Over 50 years ago, a young artist named Rani Pooviah lived in Chennai, and taught at the Government College of Fine Arts. One of very few women in the field at that time, she was a gifted artist, a beloved teacher, and an integral part of the group of visionary artists, led by K.C.S. Paniker, who founded Cholamandal Artists’ Village in the 1960s.

A tragic accident cut short her life and her career, but not before she had made a significant contribution to the Madras Movement. That contribution was in danger of being forgotten, but now, her legacy has been enshrined in the K.C.S. Paniker Museum of the Madras Movement, in the form of a painting donated by P.M. Belliappa, in association with the Coorg Association of Madras.

GLARING OMISSION

“I’ve been working at finding her works for some time,” said Belliappa, who knew Rani and her family personally. “Last year, I finally did. It had been haunting me that her paintings weren’t a part of the Museum. It was a glaring omission, a serious lacuna.”

“Rani and I both come from the area of Kodagu in Coorg, and she’s the only artist of such distinction to have come from there,” he adds. “So this donation was meaningful to me in more ways than one.”

For S. Nandagopal, who runs the museum, seeing this painting was a journey back in time. “When I joined the college as a student, Rani was teaching History of Art,” he says. “I remember, the first thing she said in class was that we weren’t going to talk about Greek or French art history, but about what some of our own great artists such as Janakiraman had done. That was a wonderful thing.”

Both men recall her being a vivacious and beautiful woman. “She was so exuberant, and she talked to us about a lot more than just art,” says Nandagopal.

After nearly a decade at the College, she got married and left for the U.S. That was where tragedy struck — Rani was in a car accident that left her in a coma for 13 years, never to recover.

“Her husband sent us some slides of works she did in the U.S.,” says Nandagopal. “They were incredible. If only she’d lived, she would have done some truly great work.”

The painting that has been donated to the Museum is one done by Rani in 1962, and captures her own particular style.

“When you look at her paintings, you see pure art, not bogged down by commercialism,” he says. “How sad it would be if younger artists never even knew who Rani was.”

Making sure the work of the Madras Movement artists is not forgotten is the purpose behind the Museum. “We’re in the process of acquiring more and more older works to try and fill the gaps and document the Movement completely,” says Nandagopal.

Thanks to the generosity of Belliappa, one important gap has been filled, and the memory of a pioneering young woman artist, captured for posterity.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Friday Review> Art / by Divya Kumar / Chennai, March 29th, 2013

Two sweet looking heroines Ramya Barna and Harshika Poonacha have been finalized for ‘Premaya Namaha’. In addition to it the new hero Fayaz Khan son of former minister of Karnataka Jamir Ahmed a strong Janata Dal Secular politician a right hand of former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy is making debut.

Fayaz Khan has taken training from Anupam Kher School of acting in Mumbai and gearing up for a love story film. Bhuvan is another hero of the film.

Meanwhile Producer Niyaaz Khan who announced ‘Enidu Manasali’ in the last year coming from Mumbai is introducing Ankith as music director and Harish Nayak is the cameraman.

A politician son becoming hero is not for the first time in Kannada cinema. Kumar Bangarappa, Madhu Bangarappa, Ajay Gundu Rao, Rakesh son of Siddaramaiah are some of the examples already in the pages of history of Kannada cinema.

Jamir Ahmed former minister in JDS ruled Karnataka state son Fayaz Khan is new addition.

source: http://www.indiaglitz.com / Home / Saturday, April 06th, 2013

Chennai :

It’s been years since he chatted about art and life while eating Coorg food with his friend, the late painter Rani Nanjappa, but artist S G Vasudev remembers it as clearly as if it was yesterday. “My late wife Arnawaz and I spent most of our evenings at her house. We were extraordinarily close,” he says.

On Thursday, he will be returning to those years during a function organised by the Coorg Association of Madras to remember one of the few women painters of Madras of the 1960s. Former IAS officer P M Belliappa will donate one of Nanjappa’s paintings to the museum at Cholamandal Artists’ Village.

“Coorg has few artists of repute and I felt it was a glaring omission that Rani’s work was not in the museum, which traces the Madras movement she was part of,” says Belliappa, who knew Nanjappa as a child. Belliappa bought two of her works recently and decided to donate a figurative canvas from 1962 to the museum, while retaining the abstract she did later in her life.

Born Rani Pooviah in the early 1940s, she studied art in Chennai at Stella Maris and College of Arts and Crafts. She was one of principal K C S Paniker’s favourite students and taught at the college later. “She was vivacious and well-read with a wonderful sense of humour and brilliant organisational skills,” says Vasudev.

Her student, sculptor S Nandagopal, remembers her as vivacious and striking personality who made art fun. “I was a physics student and never planned to be an artist,” he says. “But Rani was so passionate about art and could spot talent and inspire people.” Nanjappa moved to the US in the 1970s after she got married and continued to hold shows there. “She wanted to return. Looking back to India can be problematic for an artist,” says Vasudev. In March 1982, she went into a coma following a serious car accident, from which she never recovered.

Nanjappa’s work is described as being balanced and contemplative yet full of energy and colour. She drew inspiration from large kolams and colourful rangolis. Writing for Illinois Art Council in Chicago, she said, “The complex geometric patterns of kolam in white, pure and strong and the colour contrast in the rangoli helped me discover geometric forms in Indian dance and music. For example, in Bharatanatyam, besides the graceful rhythm, there are strong angular movements, giving ideas of geometrical patterns traced in the air. These are my inspiration.”

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Chennai / by Shalini Umachandran, TNN / March 21st, 2013

Actress Harshika Poonacha, who is a favourite for stage shows and dance performances iat award ceremonies, has landed her first special dance number. The actress will be grooving to a song set to tune by Arjun Janya in the upcoming film Case No 18/9.

“I’ve gained confidence in my dancing abilities after the many stage shows I’ve done in the recent past. I cannot wait to dance to this song. It is a disco number,” says Harshika. The film, which is the remake of the Tamil hit Vazhakku Enn 18/9, features Shweta Pandit, Sindhu Loknath and Niranjan in the lead roles. While the original didn’t have any special song sequence, director Mahesh Rao has said that he has tweaked the script to include the song.

“I have never made a special appearance in a dance number for any film before this. It was after listening to the song that I was convinced to accept the offer,” says Harshika, who coincidentally happened to act in director Mahesh’s Murali Meets Meera, where her cameo won a lot of applause.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> Regional> Entertainment> Kannada /by Sunayana Suresh, TNN / March 18th, 2013