Shyam Joshi's Philip K. Dickensian PRECOG: वाङ्मय-शोभा, Diwali 1965

Gaff, 'Blade Runner', 1982:
"It's too bad she won't live, but then again who does?"

Artist: Shyam Joshi (श्याम जोशी) , 'Vangmay Shobha' (वाङ्मय-शोभा), Diwali 1965

I was completely puzzled by the picture above.  I refuse to see her a day-dreaming pretty woman. I wonder what the artist was trying to do.

First I thought she was dead.

And that thought is not that ludicrous because the late Mr. Joshi was almost obsessed with the subject of death. I already have one of his marvelous cartoons on the subject, on this blog,  here.

But considering that Mr. Joshi was drawing for a Diwali issue of the magazine, I dismissed my thought. So what else was possible?


If Mr. Joshi had drawn her sitting, she would go on to make another pretty cover of "Vangmay Shobha" (वाङ्मय-शोभा). For instance, what he created a year later.

But he did NOT do that in 1965.

The lady in 1965 cover looked to me like a Precog from movie "Minority Report", 2002 which is based on Philip K. Dick's book published in 1956 of the same name.

Had Joshi read the book? Was he inspired by it? 

"Precog" 

courtesy: Minority Report, 2002

जी. एंचा पहिला यात्रिक अनुल्लेखित दुसर्‍याचा...Henry van Dyke's 'The Story of the Other Wise Man', 1895

Henry Van Dyke:

“Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soul,

May keep the path, but will not reach the goal;

While he who walks in love may wander far,

Yet God will bring him where the blessed are.”

On this blog, G A Kulkarni's (जी ए कुलकर्णी) story 'Yatrik' (यात्रिक) has been mentioned a few times earler.

That story was first published in Marathi literary magazine, now defunct,  'Satyakatha' (सत्यकथा) in August 1975. It then became part of his book 'Pinglavel' (पिंगळावेळ), 1977.

But I did not know that it was not the first story GA published with the title of 'Yatrik'.

His first "Yatrik' was published in October 1960 issue of another Marathi magazine, now defunct, 'Vangmay Shobha' (वाङ्मय शोभा).

This is how the story was introduced by the editor Mr. M. M. Kelkar:

After little research I found out that,  GA's Marathi story is a translation of Henry van Dyke's (1852-1933) short novel 'The Story of the Other Wise Man', 1895. 

Sadly and surprisingly, Henry van Dyke is not even mentioned any where! The credit is normally given like this: 'Original novella : Henry van Dyke, Translator: G. A. Kulkarni' ( 'मूळ लघुकादंबरी: हेन्री व्हॅन डाईक, अनुवादक: जी ए कुलकर्णी)

Also note that van Dyke died in 1933. Therefore, his story was not in public domain in India in October 1960!

courtesy: current copyright holders of the late G A Kulkarni's work,'Vangmay Shobha' and Bookganga.com

 Artist: Unknown to me and name not found in the book itself on Project Gutenberg

Blood-Red Kisses: Femmes Vital, Not Femmes Fatale

Today March 8 2016 is International Women's Day

Mary Ann Doane on the figure of the “femme fatale” which has come to stand for noir’s innovative representation of female desire:

“She is not the subject of feminism but a symptom of male fears about feminism. Nevertheless, the representation – like any representation –is not totally under the control of its producers and, once disseminated, comes to take on a life of its own.”

Mark Osteen, ‘Nightmare Alley - Film Noir And The American Dream’, 2013:

“...Noir does offer its share of amoral seductresses and conniving criminals, but it also gives us wives, mothers, and nurses; businesswomen and writers; secretaries, singers, sleuths, and social workers; psychologists, physicians, prison guards, wardens—and even professors. In fact, most women in film noir work, and their forms of labor closely reflect the actual postwar US female workforce.

Just as important as the women working in films noir, however, were the women working on films noir—the females who performed in, wrote, produced, and even directed the movies. Their presence is one reason why noir portrays so many working women and why the films address many of postwar women’s chief concerns: sexism; the conflict between traditional domestic duties and newfound labor power; the anxieties and possibilities implicit in shifting gender roles; changes in courtship, marriage, and motherhood. The films on which these women worked—which I’m calling femme noirs—furnish complex, critical, and generally progressive analyses of American mores and institutions. While facing the same obstacles dramatized in the films, these female filmmakers nudged Hollywood toward more enlightened views about gender and, in one case, helped to redefine cinematic authorship. Far from femmes fatale, these women were femmes vital: indispensable presences whose creative labor modeled an alternative to traditional female labor—childbearing and -rearing—and injected a protofeminist note into male-oriented genres...”

 

Some of the best Hindi cinema of 1950's has been influenced by American Noir.  No good Indian film director of that period has escaped its deep influence including Guru Dutt, Raj Khosla, Shakti Samanta, Raj Kapoor, Vijay Aanand... 

The poster of a noir film does not often tell you how much wisdom and witty dialogues- apart from great entertainment- they hold. 

courtesy: Wikipedia

 Look at the following snaps from the film. The whole sequence is shot beautifully and sums up the man in general.

below: Cloris Leachman as Christina and Ralph Meeker as  Mike Hammer

based on Mickey Spillane's novel 

screenplay by A.I. Bezzerides 

 

 courtesy: United Artists or the current copyright holders of the feature

कल्याणा, छाटी उडाली!...Kalyan Dive

Today March 3 2016, Magh Krushna 9 (माघ वद्य ९), is Das Navami (दास नवमी)... death anniversary of Samarth Ramdas (समर्थ रामदास), the last great Marathi poet

When we went to Sajjangad (सज्जनगड) in July 2015- our maiden visit, the first place I wanted to see was the point from where Kalyanswami (कल्याणस्वामी) supposedly dived into the valley to fetch Samarth's  scarf. ( As I stood at the point and looked down the valley, I once again thought he surely did NOT actuality dive, as potrayed in the picture below, but the myth proved the faith in his guru.)

