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By:

Shoumojit Banerjee

27 August 2024 at 9:57:52 am

Sands of Empire: Revisiting Khartoum

If you thought Lawrence of Arabia (1962) was the only great desert classic, think again. Overshadowed for decades by David Lean’s masterpiece, Khartoum (1966) remains one of the great neglected historical epics. Directed by Basil Dearden and anchored by commanding performances from Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier, it deserves a place alongside the decade’s finest large-scale historical dramas. While it falls short of the towering achievement of Lawrence of Arabia, it remains a worthy...

Sands of Empire: Revisiting Khartoum

If you thought Lawrence of Arabia (1962) was the only great desert classic, think again. Overshadowed for decades by David Lean’s masterpiece, Khartoum (1966) remains one of the great neglected historical epics. Directed by Basil Dearden and anchored by commanding performances from Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier, it deserves a place alongside the decade’s finest large-scale historical dramas. While it falls short of the towering achievement of Lawrence of Arabia, it remains a worthy epic unjustly overshadowed by Lean’s film. More importantly, it belongs to a now-vanished tradition of historical filmmaking that believed audiences could appreciate history, ideas and spectacle in equal measure. Set in 19th century Sudan and Egypt, Khartoum sees the flamboyant General Charles ‘Chinese’ Gordon, played with tremendous conviction by Heston, square off against Muhammad Ahmad, the self-proclaimed ‘Mahdi’ or the ‘Expected One,’ portrayed by Olivier. Amid tangled imperial geopolitics, the British government dispatches Gen. Gordon to oversee the evacuation of Sudan, where the Mahdi has ignited a rebellion against Egyptian and British authority. The Mahdi was a nineteenth-century Osama bin Laden-like prototype – a ruthlessly charismatic religious figure capable of rallying thousands through a potent mix of faith, prophecy and political revolt. The duel between Gordon and the Mahdi is alone worth the price of admission. Heston, relishing the opportunity to play something far more nuanced than his usual larger-than-life heroes, delivers what may well be the finest performance of his career. Sporting a British accent, Heston’s Gordon is a vain man (with a monumental ego) driven equally by courage and conviction. Heston creates a character far more interesting than his celebrated household roles of Judah Ben-Hur or Moses. Indeed, Heston personally regarded Khartoum as one of his favourite films as the role allowed him to move beyond heroic certainty and explore the contradictions of a deeply complex historical figure. Olivier’s performance has long attracted controversy because of his use of blackface. Yet as an acting performance, it remains extraordinarily compelling. His Mahdi is intelligent and magnetic; a man whose seething fanaticism and certainty of purpose makes him a lethal opponent. The conflict between Gordon and the Mahdi is not simply military but philosophical. Each sees himself as the instrument of a higher cause and recognises something admirable in the other. Their exchanges possess an intellectual weight seldom encountered in contemporary blockbusters. That quality owes much to the literate screenplay by playwright Robert Ardrey who has his characters debate faith, empire and political expediency in scintillating dialogues. The supporting cast is equally distinguished. Sir Ralph Richardson is magnificent as the British Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone who embodies British pragmatism and Machiavellian statecraft in equal measure. He admires Gordon while recognising that empires cannot be run according to the impulses of heroic individuals. Richardson captures the tension between moral rhetoric and political calculation with a finesse that only a legend of his stature could. One should perhaps be thankful that such a film got made at all. Never mind today’s audiences, the tangled skein of late 19th century British imperial politics was hardly an easy sell for audiences in the 1960s as well. Americans, in particular, would likely have had little clue about Sudan, Khartoum, Gordon or the Mahdist revolt. Yet Khartoum succeeds brilliantly in bringing this forgotten era to life. The political intrigues of Whitehall and the desperate military situation on the Nile acquire genuine dramatic force. It belongs to a period when filmmakers trusted audiences to listen and follow ideas rather than watch mindless action. The 1960s were the golden age of the literate historical epic. Films such as Spartacus, El Cid, The Fall of the Roman Empire and The Charge of the Light Brigade combined spectacle with serious engagement with history. Khartoum stands proudly within that tradition. Gordon and the Mahdi have long gone. The British Empire has vanished. But Sudan remains trapped in seemingly perpetual cycles of conflict. Coups, civil wars, military strongmen, competing centres of authority and devastating violence have haunted the country for decades. The headlines change; the instability persists. That is what makes Khartoum feel unexpectedly contemporary. Beneath its grand costumes and imperial pageantry lies a story about a state struggling to define itself, about rival claims to legitimacy, and about the dangerous collision between political power and religious conviction. 60 years after its release, Khartoum remains not merely a superb film but a haunting reminder that history, especially in Sudan, has a habit of repeating itself.

Professionals pursue musical dreams with gusto

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Professionals pursue musical dreams with gusto

Mumbai: Nandan Yalgi, 55, always wanted to learn a western musical instrument from his childhood.

However, it was only in his 50s that he took the first steps towards achieving that dream.

Since then, the Mumbai-based managing director of a logistics company who began studying the violin in 2018, and has a hectic schedule takes the time out for his weekly classes.

Like Yalgi, Sudarshana Ghosh, a senior corporate banking lawyer always harboured a similar desire to learn western music. So when a colleague offered to sell her his violin, it rekindled her interest. She decided that the time had come to learn to play the instrument.

Both Yalgi and Ghosh take personal violin tuitions from Averell D’Souza, a Santa Cruz, Mumbai-based violinist who plays for the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI). D’Souza has been teaching for over 30 years, balancing his home music classes with the schedule of the SOI which frequently plays overseas.

As Yalgi puts it, “I chose the violin because it is the one instrument that replicates vocals.” Moreover, he adds, it is easy to carry around. For Ghosh, who had a “sense of rhythm” from her young days, the violin is an emotional connect for her, and that when she begins to play, “tears just naturally flow.”

D’Souza, who turns 50 in October, tutors many young boys and girls but has noticed that recently, those keen to learn are in their middle years. D’Souza comes from a musical family. While his father plays the violin, his daughter, Althea, 16, is a gifted pianist.

For senior corporate professionals like Ghosh and Yalgi, learning a challenging instrument like the violin is demanding as they have to balance out a hectic corporate life, and “take out the time” to practice. Yalgi says he has even taken his violin on a business trip to China so that he would miss practising. “In four years, he has rarely missed a class,” he says. He even considered taking exams from the London School of Music but due to a miss match in exam dates, was not able to.

Both Ghosh and Yalgi are regulars at SOI concerts as well as many other recitals including jazz and chamber orchestras.

As Ghosh says, “When I attend a concert, I am confirmed in my choice to learn the violin.” In her younger years, she says, coming from an academically-inclined Bengali family, music was seen as a hobby and not as a profession. Growing up, she was attracted to keyboards and drums, but never really focussed on learning western music. However, her father urged her not to give up her dream to learn western music, and that she should learn it one day.

In Mumbai, apart from private teachers like D’Souza, there are online and in-person tuitions available at the Furtado School of Music. Established in 2011, it provides musical training in variety of instruments inclusing the saxophone, Ukelele, piano and keyboards as well as western and Indian vocals. Also promoting western music through concerts and education is the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation, set up in 1995 in memory of violinist, Mehli Mehta, the father of Zubin Mehta, conductor emeritus of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra.

While Yalgi wants to give his music exams, and has progressed well enough to take the level 2 exams directly, Ghosh says that she hasn’t so far thought deeply about her musical aspirations but says that playing the violin ‘takes me to a world of peace and quiet, and like legal work demands concentration.”

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