Thursday, November 30, 2017

श्याम जोशी, १७ वर्षे....Funeral Blues: Shyam Joshi and W H Auden

Today November 30 2017 is 17th Death Anniversary of Shyam Joshi (श्याम जोशी) 

I saw W H Auden's poem 'Funeral Blues', 1938 beautifully illustrated by Nathan Gelgud.


Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.


(courtesy: the Estate of W. H. Auden)

The following is a portion of that illustration:


This reminded me of an equally moving cartoon, one of the best on the subject I have seen in my life,  by Shyam Joshi :



Sunday, November 26, 2017

जी ए कुलकर्णी आणि कॅसाब्लांका....Casablanca@75

75 years ago, on November 26 1942, Casablanca was first released

Alyssa Rosenberg: 
“In a world where we have more options in entertainment in general and the movies in particular, why do we continue to need Humphrey Bogart? Rick never figured out why Ilsa ended up in his bar in Casablanca. But why isn't really the important part: All that matters is that she's there.”


Roger Ebert:
”...Seeing the film over and over again, year after year, I find it never grows overfamiliar. It plays like a favorite musical album; the more I know it, the more I like it. The black-and-white cinematography has not aged as color would. The dialogue is so spare and cynical it has not grown old-fashioned. Much of the emotional effect of Casablanca is achieved by indirection. As we leave the theater, we are absolutely convinced that the only thing keeping the world from going crazy is that the problems of three little people do, after all, amount to more than a hill of beans.”
 

हॉली ब्रुबाक (Holly Brubach) न्यूयॉर्क टाईम्स मध्ये फेब्रुवारी ४ २०११ला लिहतात :
"... Bogart’s appeal was and remains completely adult — so adult that it’s hard to believe he was ever young. If men who take responsibility are hard to come by in films these days, it’s because they’re hard to come by, period, in an era when being a kid for life is the ultimate achievement, and “adult” as it pertains to film is just a euphemism for pornography...."

हंफ्री बोगार्ट यांचे दिसणे सुद्धा चॉकलेटचा चेहरा असलेल्या नटांहून खूप वेगळे.   

जी ए कुलकर्णी यांचे वरील दोन्ही बाबतीत बोगार्ट यांच्याशी साम्य... लहानपणापासून मोठी जबाबदारी पेललेली, अनेक दुःखे झेललेली,  जीवनाच्या अखेर पर्यंत अविवाहित मावसबहिणीला दिलेली साथ, आपल्यामुळे कोणाला त्रास नको म्हणून परक्या / नावडत्या गावात आयुष्याचा शेवटी केलेला मुक्काम, त्याग अंगवळणी पडलेला, प्रौढत्व केंव्हाच आलेल- इतक्या लवकरकी हिरवट तारुण्य कधी नव्हतेच ... 

जी एंनी Casablanca बद्दल लिहलय का ? त्यांना तो सिनेमा नक्कीच खूप आवडला असणार.. ते सहजपणे ईलसा (Ilsa) ला म्हणू शकले असते... 
"...But I've got a job to do, too.  Where I'm going you can't follow.  What I've got to do you can't be any part of.  Ilsa,  I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.  Someday you'll understand that.  Now, now..."

अर्थात त्याला आणखी पण एक मोठे कारण आहे... त्यांच्या अतिशय आवडत्या इनग्रिड बर्गमन त्यात आहेत!
 

 Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982)

courtesy: Warner Bros.


Artist: Harry Bliss

Friday, November 24, 2017

Donkey Is Forced, The Man?....Buy Nothing Day (BND)



Today November 24 2017 is BND. Buy Nothing Day (BND) is an international day of protest against consumerism.


Artist: S S Hawaldar (एस एस हवालदार), Vangmay Shobha (वाङ्मय-शोभा), April 1960

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Freedom from Freedom from Want

Today November 23 2017 is Thanksgiving Day


Artist: Norman Rockwell

 

Artist as he apologizes to Rockwell: Benjamin Schwartz, The New Yorker

Sunday, November 19, 2017

जी ए, टेनेसी विल्यम्स आणि शी:धप्प बोलणे (आणि लिहणे)...PERSON—TO—PERSON That GA Never Wrote

जी ए कुलकर्णींचा पत्र व्यवहार आता त्यांच्या साहित्याचा मोठा आणि महत्वाचा भाग ठरला आहे. तरीसुद्धा त्यांनी  लिहलेली बरीच पत्रे आपल्याला कधीच वाचायला मिळणार नाहीत कारण कित्येक उपलब्ध झाली नाहीत आणि कितीतरी त्यांच्या संपादकांनी प्रसिद्धी-लायक मानली नाहीत....शिवाय पाठ्वलेल्याकडे हरवणे, पोस्टात गहाळ, प्रसिद्धीसाठी उपलब्ध करू न देण वगैरे...

