The maximum India festival, which begins on March 1, will have nearly 70 performances, exhibitions and other events, featuring some 500 artistes. It will include a number of dance, music and theater performances, art and traditional crafts exhibitions, panel discussions on literature and cinema and a feast of exquisite Indian cuisine.
“I want our audience to experience the beauty and magnificence of India,” Alicia Adams, the curator of the festival, told GIN. “We are looking at the art and culture of the entire country.”
The Indian Council for Cultural Relations, which will fly in eight troupes from different parts of India, and the Embassy of India in Washington are co-sponsors of the festival.
One of the highlights of maximum India will be the world premiere of an orchestral composition by Zakir Hussain, paying tribute to India. Conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, music director of the in-house National Symphony Orchestra, it will also feature, besides Hussain on tabla, Indian vocalists Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan and American mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor.
Other notable performers include many of the revered figures in Indian classical music and dance, such as vocalists Rajan and Sajan Misra, violin maestro L. Subramaniam, mandolin great U. Srinivas, renowned dancers Madhavi Mudgal, Alarmel Valli and Shantala Shivalingappa.
Bollywood, along with bhangra, is also part of the show. The 90-minute Ticket to Bollywood will showcase the sights and sounds of India’s commercial film industry.
Actors Shabana Azmi, Sharmila Tagore and Nandita Das and writers Salman Rushdie and Nayantara Sahgal will speak at various events.
The venue for many of the maximum India shows will be the Indian-themed Monsoon Club, specially built at the Terrace Gallery of the Kennedy Center, overlooking the Potomac River. Designed by Mumbai architect, Kapil Gupta, it is visualized as a carpet of half-a-million raindrops frozen in space.
The festival, which is expected to cost seven million dollars, has been in the works for three years, according to Adams, who is also the vice president of international programming at the Kennedy Center. “The last one and a half years, we have been really focused,” she said. The curator, who’s responsible for choosing artistes and curatorial performances, added that she and her staff had made six trips to India to see and evaluate artists and shows.
As with nearly all of the 2,000-odd annual Kennedy Center performances and events, maximum India is being supported through sponsorships and private donations. Two of its major sponsors are Tata and PepsiCo, whose Indian-American CEO, Indra K. Nooyi, is one of the co-chairs of the festival.
In recent years, the Kennedy Center, named after America’s 35th president, John F. Kennedy, has organized a number of similar festivals celebrating arts and cultures of different countries and regions. In the past six years, it hosted three festivals — one each on China (2005), Japan (2008) and the Arab world (2009).
The festival is the most ambitious Indian cultural extravaganza in the US since the mid-1980s, and it comes a quarter century after the Festival India in the United States, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in June 1985.
As part of the Festival of India, which cost more than four million dollars, an array of events celebrating the Indian art, culture and history were held across the US in ’85 and ’86. One of the popular events was the Aditi and Mela exhibitions, hosted by the Smithsonian Institution at the Mall in Washington.
Dr. Shambhu Banik, who led a troop of volunteers at the Smithsonian back then, said the 1985 fare was an introduction to India for many Americans. “That festival exposed the Indian culture to a large part of America,” said Banik, a clinical psychologist.
Curator Adams said one of the goals of maximum India is to increase the awareness about India’s rich and diverse culture in the US.
“People (in the US) know the robustness of the Indian economy, but I don’t think they know the arts and culture of the country,” Adams said. “This is an opportunity to showcase them in one of the premier cultural houses of the country.”
Key performers and events
The “maximum India” events are grouped into roughly seven categories: music, dance, theater, literature, films, exhibitions and cuisines. Here are some notable performers and events:
Music: Besides the world premiere of the National Symphony Orchestra’s Zakir Hussain-composed tribute to India, several renowned practitioners of classical and contemporary Indian music are scheduled to perform. They include Pandits Rajan and Sajan Mishra, L. Subramaniam, U. Srinivas, tenor Anando Mukerjee, Washingtonian and ghazal singer Vatsala Mehra, bands such as Parikrama, Emergence, Soulmate and Indo-Pak Coalition.
Dance: More than a dozen dance performances will be featured, including a joint odissi-bharatanatyam by Madhavi Mudgal and Alarmel Valli; kuchipudi by Shantala Shivalingappa, kathakali by Kerala Kalamandalam Troupe and Bollywood and bhangra shows.
Films: More than 10 film-related events are scheduled, including the screening of movies such as Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Four Women (2007), Deepa Mehta’s Fire (1996), Ketan Mehta-directed Mirch Masala (1985) and Mandi (1983) by Shyam Benegal. There will also be discussions featuring directors of these films and actors such as Shabana Azmi, Sharmila Tagore and Nandita Das.
Theater: Seven theater events are planned, among them, plays starring Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi.
Literature: Six separate panel discussions on literature will be held, featuring, among others, sociologist Ashis Nandy, literary critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, writers Salman Rushdie and Nayantara Sahgal, and historian William Dalrymple.
Exhibitions: At least 10 exhibits of paintings, sculpture, handicrafts and jewelry will be held. Artists and artisans whose works will be on display include Bharti Kher, Jatin Das, Jitish Kallat, Reena Saini Kallat, J. Niranjan, Satya Narayan Lal Karn and Moti Karn.
Cuisines: There will be a feast of cuisines from various parts of India, prepared by 13 chefs from different regions of the country. Hemant Oberoi, executive grand chef of the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers in Mumbai, will also give lectures on cooking.