I was so eager to visit that point because of a little book I kept reading during my childhood and was fascinated by the pictures in it. Fortunately, I still have the book and when occasionally I thumb through it, it brings back memories.

Artist: J B Dikshit (जि भि दीक्षित ), 

'Sreesamarthcharitramrut' (श्रीसमर्थचरित्रामृत), First published on the day of Ganesh Chaturthi, year 1957

[I just wonder if Mr. Dikshit knew 'flying' superheroes like Batman (1939-) and Superman (1938-) when he drew this or this was based only on his imagination.]

The point on Sajjangad today, named 'Kalyan Udi Smarak' (कल्याण उडी स्मारक)

When Will I see Godse Bhatji's 'Maza Pravas' on Marathi TV?

सुहास जोशी, Loksatta/ Lokprabha (लोकसत्ता/लोकप्रभा) December 9 2015:

“…सुरुवातीच्या काळात प्रसिद्ध लेखकांचं गाजलेलं साहित्य हाच मालिकांचा आधार होता. आज केवळ मालिकेसाठी म्हणूनच वेगळी कथा आणि त्या कथेचा विस्तार हा प्रकार रुजला आहे…

… मुळात मालिकांसाठी म्हणून अशी एखादी ठरावीक रचना असावी, असं आपल्याकडे फारसं कधी झालं नाही. मालिकांच्या भागांच्या संख्येपासून ते विषयापर्यंतचे अनेक प्रयोग आपल्याकडे सर्वच टप्प्यांवर झाले आहेत. सुधारित तंत्रज्ञानामुळं चित्रीकरणात आणि संकलनात अनेक प्रयोग करता आले. पण गेल्या काही वर्षांत येथे साचलेपणा आला आहे. त्याचं कारण म्हणजे सार्वत्रिक सपाटीकरण. मनोरंजनाच्या आणि टीआरपीच्या नावाखाली सारं काही झाकण्याची वृत्ती वाढली आहे आणि हे सपाटीकरण आपणच आपल्या पद्धतीनं केलं आहे. अमेरिका अथवा युरोपच्या मालिकांचा प्रभाव वगैरे म्हणण्यात काहीच अर्थ नाही.

चित्रपटांबाबत जसा एक मसालापटाचा फॉम्र्युला असतो तोच प्रकार हल्ली मालिकांमध्येदेखील दिसून येतो. त्याचबरोबर आणखीन एक महत्त्वाचा मुद्दा म्हणजे चित्रपटांचे जसे सर्वागाने सर्वच प्रकारच्या प्रसार माध्यमातून र्सवकष परिक्षण केले जाते, तसे मालिकांबाबत फारसे होताना दिसत नाही. जे काही दिसते ते केवळ चकचकीत वर्णनात्मकच…”

[An observation- Ms. Joshi says above that "अमेरिका अथवा युरोपच्या मालिकांचा प्रभाव वगैरे म्हणण्यात काहीच अर्थ नाही."..."There is no point in blaming American or European TV serials for their influence"....I wish it happened! 
In USA and even in UK, a golden age of TV arrived some time ago and they have produced some of the best TV ever in that period.]

Apparently 5.7m viewers saw Andrew Davies' (BBC) adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's 'War and Peace'. 

John Sutherland has written about it and proposed a few more candidates for TV adaptation. 

"...TV is the perfect lubricant and abbreviator. You could even argue it enriches; giving a visual dimension (and in Davies’s case an erotic dimension) to those small black marks on a white surface. Of course the TV adaptation “gives the plot away” – but most of the high-hanging stuff isn’t the-butler-did-it kind of thing, and no spoiler alert is needed. We know Napoleon isn’t going to win.

The higher up the tree you go, the sweeter grows the berry, says the folk song. What fruit is hanging up there, in the top branches, awaiting the adaptor’s subtle hand?..."

And I felt how badly Marathi speaking people were missing such quality TV. (Are they?)

Once some very good books in Marathi were serialized for TV. But I don't remember when the last such effort ended.

Recently I read Karthika Nair talking about Shivaji Sawant’s (शिवाजी सावंत) 'Mrityunjay' (मृत्युंजय ), the book that surely inspired a part of her book 'Until The Lions'. Nair's book, in turn,  has been adapted for the stage and being performed around the world. 

I don't remember seeing  Mrityunjay on Marathi TV. I learn it was adapted for Hindi TV but ended abruptly.

 (by the way- I don't like the book at all but hundreds of thousands do.)

I personally would like to see Godse Bhatji's (गोडसे भटजी) 'Maza Pravas: 1857 cya Bandaci Hakikat' (माझा प्रवास: १८५७ च्या बंडाची हकीकत) on TV. It probably is the only book in any language that lets you feel what it was living in those tumultuous times.

Below I have reproduced two pages from the book that capture a part of the drama in the book.

The page on the left describes how the terror of the 1857 action sucked him dry of any sexual desire even when he is in an embrace of a young woman and the page on the right describes the plight of  Rani Laxmibai and her defiant spirit in the face of overwhelming odds.

I have yet to come across a better book in Marathi that describes the real life drama and action.

 

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'War and Peace' Credit PHOTOGRAPH BY LAURIE SPARHAM / BBC