माझ्या मते जीएंचे प्रत्येक उपलब्ध पत्र, अतिखाजगी उल्लेख वगळून, कसलीही संपादकीय कात्री न लावता, प्रसिद्ध करायला पाहिजे.

जी एंना कोणत्या प्रकारच पत्र आवडत नसेल याबद्दल माझे काही अंदाज आहेत.... त्यांना 'घोड्याची लीद पडत असल्याप्रमाणे शी:धप्प' ( 'यात्रिक', 'पिगळावेळ', पृष्ठ २४१) पत्र आवडत नसणार.

जगातील एक सर्वोत्कृष्ट नाटककार टेनेसी विल्यम्स 'कॅट ऑन अ हॉट टिन रूफ', १९५६ ह्या त्यांच्या नाटकाच्या सुरवातीला त्यांचे चिंतन लिहतात- 'पर्सन-टु-पर्सन' या शीर्षकाखाली:


“... Of course I know that I have sometimes presumed too much upon corresponding sympathies and interest in those to whom I talk boldly, and this has led to rejections that were painful and costly enough to inspire more prudence. But when I weigh one thing against another, an easy liking against a hard respect, the balance always tips the same way, and whatever the risk of bring turned a cold shoulder, I still don’t want to talk to people only about the surface aspects of their lives, the sort of things that acquaintances laugh and chatter about on ordinary social occasions.

I feel that they get plenty of that, and heaven knows so do I, before and after the little interval of time in which I have their attention and say what I have to say to them. The discretion of social conversation, even among friends, is exceeded only by the discretion of 'the deep six', that grave wherein nothing is mentioned at all. Emily Dickinson, that lyrical spinster of Amherst, Massachusetts, who wore a strict and savage heart on a taffeta sleeve, commented wryly on that kind of posthumous discourse among friends in these lines:

I died for beauty, but was scarce Adjusted in the tomb, When one who died for truth was lain In an adjoining room.
He questioned softly why I failed? ' For beauty,' I replied. 'And I for truth,—the two are one, We brethren are' be said.
And so, as kinsmen met a night, We talked between the rooms, Until the moss had reached our lips, And covered up our names.

Meanwhile!—I want to go on talking to you as freely and intimately about what we live and die for as if I knew you better than anyone else whom you know."

याबाबतीत जी ए विल्यम्स यांच्याशी सहमत असावेत असं मला कायम वाटत आल आहे. जीएंना सुद्धा आयुष्याबद्दल वरवरचे - शी:धप्प  बोलायचे नसायचे.

(BTW- एमिली डिकिन्सन यांचा विल्यम्स यांच्यावरचा प्रभाव पहा!)

Paul Newman with Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1958

courtesy: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

आपल्या कुंचलीने चित्रकार मुळगांवकर असंख्य लोकांना अतिशय उत्कट आनंद अजुनही देत असतात...Raghuvir Mulgaonkar Will Be 100 In Less Than a Year

#रघुवीरमुळगावकरजन्मशताब्दी 
#RaghuvirMulgaonkarBirthCentenary14Nov1918to14Nov2018

Today November 15 2017 is the start of the birth centenary year of Raghuvir Shankar  Mulgaonkar (रघुवीर शंकर मुळगावकर) 14/11/1918- 30/3/1976

कै. मुळगांवकर अतिशय लोकप्रिय चित्रकार होते. महाराष्ट्रातील काही पिढ्या त्यांची चित्रे कॅलेंडरवर, जाहिरातीत पहात मोठ्या झाल्या. कै दीनानाथ दलालांप्रमाणेच त्यांना सुद्धा दीर्घायू मिळाले नाही. १९५६सालच्या खालील पुस्तक परिक्षणात मुळगांवकरांची महती चांगली सांगितली आहे. दुर्दैवाने आज, २०१७साली, मला नाही वाटत हे पुस्तक बाजारात उपलब्ध आहे... 
वाङ्मय शोभा , मार्च १९५६



Artist: Raghuvir Mulgaonkar, October 1950

Courtesy: Vangmay Shobha , Bookganga.com and copy right holders of Mr. Mulgaonkar's work

सौजन्य :  कै मुळगावकरांच्या चित्रांचे कॉपीराईट होल्डर्स, वाङ्मय शोभा , बुकगंगा.कॉम