Rear window

Posted on by bijalv

Ranjit Lal on why his writing table faces a wall (or the story where I finally talk to my absolute favourite Indian author)

http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/rear-window 

kids books, ranjit lal, birds from my window, indian bird guide, wildlife

House crows that filch melba toast from under the noses of members of the Willingdon Club in Mumbai, a lady sparrow that throws a tantrum and a “pipsqueak of a purple sunbird” who goes berserk on a bottlebrush tree outside author Ranjit Lal’s house are some of the protagonists of his new book, Birds from my Window and the Antics They Get Up To. In the introduction to this book, Lal said that he has been watching birds from his window and balcony for several years and finds it a “wonderful way of never having to get bored”. Peacocks, bulbuls, babblers and sparrows are always at hand to distract him so now his writing desk faces the wall, or “this book would never have been written”.

What inspired you to write Birds from My Window and the Antics They Get Up To?
There was so much happening around the home, with regard to everyday birds that it was worth following up their lives and writing about them. Also, there are a lot more species of birds around in cities like Delhi than one would imagine. Basically you just need to spend a bit of time, standing and staring!

Your book is a guide to Indian birds but unlike most guides, it’s laced with generous bouts of humour.
Birds can be quite hilarious – in looks, deportment, behaviour – and on occasion they’re not too different from us! They have the same ego issues, desire to impress the fair sex (though in birds the males are the dandies and the females are the critics!).

Many of your books introduce children to animals and birds in the city.
Well, if you’re just a little observant and interested in the world around you, you can’t help notice the creatures that share our space. Keep observing and you’ll see patterns of behaviour emerge, showing that they too have orderly, disciplined lives, which generally will fit into the grander scheme of things.

How difficult is it to hook young readers onto wildlife?
The trick to get them interested in wildlife is not to make an academic meal out of it. It’s got to be fun and appeal to their sense of adventure, not to say curiosity.

What’s your average day like with the birds in your garden?
I’ve started putting out bajra and peanuts every morning, plus of course water. The peanuts get gobbled up very quickly – by peacocks, mynahs, babblers  sparrows et al. The bigger guys usually shove the little ones away. There are ego issues within species too, some big dada sparrows will bounce down and drive the wimps away. They hold their parties at any time of the day; it could be early morning, mid-morning, afternoon, evening: there seems to be no fixed time, probably because a lot of other people also leave out stuff, so the birds are spoiled for choice!

Tell us about your experience of birdwatching in Mumbai.
I wasn’t very interested in birds until I bought my first pair of large (and rather heavy) binoculars. We had a peepul tree growing outside the verandah and so I trained my binoculars on that. The first bird I spotted and saw close-up, was the coppersmith barbet, which had a face like a clown (and seemed a little tipsy, what with its hiccups). That was enough – if the first bird I saw looked like a tipsy clown, what would the other 1,200-1,300 be like, I wondered. That’s what I’m still finding out. Incidentally, that peepul tree, that overlooked the whole of Central Bombay, had over 15 species, including a pair of nesting black kites, which would dive-bomb me when they had chicks. And they were very cunning about how they went about it, slipping off the nest, below the cliff, banking away to one side and then gaining height out of sight, before zooming around the corner and whistling down screaming, with claws extended! Exciting stuff.

Birds from my Window and the Antics They Get Up To, Scholastic, R125. Ages 8+

By Bijal Vachharajani on May 26 2011

Ashoka the Hero

Posted on by bijalv
The animated movie combines the past and the present

 

http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/ashoka-hero

gaurav jain, movies for kids, ashoka the hero, bal ganesha, indian cartoons

In the third century BC, Emperor Ashoka went down in history as an enlightened ruler who embraced peace over war. The monarch continues to have a presence in our lives – from the Ashoka’s Pillar engraved on rupee coins to the Ashoka Chakra on the Indian flag. Now it is the emperor’s medallion that makes an appearance in Gaurav Jain’s new animation film, Ashoka the Hero.

