Diamond Queen dazzles again

With the help of a live orchestra and modern technology, the woman with whips, quips and swinging hips comes to life

,:BY - ~ LP AYER

ithindia

Wdesignated as the central theme, the Adelaide

OzAsia 201 2 festival began with an event that brought forth two major elements of art - music and cinema - from both India and Australia, in a creative presentation. lr was the screening of a 1930s b lack and white Indian movie ti tled DiamondQ11ec11, with a modern and unconventional Australian orchestra providing a continuous nmsic score as the movie rolJed along Billed as the world premi ere, this event was a novel and enjoyable form of entertainment lasting two hours. The organisers couldn't have chosen a better programme than this screening co herald the fortnight- long festival.

The Ozi\s ia Festival is in its sixth year ru.noi.ng, and tl,e orga nisers make each event distinctive by highlighting the cultural aspects of one of the neighbouring Asian countries, at the same time presenting some top performer s from other South and Somh-East Asian countries.

After watching the SBS show Bol(ywood Star a few months ago won by Teigan Lloyd- Evans, most current generation Oz- Indians may think tl1at this is the first time an Aussie girl has made it to BoUywood. They will be pleasantly smprised, per haps even shocked, to know that the most prominent foreign lass to star in Hindi movies was a Perth girl named Mary Ann Evans, aka Fearless Nadia. She ar ri ved there 80 years before Teigan, who has only gor a look-in tl1anks to J\nuparn Sharma. Nadia however, had a long, lo n g run acring in ti fry films in the 1930s and '40s, with bee latest in 1967 when the actress was in her late 50s.

The acrobatics of Aishwarya in Dboot112 and Katrina KaiJ in Ek Tba Tiger are a Sunday picnic compared to Nadia's bag of tricks way back then. She became popular as tl1e 'Sul cana of stunts' and 'Hunterwali ', after her most popular and d arin g film. However the blonde, blue eyed beauty did not just stop w ith bearing up baddi es, but delivered valuable messages on female equality, INDIAN education and empowerment. At one point in the film Di11111011d Queen she says, "If you want freedom, you need to educate women." This was at the height o f British suppression of the Indian freedom movement. And it is a credit to the patriotic spii:it of the Wadia Brothers, producers of the film, who a llowed such lines co be included. Some bistorians of the Indian filmdom believe that the 'angry young man' persona of Amitabh Bacbchan might have had its roots in Nadia's role, combining snmts with social tl1emes.

The show "Fearless Nadia: The woman with tl,e whip' comprised of screening important sections of her fi lm Di,1111011dQ11eev on a large screen with the Orkestta of the Underground seated in front in tl1e form of an arc.

The orchestra's multicultural mix included traditional lndian in struments like tl,e tabla, sbmai srtra11gi and harmonium along with L1sual western instruments like the trurnpet, drum s, violin, sa.xophone, clarinet, among others. I had some trepidation about how an old lndian mov ie could gel with an unconventional Australian orchestra, to perform as the opening show of a major festival. But soon the trep idation turned into admiration that kept growing with eac h succeeding scene. And it was thanks to the origina.lir:y and creativity of Ben Walsh, the well - known composer and director

The show began with the screening of an interview (given years before her death in 1996, at tl1e age of 88) by au elderly and yet beautiful Nad ia, rem iniscing her movie days. Then, bang!

Scenes from the Dia111011dQueen wi tl1 English sub - titles appeared on the screen wi th tl1e orchestra pla)ring in perfect harmony with those im ages, he lping tl1e audience folJow the sror y to d1e sounds of the live o rc hestra. As me movie was not shown in its fuU length, tl1e missing parts of d1e story were disp layed in a coup le of lin es, so no one missed the p lot. This kept the tempo and conrinuity go ing. A clever ploy indeed!

Unlike today's heroines, r adia delivered her dialogues and sang in good Hindi Single- handedly s he biffed a dozen dad11s at any time, a must act for today's heroes in eve r r South lndian movie. Bue unlike d10se heroes, Nadia's snmts were not brief srints but lasted th e entire length of the film punctuated w ith some slapstick of tl1at era, bringing peals of laughter from the audience very many times.

T he stunts too, were not limited to Nadia on the screen One of the orchestra 's members, violinist Shenzo Gregorio, was hoisted up in a triangular trapeze frame and held in midair as he continued ro p lay his violin rolJing in vertical rotation and also hanging ups ide down. Awesome! Earlier in the show, Ben \Valsb and his dnunmer indulged in some kind of jugafbm1di tapping their shoulders and thighs in perfect unison with the two lrtbla players, one of whom is welJ- known Aneesh Pradhan. Applause galore, welJ-deserved!

As the film ended on a happy note, true to Indian tradition, each member of the orchestra was beam ed onto the big screen playing solo on tl1eir pa rticular instrument. An ingenious u se of the iPad. It was lirting, since the entire show was a blend of today's technology with a n entertainment medium of the last century Adelaide had the privilege of the world premiere and Mumbai.kars will have the opportunity to savom d1is show when it travels tl1ere in November. The older generation can reminisce, the younger ones will reali se that a1J t he tricks and techniques of today's movies are aU old hat, and the Parsees wiU love to see what their sons, the Wadias, along with l ad ia have achieved for the Indian arc world.