katha Centre for Film Studies!

Its amazing to see such a good line up of films at the Kala Ghoda festival and I hope all you film buffs are making the most of it!

On Friday, February 9th, 2007, its 'Cinema Satsang-IV' at Alliance Francaise auditorium, Churchgate. The film to be screened is : FITZCARRALDO by Werner Herzog

Year: 1982

Country: Peru/West Germany

Language: English/German

Runtime: 158 minutes

And Excerpts from 'BURDEN OF DREAMS' by Les Blank which is a documentary on the chaotic production of 'Fitzcarraldo.'

Year: 1982

Country: USA

Language: Spanish/English/German

The films will be screened and discussed by Devdutt Trivedi. The screening is free of cost. It will begin at 2.00 p.m. and discussions end at 5.30 p.m.

Many of you got to watch the prologue of 'Visions of Europe' by the Hungarian director, Bella Tarr, at the last Cinema Satsang. After 'Cinema Satsang –IV' we can all proceed to Gallery Beyond and watch screened as a part of the Kalaghoda festival at 6.30 p.m.

Do come - and bring your friends along!

****************************************

Deepti D'Cunha,

Research Associate: Katha Centre for Film Studies

B84, Sumeru, MHADA, SVP Nagar, Andheri West, Mumbai 400 053

Tel: (91-22) 2631-3198 / 26341871 Cell: 9820522468