The film is about a schoolboy, Ashoka, who idolises his father, a brave police officer who dies in a bank robbery. On his deathbed, Ashoka’s father tells his son to be a good person. Easier said than done. The boy wants to be like his father but doesn’t quite know how to go about it. Then, an old man called Masa entrusts him with Emperor Ashoka’s medallion, which confers on its owner great powers. But like all good things, this one comes with a catch – the medallion’s powers go away if they are abused in any way. Of course, there is a nasty villain to be defeated and Ashoka’s the super hero who is called on to help. The film is mainly about Ashoka discovering that a super hero isn’t necessarily one who has great strength and super powers.

“It’s a kids-oriented film,” said Jain, the writer and director of the film. “The story is along the lines of a Western super hero film.” Jain conceptualised the story three years ago and decided to make it a 2D animation film, rather than a 3D one. “Technology moves rapidly,” said Jain. “If you look at Toy Story 1, 2 and 3, there’s a world of difference in terms of the technology.” While Toy Story 1 was a 2D animation film, the third installation was released in 3D. Jain elaborated, “If you look at a Tom and Jerry cartoon [done in 2D animation], it has essentially stayed the same over the years. It’s all about the visual experience that 2D animation offers.”

Ashoka the Hero also breaks through the clutter of mythological animation films that have become staple children’s fare. Movies about Hanuman, Ganesha and the Ramayana have previously catered to kids. Some like Bal Ganesha attempted to give a contemporary spin to mythology but don’t always  capture the audience’s attention. “I wanted to do something that’s different from a mythological film,” said Jain. “InIndia, kids are only watching foreign films or Western shows. I grew up on serials such as Indradhanush [a sci-fi serial on Doordarshan]”. Only a few filmmakers, such as Santosh Sivan who made Halo and Malli and Vishal Bharadwaj who made The Blue Umbrella, have managed to make quality children’s films.

Since Jain is from Mumbai, the city serves as the backdrop for his film. Watch out for a plane that lands in the middle of the iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, an action sequence atop the Rajabai Tower and the film climax, which is staged at the Bandra-Worli sea link. When Jain began writing the script, the sea link was still under construction. “We kept hoping that the sea link would be done in time for the film’s release,” said Jain. “Luckily, it did.”

By Bijal Vachharajani on January 06 2011 

Finding Neverland

Posted on by bijalv
The boy who wouldn’t grow up is coming to the Mumbai stage

http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/finding-neverland

peter pan, kids play, Theatre, Faezeh Jalai, neverland, prithvi theatre,

This fortnight, Mumbai kids will have the opportunity to visit the fantastic world of Neverland and meet such eternally popular characters as the mischievous Peter Pan, his arch enemy Captain Hook and the jealous Tinker Bell. The magical story of Peter Pan, the boy who refuses to grow up, is being staged by Akvarious Productions as part of the Summertime with Prithvi festival.

In the play, Peter, Wendy and the Darling children fly off to Neverland and join forces with the Lost Boys to take on the nasty Captain Hook. “They will be fighting pirates, flying and meeting crocodiles,” said director Hidaayat Sami.

Since Peter Pan is all about flying fairies and magical lands, it’s a challenging story to adapt for the stage. Sami has wanted to mount a production of Peter Pan for a long time, but JM Barrie’s classic story isn’t easy to adapt for the stage. “Like how will you show the flying and how will you match foreign production values,” Sami said. Despite the budget constraints and the lack of technical assistance that discourage Indian directors from attempting fairy tales, the director and his crew thought long and hard to come up with some tricks.

The children in the audience can expect to see the actors do nifty rope tricks and mallakhamb, or Maharashtrian-style gymnastics performed on a pole and with a rope. Faezeh Jalali, who acted as a fairy in Tim Supple’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, plays Peter Pan. The petite Jalali is an obvious choice for the role – she learns mallakhamb at Shivaji Park in Dadar and can shimmy up and down ropes in a trice. Jalali has acted in several plays and movies, including Rohan Engineer’s Ursula, but this is the first time she will be playing a boy. “Traditionally, in a lot of items, Peter Pan has been played by a woman,” said Jalali. “In musicals, no matter how old the woman is, she can sound like a boy. And I don’t think of it as playing a boy or a girl. It’s about playing Peter Pan, who wants to be in this world of play and make believe.”

