A celebration of Indian arts and music as part of the India Culture Week titled ‘Colours of India Festival’ was inaugurated in Nanjing today and will be on display for a week from May 22-26, 2017. It is being jointly organized by Jiangsu Federation of Literary and Art Circles (JFLAC) and Consulate General of India. The event is being organized in pursuance of an agreement between China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC) and Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) about enhancing cultural exchanges between India and China. As part of the celebrations in Nanjing, a photo exhibition, film festival, and a gala performance is being organized during the course of the week beginning 22^nd May. 

Photo Exhibition 

An exhibition on Buddhism – ‘Buddhist Heritage of India’ comprising more than ninety photographs of various prominent Buddhist sites/monasteries from across India is being showcased at the prestigious Jiangsu Modern Art Museum from may 22 – 26, 2017. The exhibition offers a glimpse of Buddhism in its birth place – India. The exhibition portrays the life of Buddha, his journey to enlightenment, and spread of Buddhism as religion, philosophy and way of life. The set of pictures were sent by the External Publicity Division of the Ministry of External Affairs of Government of India, and put together by ace photographer Binoy K Behl. 

Indian Bollywood Film Festival 

Given the tremendous interest generated by Indian films amongst Chinese audiences, a week-long Indian Film Festival featuring five of India’s most successful recent movies – Tanu Weds Manu, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Jolly LLB, Kahaani, and Manjhi – all in Chinese) are available for viewing as part of the Indian Film Festival at the theatre of Modern Art Museum Jiangsu, Nanjing and auditorium of Nanjing University of the Arts. The festival is expected to provide a panoramic experience of different aspects of Bollywood cinema. 

Gala performance 

The week long celebrations under India Culture Week in Nanjing will include cultural performance from a specially flown in troupe from India titled “Colours of India” at the prestigious Nanjing People’s Theatre on 25^th May evening. The troupe is being sponsored by ICCR, which is India’s premier agency for promoting cultural exchanges abroad. The Gala performance would be rendered by two of the India’s most famous troupes – Charishnu, known for its classical form of rendition, and Bollywood Dreams, which is a contemporary theatrical musical. Charishnu is led by Leela Samson, one of India’s illustrious dancers and brings together in this brilliant and rare production, several pre-eminent dancer- choreographers and their troupes to showcase the richness of India’s dance, martial and percussion arts, in a single presentation called ‘Charishnu’ or ‘the desire to move’.  Aditi Mangaldas in Kathak, Aruna Mohanty in Odissi, Priti Patel in Manipuri and the martial art of Thangta, Sadanam Balakrishnan in Kathakali and Mohini Attam, Uma Mahesh Vinayakaram in the percussions and Leela Samson herself in Bharata Natyam will lead their teams, each style in dialogue with the other and all coming together in a most spectacular finale.  This production showcases India in all its brilliance, versatility, color, rhythm and grace, while exposing the viewer to the spread of India’s greatest arts. 

Love Story – a Bollywood Musical, has been produced by Teamworks, India’s leading theatrical production company, is a story of dreams. A young man, the Hero, travels from his village to the big city in search of a bright future. Amidst the cacophony of new people, new places, new sounds and new cityscapes he meets the Heroine, who is the woman of his dreams and is spellbound. The highlights of the show are gorgeous colours and exotic costumes, spectacular fight sequences, romance and a scintillating collection of show stopping songs including – foot tapping tunes, love ballads – all choreographed into stunning dance routines. 

All in all, the Festival endeavours to bring unique flavor of India to the people of Nanjing, through an interactive and immersive experience of various facets of Indian art forms, and is expected to bring a deeper understanding of India to the art-loving people of Nanjing. 

Nanjing (Jiangsu)

22 May, 2017