| Invitation |
| Review |
| Indo-American Arts Council presents Prabuddha Das Gupta’s - EDGE OF FAITH |
| www.news.avstv.com PRABUDDHA DASGUPTA LAUNCHES ‘EDGE OF FAITH’ WITH MIRA NAIR IN NYC September 8, 2009 By E. Nina Rothe |
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When I think of Indian culture in NYC, my mind makes an instant, automatic association with the Indo-American Arts Council. Throughout the years, Aroon Shivdasani and her organization have been responsible for turning me - an Indian arts, fashion and cinema aficionada - into a more knowledgeable and insightful lover of Desi heritage, humanities and traditions. This past Thursday evening, the IAAC brought together two tremendous talents inside the Aicon Gallery on Great Jones Street, in lower Manhattan. It was an evening of easy conversation between photographer Prabuddha Dasgupta and filmmaker Mira Nair, in honor of the release of Dasgupta’s book of photographs on his beloved Goa titled ‘Edge of Faith’. Dasgupta, who admits to being a self-taught photographer, has delved deep into the heart and soul of a Goa that is slowly, yet steadily disappearing due to the pressures of having become a ‘property destination’. Meaning a place where unscrupulous developers go to buy cheap, destroy swiftly and build big. Showing a ‘Goa that is very rarely seen’ as Nair pointed out, his photographs are filled with the longing of ages gone by and capture the atmosphere of a place that could just as easily be in Cuba, Brazil or even a sleepy town in the south of Italy. To explain it in very simple terms, it’s ‘Bobby’ meets ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ with a bit of ‘Marriage Italian Style’ thrown in. When asked by Nair how he managed to get so many to open their homes and lives to his lens, in a community which typically doesn’t welcome foreigners - meaning ‘anyone who is not from Goa’ according to Dasgupta - the talented and innately elegant photographer answered that it was a process achieved over ‘many glasses of Fenny’, the traditional Goan drink made from coconut or cashew fruit. About the conspicuous absence of youth in his Goan photographs, he admitted that was ‘not a choice but simply what was available; the young are going ahead’ while the elder generation remains behind.  Mira Nair looked stunning in a dark sapphire blue silk kurta, black churidad and ruby flats, always highlighted by her intelligence and spirit, while Prabuddha Dasgupta’s glistening silver cropped hair framed his intense eyes, all the ‘accessories’ he needed to pull off a simple raw linen shirt and skinny jeans. His girlfriend, the stunning internationally-renowned model Lakshmi Menon, complemented his look in a long, raw linen dress with unfussy hair.On the anniversary of the first day of shooting for the film which started it all ‘Salaam Bombay’ - that most heartfelt of art films - Mira Nair stated that making a commercial advertisement for her was like working on an ‘anti-film. That medium to me is the anti-truth’. When she inquired with Dasgupta, he instead admitted that ‘I don’t make that distinction’ between his more commercial work in fashion and his art books. He continued ‘I need to be among people. I would collapse if I had to photograph like in the book, always’. With fashion photography, he said ‘I love the fringe benefits, like travel, working with beautiful women, the exotic locations and the money’ but also confessed that ‘in the art community I am not liked for that’.  Dasgupta’s preference for black and white is ‘just about a language, I am more familiar with B & W’, while he admitted his inspirations have been Henri Cartier-Bresson, Chinese and South American photography. And his philosophy in life is simple ‘I have always tried to live from the heart, I believe in letting the heart lead you where it wants to go’, which ultimately has led him and Menon to move permanently to a home in North Goa. He’s always been inspired by his Malayalam mother, who fell in love with his Bengali father and gave up her sculpting career for her belief in the ‘power of love’. Dasgupta admits to having been very close to her and admiring her ‘free spirit’, which he has obviously inherited.While the evening would have been quite magical on its own, the night ended with some sparkling conversation outside the gallery, courtesy of a group of filmmakers, artists and actors I respect and love. Zoya and Farhan Akhtar’s presence brought this surreal ‘Luck By Chance’ moment to NYC for the night, with their brilliant characters and friendly banter, while filmmaker Joseph Matthew and his star Samrat Chakrabarti reminded me of their poignant film ‘Bombay Summer’ which New Yorkers will get a chance to see in the fall at the MIAAC film festival. Engendered organizers Myna Mukherjee and Jitin Hingorani prompted in me just how much I miss the I-View film festival already, which was only accented by the longing I felt at the end of the night, when we all went our separate ways saying ‘Till we meet again’.  Prabuddha Dasgupta’s book ‘Edge of Faith’, which features a touching introduction by renowned writer William Dalrymple, is available from the IAAC now and will be in bookstores starting September 15th. |
| http://news.avstv.com/2009/09/08/prabuddha-dasgupta-launches-edge-of-faith-with-mira-nair-in-nyc/ |