In addition to rope tricks, Sami’s cast of 22 has learnt fencing from theatre director Bijon Mondal and dance from actor Shivani Tanksale. Actors Anand Tiwari and Trishla Patel have been coaching the cast on how to behave like children. “There’s a very thin line when an adult is playing a child,” said Sami. “It could look crazy. Then even the child in the audience wonders why is the actor behaving so strange. We’d rather have them play young adults than do funny antics.”

Many children’s plays have a standard formula : throw in some Bollywood music for the kiddies to dance to, add some slapstick humour and get the cast to jump, fall over or perform outlandishly. However, Akvarious Productions are usually a departure from these clichés. Most of their children’s plays are adapted from storybooks. The group has previously staged The Shehenshah of Azeemo, an adaptation of L Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; The Mystery of the Pantomime Cat, which was based on one of Enid Blyton’s Five-Find Outers and Dog mystery: and The Adventures of Tintin, their first-comic book adaptation.

Peter Pan was chosen because it is Sami’s favourite story and he is looking forward to presenting it to both children and adults. “Peter Pan is a subject which even grown-ups would want to see,” said Sami. “I have a lot of grown-up people telling me that they want to watch it.” Jalali is excited about the children’s play too. “I love children as an audience, I think they are amazing,” said Jalali. “While adults are more reserved, the kids get so much more involved with the play. Which is why it’s actually amazing to have children in the audience.”

By Bijal Vachharajani on April 29 2011 7.08am
Photos by Parikshit Rao

Dino more

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History repeats itself at the Nehru Science Centre

http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/dino-more-0

 nehru science centre, musuems for kids, brachiosaurus, dinosaurs, science

A giant Brachiosaurus plant-eating dinosaur cranes its neck and nods benignly at visitors. In another corner, a Baluchitherium, a hornless rhinoceros, munches leaves from a tree. A Pterosaur, a giant flying reptile, is suspended mid-flight. There’s rarely a dull moment at the Prehistoric Life Gallery at the Nehru Science Centre in Worli. This recently renovated gallery has 35 prehistoric animals that will grab the attention of students as well as dinosaur devotees.

The exhibition models may not be as well-crafted as the ones in international museums, but there are plenty of things for children to discover. The displays focus on the evolution of early life forms – one-celled organisms in the sea, invertebrates and vertebrates. Apart from dinosaurs, there are models of the Neanderthal man, land scorpion, lemur, woolly mammoth and sabre-tooth tiger. Children will love the animatronic dinosaurs that dip their heads to lap water from an artificial pool while swishing their tails, a musk ox that shakes its mammoth head and a giant squid that’s constantly rolling its huge round eyes. All this is set to the background score of growls and screeches – sounds that the creatures are believed to have emitted.

Each diorama is equipped with a well-lit information display in both English and Hindi that flashes information about the prehistoric animal’s height, weight, food habits and habitat. There is also useful trivia, such as the fact that the dragon fly lived three crore years ago, and the Dimetrodon , a predator that lived during the Permian period, weighed 250 kilos.

By Bijal Vachharajani on June 09 2011 6.30pm
Photos by Amit Chakravarty

Child’s play

Posted on by bijalv

Is children’s theatre finally growing up?

(Or in which I finally interview Naseeruddin Shah)

http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/child%E2%80%99s-play

Naseeruddin Shah, arms and the man, kids play, Theatre, motley, bernard shaw

Actor-director Naseeruddin Shah remembers seeing Arms & the Man, George Bernard Shaw’s satire on war and heroism, when he was six years old. “I was lucky enough to be exposed to a lot of theatre early enough in school,” said Shah. “I was studying at St Joseph in Nainital when I think I saw Shakespeareana [Geoffrey and Laura Kendal’s company] performing the play. Of course, I didn’t understand all of it, but I loved the funny bits and it stayed with me. It’s possible that it created my love of English language.” This fortnight, Shah will stage Arms & the Man at Summertime with Prithvi, the Juhu theatre’s annual kids festival.

For years, children’s play producers have been loosely defining their audience as ages three and above. But this year things are set to change. During this season of plays at Summertime, young adults can move beyond banal offerings of song, dance and slapstick humour typically meant for younger kids. They can catch Bijon Mondal’s Wonderland, which fuses the story of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland with Cervantes’ Don Quixote; Chandan Roy-Sanyal’s Two Blind Mice, an adaptation of Samuel Beckett’sWaiting for Godot; and Manav Kaul’s Mamtaz Bhai Patangwale, a story about a child obsessed with flying kites.

