The need of the hour is to bring our country’s rich archival material of national and cultural significance into the public domain, veteran film and theatre actor Kulbhushan Kharbanda has said.
He said this while inaugurating a ten-day-long audio-visual exhibition on “25 years of audiovisual journey: recalling through equipment and documentation” at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts here on Wednesday.
The actor said Delhiites are fortunate to have an institution like the IGNCA, which has a huge collection of items related to arts and culture.
“I am not a technical person but the range of technical products on display have given me a new perspective. As the country celebrates 100 years of cinema, our Hindi film industry has progressed technically. Sometimes, film connoisseurs get irritated when in some of the contemporary films songs, the main characters are not shown singing like it was the norm in earlier films. But songs will always be cherished by film goers.”
Admitting that technical advancement has introduced a new culture which is closer to the West, the actor said: “The world has shrunk and instead of being jingoistic, we have to live like citizens of the world.”
He said the exhibits featured at the IGNCA should be showcased at places like Mumbai’s Nehru Centre.
“I frequent the Nehru Centre to rummage through materials related to our country’s culture and arts. Today’s youth is aware that our country has a rich cultural heritage and those who seek to gain knowledge about this, should visit places like IGNCA and the Nehru Centre.”
An interesting exhibition on the Brhadisvara Temple in Thanjavur is also on at the IGNCA. It features large paintings highlighting the architectural heritage of the temple.
Artistic design of the temple has been compared to a bio-organism where each part is related to the whole.
“It is not just an architectural monument but a living tradition that has served as a centre for social, economic and political life. The IGNCA has initiated study of this temple at several levels to investigate its multi-layered and multi-dimensional personality,” said IGNCA Member-Secretary Dipali Khanna.
