Terence Rodrigues, an art historian and author, says that prices of Indian modern and contemporary art has risen “a staggering 485 per cent” in the last 10 years. This is being followed by “The Five Rays of Raza”, a major exhibition of the artist’s work organised by Tanya Baxter Contemporary, from December 3 until January 31 next year at the King’s Road Gallery.
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The rare photograph of the two friends, who had not seen each other for a while, is perhaps worth more than one of their paintings.Ī series of prints by Husain and Raza’s paintings are being previewed in London at Art London, one of London’s leading contemporary art fairs. The grand old men of Indian art, Maqbool Fida Husain, 94, and France-based Syed Haider Raza, 87, met in London last week for lunch and a good gossip. Raza Spreading Magic: (From left) Nisha Paul, Matthew Spacie and Annanya Sarin “It was a delightful experience on a crisp, sunny day,” the high commissioner told me later. The process was fast-tracked because of President Pratibha Patil’s impending state visit. Indian High Commissioners in London occasionally get taken for a ride but the 25-minute journey Nalin Surie made last week by horse drawn carriage from his residence in Kensington Palace Gardens to Buckingham Palace will be one of the more memorable India’s new man in London will make.Īccompanied by Charles Gray, Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, Surie, with wife Poonam sitting beside him, went to present his credentials. Royal treatment: Nalin and Poonam Surie being escorted by Charles Gray Road to Sangam is Indian cinema at its best - and it should have been here at the London Film Festival. But it is Paresh Rawal as Hashmatullah who has turned in the performance of his life. Gandhi’s great-grandson, Tushar Gandhi, puts in a cameo appearance as himself. The lone fight of one man recalls such classics as High Noon and Twelve Angry Men but Hashmatullah raises bigger issues: “If we cannot honour Gandhi, a man who died for us, then what are we doing here in India?” Hashmatullah reopens his shop and sets about repairing the engine despite serious intimidation and violence. He resolves to go against his fellow Muslims, notably the leader of the community, Mohammad Ali Kasuri (Om Puri), and the hard line local mullah, Maulana Qureshi (Pawan Malhotra). It is then that Hashmatullah learns that the engine he is repairing is for the truck which had been used once before to carry Gandhi’s ashes to the sangam of the holy rivers in Allahabad in 1948, and which is due to be rolled out again to transport the contents of the urn found in Orissa. But following a bomb blast in Allahabad and the round-up of innocent Muslims, there is a strike by members of the community who shut their shops. He takes on the job of repairing an old V8 ford engine. I cannot write highly enough about the central performance by Paresh Rawal who is cast as Hashmatullah, a motor mechanic by trade and a devout Muslim in his private life. Such a film is Road to Sangam which is based on a real event - the discovery of an urn containing Gandhi’s ashes in a bank vault in Orissa in 1997. When it comes to touching the human soul, though, it is actually Indians who sometimes make movies of the kind of which Americans and Europeans appear incapable in today’s technology-driven climate. It was just after Quentin Tarantino had boastfully told a press conference after a screening of Inglourious Basterds: “I am not an American filmmaker - I make movies for the planet Earth.”
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The movie’s general release in India has been postponed but I was first tipped off about Road to Sangam in Cannes in May, saw a promotional DVD and then subsequently the full film. It has been made by two relative newcomers, Amit Chheda, its producer, and Amit Rai, who scripted and directed the film using a lot of local folk in Allahabad. It is by Western and even contemporary Bollywood standards a small affair, shot on location in Allahabad on a budget of not even £1million. In some ways it has a rawness and an integrity which I found even more moving.
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Road to Sangam, I would go so far as to say, is the best Mahatma movie since Attenborough’s Gandhi in 1982. Therefore, it is a matter of regret that it has not been included for the London Film Festival which begins on Wednesday, October 14. The best Indian movie for years - and I know absolutely no one will agree with me - is Road to Sangam.
Tour de force: Paresh Rawal in Road to Sangam
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