Shah looks at Arms & the Man as an attempt to move kids’ theatre away from mindless comedy. He was appalled by the quality of some of the plays staged at Summertime last year, he said. “I don’t believe in underestimating children’s intelligence,” said Shah. “As it is, children are treated as morons all the time and I think they should be given something which challenges their intellect a little bit.” But, Shah added, Arms & the Man is also easily comprehensible. “The plot is not complicated,” he said. “It has beautiful language, charming characters and funny situations.” It’s a shift that Sanjna Kapoor, the director of Prithvi Theatre, is excited about. “Two years ago, we realised that we were finding it tough to fill Summertime workshops for children between the ages of 14 and 16,” she said. “Most of our focus had been on the age groups of six to 13 year-olds. We can’t expect teenagers to enjoy the same plays as younger kids.” Kapoor said that it was Shah’s experience at Summertime last year that made her think about an older audience. Accordingly, Prithvi has also tweaked its membership plan. Children between the ages of 6 and 11 are entitled to watch children’s plays free of cost for a year. Additionally, young adults, aged 12-16, will get a card that allows them to see any play (children and adults) through the year.

Kapoor has also asked producers to focus on age-specific plays for children this year. Mondol’s Wonderland, for instance, is for kids above the age of eight. “I am trying to create drama that educates and at the same time introduces kids to the grandeur of theatre, Mondol said. Similarly, Roy-Sanyal tweaked Godot to make it more appealing to children. Protagonists Vladmir and Estragon are ten-year-old boys, rather than old men, who play games while waiting for Godot. “A lot of people questioned me about doingGodot for children,” said Roy-Sanyal. “But I think it would be interesting to see how the kids react to it.”

Earlier this month, Aasakta, a Pune-based group staged Junglenama, a sensitive portrayal of the man-animal conflict prevalent in Indian forests today. At the beginning of the play, director Sarang Sathaye announced that the story was originally written for adults and that children might find it difficult to follow at times. But that didn’t deter Aasakta from adapting the story to stage. “Children today are more mature at a younger age and get the subtle nuances of a play,” said Ashish Mehta, the group manager of Aasakta. “You don’t have to tell everything explicitly in a play.” Shah agrees that the distinction between children’s plays and adult ones is overblown. “Kids seldom go to see children’s plays alone,” said Shah. “They are usually accompanied by adults. I remember seeing Peter Pan and Nagin at the age of three or four and the adults enjoyed it as much.”

By Bijal Vachharajani on May 12 2011 6.30pm
Photos by Tejal Pandey

Hero worship

Posted on by bijalv

When it comes to films and books for children, superheroes rule, finds Time Out

 http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/hero-worship

darsheel safari, zokkomon, children, satyajit bhatkal, film, superhero,

In the book iBoy, an iPhone falls on 16-year-old Tom Harvey’s head and soon the embedded device gives him the ability to surf the internet at will. He uses this ability to take revenge on his friend’s rapists by accessing their personal information. In Joe Craig’s Jimmy Coates, the 11-year-old protagonist discovers that he is only 38 per cent human while the rest of him is robot. As part-robot, he is expected to aid the state’s dictator. In Gaurav Jain’s movie Ashoka, an eight-year-old boy has to ditch his homework to battle a mad scientist with powers bestowed on him by Emperor Ashoka’s medallion. And this fortnight, child actor Darsheel Safary stars as India’s first flying superhero in the Disney film Zokkomon, which has been directed by Satyajit Bhatkal.

Superhero books and movies have always been popular with children. But whereas in the past, one was more likely to read or see stories about adult superheroes such as Spider-Man and Superman, children are now increasingly donning the capes – metaphorically and literally – to save the world. Zokkomon is an adventure story about Kunal (Safary), an orphaned boy whose uncle [Anupam Kher] abandons him in a large city, said Satyajit Bhatkal. “Kunal is alone and friendless,” Bhatkal said, “In this situation, when he is most down and out, Kunal draws on his inner strength. Despite being small and without resources he manages to discover that you are as strong as you believe you are.”

