Notes, puppets, talks… the best of 2 cultures

January 29, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 08:37 am IST - PUDUCHERRY:

PUDUCHERRY, 28/01/2015. Lieutenant Governor Ajay Kumar Singh, speaking at the Pondy  Partages  (India-French Festival 2015 ).  Photo: T_Singaravelou

PUDUCHERRY, 28/01/2015. Lieutenant Governor Ajay Kumar Singh, speaking at the Pondy Partages (India-French Festival 2015 ). Photo: T_Singaravelou

The French zest for the eclectic cultural experience is bringing to the city a month-long extravaganza of fusion music, puppet shows, literary debate and film screenings.

The curtain went up on ‘Pondy Partages-2015’ hosted by Alliance Francaise on its Maison Colambani campus with French writer and Le Monde newspaper journalist Florence Noiville and former French Minister Martin Hirsch presiding over an animated literary discussion —entirely in French. The speakers also engaged the cognoscenti in the gathering in a Q&A.

The literary evening set the ball rolling for what has been designed as 27-day programme featuring an eclectic mix of 27 events, which include 12 concerts, six films, four talks, a dance recital, a play, a puppet show, a seminar and a photography exhibition.

The photography exhibition, ‘War and Colonies’ (1914-1918), scheduled for January 30 is one of the highlights of the Indo-French festival and is the brainchild of Alliance Francaise director Olivier Litvine, who had first put together the exhibition in his previous posting in Dhaka. The exhibition portrays war front scenes from WW1 and focuses especially on the multiculturalism of colonial soldiers, including Indians, who fought in the great war.

An estimated 6.5 lakh colonial troops were drafted into the thick of action on the European battlefields of World War I. While France assigned over 2 lakh workers from its empire that fanned out across Algeria, Indochina, Morocco, Tunisia and Madagascar, Britain mobilised 1.5 million men from the Indian subcontinent, including 1,50,000 Indian soldiers.

Launching the fete, Lieutenant Governor A. K. Singh couldn’t help remarking that it was ironic that he should be speaking in English at what had turned out to be an all French show.

“I don’t’ understand French except the word ‘merci’. If I stay in Puducherry long enough, I have resolved to learn Tamil…and now French as well,” he said.

Philippe Janvier-Kamiyam, French Consul General, said it the event was the right start for the new team at the Alliance Francaise here.

Tourism Minister P. Rajavelu and Tourism Secretary R. Mihir Verdhan were among the special invitees at Maison Colombani.

Alliance Francaise president Lalit Verma and vice-president S. Anandavadivelou participated.

‘Pondy Partages 2015’ is a collaborative effort also involving the Department of Tourism, Puducherry and the Navayuga Consultancy.

The event has been pitched to surpass in scale the editions of Bonjour India (2009 and 2013) and the Indo-French festival in 2014, which attracted about 15,000 footfalls for a series of art and music events.

According to organisers, they have tried to bring the best of a spectrum of French art and culture with the “added spice of Indian flavours”. The idea is also to scale up the visibility of the city during the peak season of international tourists, organisers say.

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