Madan Gopal Singh

Madan Gopal Singh is an Indian composer, actor, screenwriter, film theorist, lyricist and editor.

Overview

Singh's doctoral dissertation is the first known semiotic study of some of the seminal texts from Indian cinema. He has written and lectured extensively on cinema, art and cultural history. He teaches English Literature at Satyawati College (Evening Classes)^[1].

He delivered the keynote address at the Third Cinema Focus Symposium as part of the Birmingham International Film Festival in 1991. He also introduced a package of films on Ritwik Ghatak and His Tradition at ICA [1], London with a historical perspective on Indian cinema. He also conducted a five-day workshop on Tarkovsky at the World Literature Centre[2] in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

• Served as Executive Editor, Journal of Arts and Ideas[3], New Delhi for nearly a decade.

• Served as a Contributing Editor, Cinemaya – the Asian Film Quarterly, for a number of years.

• Member, HOD's Committee on the Inaugural Show for the Frankfurt World Book Fair, 2006

• Member, General Council of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, 2006

• Visitor's nominee to Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, 2006

Writing

Singh is a scriptwriter, having written films like Rasayatra[4] on the well-known Hindustani classical vocalist Mallikarjun Mansur - a film that won the National Award for the best short film in 1995. The film was directed by Nandan Kudhyadi. He wrote the screenplay (jointly with the director of the film, Anup Singh), dialogues and lyrics for a feature-length film, Name of a River[5], [6], [7] (2002), based on the life of the late Ritwik Kumar Ghatak. The film has won the G. Arvindan Award, and the Silver Dhow at the Zanzibar International Film Festival 2002.

He also wrote the Toona adaptation from Baba Bulle Shah which was rendered by Shubha Mudgal for Mira Nair's Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love[8], and he wrote dialogues for Kaya Taran[9], [10] a film based on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The film was directed by Sashi Kumar and won the G Arvindan Award 2004.

Wrote lyrics for the Aman Ali Ayan Ali album of lounge music, Truth, produced by Times Music, 2007.

Wrote lyrics for Ustad Amjad Ali Khan's compositions sung by Pankaj Udhaas, Yaara produced by Music Today October 2007[11] and [12]

Music

He is a singer of Sufi texts and has sung for films like Kumar Shahani's Kasba and Khayalgatha and Mani Kaul's Idiot[13]. As a singer, he travelled with the legendary Kurdo-Persian singer Shahram Nazeri to ancient Sufi towns such as Isfahan, Hamadan & Kermenshah. He also performed at the 2nd Sufi Soul World Music Festival held in Lahore, Pakistan in 2001.

Singh was invited to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival 2002, Washington as a presenter-performer [14]. In all, he gave/made/conducted 28 concerts, presentations and workshops.

He also composed music for the documentary film on Kashmir- Paradise on a River of Hell[15] directed by Meenu Gaur and Abir Bazaz.

He also composed music for Sabiha Sumar's celebrated Khamosh Pani
[16], [17], [18] – a French-German-Pakistan coproduction. The film has been widely acclaimed and shown the world over. It won the Best Film award at the Locarno Film Festival, 2003

Partial timeline

• September 2004 – invited to make a Lec-Dem presentation at the Intangible Heritage Seminar held in Barcelona as part of the Barcelona Dialog, Forum 2004

• October 2004 performed at "Another Passage to India" [19] festival held in Geneva and Zurich. Also presented Name of a River with the director Anup Singh.

• 2004-2005 – as a specialist commentator in NDTV India's Hum Log in a New Year focus on Sufi music.

• April 2005 – was invited to Lucas Artists Residency Program at the Montalvo Art Center [20], Saratoga, California. He collaborated with the sound engineer David Fulton to do design music for the Indian artist Ranbir Kaleka's[21][22] installation that was subsequently exhibited at the Venice Biennale 2005[23].

• June 2005 – Outlook India, Opinion on Jo Bole So Nihal[24]

• June 2005 – was invited to be part of a prestigious Musician Residency Program called the SOUND RES [25] at San Ceasario, Lecce, Italy. Worked with internationally known, eminent musicians such as Theo Bleckmann, David Cossin, Gregg August, David Sheppard and Luca Tarantino. Gave highly successful concerts and conducted workshops with them.[26]

• July 2005 – was invited to an Artist Residency at Torcito[27] in Otronto, Salento, Italy. Worked on the Punjabi love-legend Heer Ranjha with his musicians from India.

• July 2005 – performed at the Town Hall Festival, Bari, Italy.

• July 2005 – performed at the Experimenta 2005[28], Alberobello, Italy.

• December 2005 - invited to lecture at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune

• January 2006 – composed music for Beyond Partition – a film by Lalit Joshi [29], South Asian Cinema Foundation, London.

• February 2006 – composed music for Fana’a – Ranjha Revisited – a musical by Navtej Johar[30]. It was showcased at the Virasat Festival, Patiala recently.

• May 2006 – participated in the Bonn Biennale, 2006 and appeared as the main chorus in two performances of Agra Bazaar directed by Habib Tanvir

• October 2006 – Conceived and designed the inaugural show of the World Book Fair, Frankfurt[31]

• November 2006 – Presented a package of films at Rio de Janeiro and Auro Preto in an International Festival, Imagem dos Povos, Brazil [32]

• December 2006 – Performed at the Other Festival[33], Chennai

• December 2006 – Performed at Kalakshetra, Chennai

• January 2007 – Performed in the Festival of India[34], Brussels

• April 2007 - MediArtists Concert - (a lot of factually incorrect information at the following website) [35] at Ludhiana

• July 2007 - Moderated a discussion on the Cinematic Time at the Osian-Cinefan Film Festival[36], New Delhi. Participants included eminent filmmaker Mani Kaul[37], cinematographer Anil Mehta [38], KU Mohnan[39] and 'Dilip Verma

• October 2007 - 'Before the Hanging' - a lead article on Bhagat Singh for Tehelka[40], New Delhi

References

1. ^ Satyawati College (Evening) from where he is on two years leave to work as Senior Fellow on the Indian Film Music at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library