The latest trend of child superheroes started with Harry Potter, said Sudeshna Shome-Ghose, an editorial director with Puffin, which has got books like iBoy and the Percy Jackson series to India.“Each new series tried to differentiate its hero from the earlier ones in specific ways,” she said, adding, “These books are all commercial fiction and a lot of thought would go in from publishers and authors on creating characters that are unique.”

And they are unique. Tom Harvey of iBoy by Kevin Brooks can pluck information off the web by just thinking about it but his nemesis is a no-network zone. Author Rick Riordan had a bestseller in his hands with the Percy Jackson series, a story about a boy who discovers that he is half-human and half-god. While Riordan’s story is about Greek gods, he sets his story in New York, explaining that with Western civilisation moving to America, Olympus followed suit.

When it comes to creating Indian superheroes, most publishers and filmmakers stick to mythological heroes. However, some are trying to think beyond Hanuman and Bal Ganesha. Kunal in Zokkomon will be India’s first flying superhero, Bhatkal said. Recently, Hachette India published The Fang of Summoning by Giti Chandra. The story intersects between Iceland and Gurgaon, where six cousins discover startling gifts – a toddler can bring her childish doodles to life while her older cousin can play music that causes metal to materialise out of thin air.

Another Hachette India book, the Taranauts series by Roopa Pai, focuses a fictional universe called Mithya, where three kids have to find the 32 stars that light their eight planets. All of them of course have their own set of superpowers. Vatsala Kaul-Banerjee, editorial director for children’s and reference books at Hachette India, said, “Both [books] deal with how ordinary young people come to terms with their own extraor-dinary powers, and learn that powers work effectively and with more impact when they work as a team, and for the greater good.”

The Taranauts series stands out as one of the few books with strong female protagonists – Zvala and Zarpa. The lone boy Tufan is the subject of some good-natured ribbing. But Zarpa and Zvala are the exception. Usually, girls use their special powers to help the superhero win. Shome-Ghosh said that it’s a shame that there are few female characters with powers, but pointed out that graphic novels often have strong girl protagonists.

All these books and movies have one common thread – they are about ordinary children who have powers but are still grappling with problems like acne or homework. “The creation of teen superheroes is a result of the popularity cult around these characters,” said Kaul-Banerjee. “What could appeal to a teenager more than reading about a character of a similar age group with similar growing pangs —only blessed with super powers!”

By Bijal Vachharajani on April 14 2011 

Just asking

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Curiosity won’t kill the cat in Kyun Kyun Ladki

http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/just-asking

The why-why girl, Books, childrens play, kyun kyun ladki, bharatanatyam

“Why, what, when, where, how”. These words can most often be heard from two sets of people – journalists and children. While reporters use these words as a professional tool, for children asking questions is a way of exploring the world around them. Moyna, the protagonist of Mahasweta Devi’s book The Why-Why Girl, is an inquisitive tribal girl brimming with questions like “Why do I have to walk miles to the river for water?” and “Why shouldn’t I study too?” This summer, Moyna’s story will be adapted for the stage in a children’s play called Kyun Kyun Ladki.

Director Shaili Sathyu said that the play is an attempt to capture the basic human curiosity about the world. “A child’s capacity to question should be celebrated,” she said. “In fact, it’s a trait that’s becoming more and more undesired by parents who don’t want to engage in answering questions.” Sathyu pointed out that a lot of parents often stifle a child’s questions. “But if you don’t question, how do you evolve”, asked Sathyu, adding that she hoped parents watching the play would realise that they can enjoy this aspect of their child’s growth.

While the book’s story is firmly set in tribal land – the author had based the story on her work with tribal groups in Jharkhand and West Bengal – Sathyu has kept her play’s setting deliberately vague. “We are not harping about poverty,” said Sathyu. “Through Moyna, I am telling the story of all children.”

For the last few weeks, the actors have been training under Bharatnatyam dancer Hamsa Moily and learning how to blend mime with rhythm. Their actions will be set to music, which will be belted out by a live band on stage. “There will be flute, violin, percussion and vocal,” said Mithila Lad, the music composer, adding that they chose these instruments so that they could introduce kids to music beyond electronic sounds.

Sathyu’s group, Gillo Gilheri, has previously produced Suar Chala Space Ko, a nonsensical, delightful play that fused together science fiction, mime and shadow play. This time around, the audience can again expect mime, poetry and music but what they won’t get is a linear narrative. Apart from Moyna, the rest of the actors transform from playing children to adults to animals and even objects like a door frame. Sathyu, who is an education consultant at Akshara High School in Kandivali, said her work has made her realise that a child’s thought process is very nonlinear. “It’s beautiful how children think,” she said. “I wanted to challenge myself to capture that process.” While Sathyu is uncertain about the audience’s response to a nonlinear narrative, the one thing she is sure about is that the play will make children ask “What is the story?” Sathyu said, “To that, we’d be happy to ask back, ‘What did you see?’”

By Bijal Vachharajani on May 12 2011 6.30pm
Photo: Parikshit Rao

Spell check

Posted on by bijalv

http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/spell-check

Young Potterheads keep the magic alive with fan fiction

Harry Potter, Fan Fiction, JK Rowling, Mugglenet, Shipping, Fictionalley

(Yes, those are all my figurines)

“Yes, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is gone for good. His body was found last night, in a Muggle graveyard. Though this is good news, two valiant warriors also perished in the fight. Ginny Weasley, 16, was found near a burnt tombstone…it is believed Harry Potter was killed in the fire that burnt the tombstone.” This isn’t the ending you remember from the last installment of the JK Rowling bestseller series Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It’s actually an excerpt from elphaba731’s The Last Battle on Fictionalley.org, a site set up by Potter’s American fans.

Whether they’re crazy about the Harry Potter books that pit the teenage wizard against dark wizard Lord Voldemort. or Stephenie Meyer’s Twilightseries about a teenager falling in love with a vampire, fans across the world have dedicated many gigabytes of websites to writing their own version of their favourite books, TV series and films. Since 1997, when the first Potter book released, the seven-book series has gripped the imagination of children (and not a few adults) across the globe. The series has spawned eight movies, a theme park in Orlando, and Harry Potter tours in Britain but Potter maniacs, it seems, can’t get enough of “the boy who lived.” And even after the last cinematic adaptation of the series has hit the theaters, young super fans are busy rewriting some of the scenes on fan sites.

On Fictionalley.blogspot.in, stories are divided into four categories or “houses” as the site refers to them – The Dark Arts for drama, mystery and angst; Schnoogle for novel-length stories; Astronomy Tower for romance; and Riddikulus for humour. Another site, Harrypotterfanfiction.com boasts of over 70,000 fan stories and podcasts while on Fanfiction.net, there are several twisted plots where Potter joins hands with his arch enemy Voldemort.

Before the Potter series finished in 2007, readers used sites like these to predict how Rowling would end the tale. Some people also posted documents they claimed were leaked copies of Rowling’s draft. The editors of Mugglenet.com, a fan site founded in the US by Emerson Spartz (who claims he was 12 and bored when he started the site), published a book,What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love and How Will the Adventure Finally End?

Another common strategy of fan fiction is “shipping”, where fans especially plot the romantic relationships of characters. For instance, disgruntled fans who aren’t happy with Rowling’s pairing of Potter and Ginny Weasley can write their own chapters in which the teenage wizard could fall in love with his best friend Hermione Granger or his earlier crush Cho Chang. These internet stories often take a darker, sexual slant, which is why sites such asMugglenet.com have stringent rules and don’t accept submissions that are explicit. Further, copyright rules are complicated and most sites include disclaimers to ensure no legal action is taken.

Mumbai’s Zuni Chopra, 10, writes fan fiction but doesn’t post it online. She’s written Hallory Powers, where Harry Potter teams up with Darrell Rivers from the Malory Towers by British author Enid Blyton for a superhero story. “Something that excites me is that a story can be told in many different ways,” said Chopra, who has written The Land of Dreams, a book of poems and short stories that was published in 2011. “For examples, Dementors [the soul-sucking guards of Azkaban prison] could enter Hogwarts or Darrell and Alicia could become best friends. I like to use these characters and tell new stories.” For eight-year-old Aarnav Chaturvedi, the Potter books have sparked an interest in writing. He doesn’t write fan fiction but wrote The Friendly Dragon, a short story which was published on the Words and More blog.

Ultimately, fan fiction is a way to revisit the wizarding world “I’m sure everybody will want to read the books and watch the movies over and over again,” said Chopra.

By Bijal Vachharajani on July 07 2011 6.30pm
Photos by Parikshit Rao

Hot property

Posted on by bijalv

http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/hot-property

South Mumbai kids have a new summer hangout

south mumbai, summer activity, ncpa, workshops, dance, Theatre

Mumbai kids have yet another annual event to add to their busy summer activity calendar. The National Centre for the Performing Arts is kick-starting the second edition of Summer Fiesta, their month-long festival which brings together 23 workshops, five plays and four films for children.

Kids can participate in a range of workshops in theatre, dance and music that explores the literary works of William Shakespeare and Shel Silverstein, introduces children to the basics of dance forms such as jazz dance and kathak and also acquaints them with genres such as comedy, horror and tragedy in theatre. The NCPA is also partnering with the WorldKids Foundation to screen films such as The Wanderer, Riddle in a Bottle, Jane and the Dragon: Dragon’s Tail and Winky’s Horse.

Deepa Gahlot, who heads the theatre and film departments at the NCPA, said that the fiesta is an effort to get children interested in arts and culture. “Over a period of time, parents are realising that children need to do things beyond academics,” she said. “Summer Fiesta is a good way for children to be exposed to theatre, dance and music. It’s fun but not competitive. It’s a space where parents can come and leave their children for a few hours and the kids can meet others of their age.”

Amrita Lahiri, the head of dance programming at the NCPA, is curating the dance workshops, which focus on four different dance forms – bharatanatyam, mohiniattam, jazz and kathak. “You clearly can’t learn dance in five days,” said Lahiri. “But the workshops will kindle an interest in the children at least.” The workshops will culminate in a performance by the participants.

While the dance and film activities are being curated by the NCPA, Theatre Professionals and Poor Box Productions are offering theatre workshops. “We have got workshops through the day, so kids can come right from morning, spend the whole day here and also see plays or attend film screenings,” said Jehan Manekshaw, the co-founder of Theatre Professionals, a group that teaches drama in schools. “What we are offering is a team of instructors who can go in and take a particular subject and break it down so the kids can understand it. The workshops are more about having fun and sneaking in the learning.”

For instance, actor Shaun Williams is conducting “Acting Shmacting with Shaun Sir”, a workshop where kids will go through the elements of performance and scene work. Williams will get the kids to enact a scene using different styles. “The kids will take a scene and do it melodramatically or as a horror story or a farce,” said Manekshaw. He added that while the children would have fun in the rehearsal room, at the end of the module, they would have understood what it takes to be an actor and be able to choose from a range of performance styles.

By Bijal Vachharajani on April 29 2011

Films division

Posted on by bijalv

http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/films-division
Satyajit Bhatkal talks to Time Out about India’s first flying child superhero in his debut film Zokkomon

zokkomon, satyajit bhatkal, darsheel safary, superhero movies, movies for kids

Zokkomon is Satyajit Bhatkal’s directorial debut. He has previously been part of the Lagaan film production unit, written a book called The Spirit of Lagaan and directed a documentary titled Madness in the Desert. Bhatkal spoke to Bijal Vachharajani about India’s first flying child superhero.

What made you decide to make a superhero film?
I didn’t set out to write a superhero film. The larger abstract idea about the film was: “Can you turn your weakness into your strength?” That’s the premise for Kunal’s character. In Zokkomon, Kunal discovers the hero within and begins his journey of adventure and transformation to become a superhero.

Tell us about the decision to cast Darsheel Safary?
Darsheel was a very natural choice. He’s not only one of India’s best child actors but even one of the country’s best actors. He can do drama, action and comedy. It was a joy working with him – he’s quite loveable and spontaneous. And yet, he’s only a child. The moment the shot is done, he will be back to playing his video games.

There has been a spate of superhero books and movies for children. How is Zokkomon different?
These books inhabit a different cultural space. I have enjoyed Harry Potter and [books by] Eoin Colfer [author of the Artemis Fowl series]. Zokkomon, you realise, is based in this country and is about Indian situations. It is not an imitation of Spider-Man or Batman. He is as cool as them, but he is our cool guy.

 By Bijal Vachharajani on April 14 2011