Pushkar: The India Mela Quiz

PUSH-KAR
THE INDIA MELA QUIZ
(Music, Entertainment, Literature and
Art)
Written Quiz
Teams of Two
by Siddhanth Rao and Hem Maradia

KQA INDIA MELA QUIZ
• Written quiz with 35 questions totaling 63 points.
• One point for every right answer.
• Good luck!
Format of the Quiz

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Shafiq Syed worked as an auto driver in Bangalore
from 1993 until the early 2010s. Since 2012, he has
been working as an assistant in production
companies making Kannada television soaps.
His biggest claim to fame, about 3 decades ago,
earned him Rs. 15000 over a period of 52 days.
Soon after, his dream ended abruptly and he ended
up homeless.
What was his claim-to-fame? What resulted in his
life turning around in early 2009? Images follow.
01

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
He starred as Krishna in Salaam Bombay!
Slumdog Millionaire
After the success of the film, also known for its child actors, he was spotted
as an autorickshaw driver in Bangalore and brought back into the limelight.
01

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
In the 1990s, the subject of this portrait based a
character named “The Accountant” on a painter
known for his signature style of portraying humans.
The artist returned the favour by painting this
portrait of the author and included references to
the work he was featured in as well.
Identify the painter. What work was he featured in?
Image follows.
02

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Bhupen Khakar
The Moor’s Last Sigh
02

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
In 1984 and once again in 1997, employees of
Navodaya Studio, set up by Appachan in Kochi, had
to install special silver coated plastic screens at
theatres screening a particular film.
The film also required Navodaya Studio to
manufacture one million pieces of an item which
was used for the first time ever in India.
Which film? What was the item that they
manufactured?
03

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
My Dear Kuttichathan
It was the first 3D film in India and this
required them to manufacture 3D glasses.
03

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
This two-word term has its origin in the beginning of
the remix era. Indian cassette companies often used
innovative methods to produce low-cost copies of film
songs without breaking copyright laws.
The most popular method involved adding an
instrument to the original song. They often used
drums resulting in a generic ‘chikichikichiki’ type music
that was made popular by rickshaw and taxi drivers.
What term was used to describe this sound, also the
title of an early 2000s film dedicated to R. D. Burman?
04

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Jhankaar Beats
04

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
This 1989 painting by M. F. Husain pays tribute to a
famous member of the Indian People's Theatre
Association (IPTA) whose life was cruelly cut short
by the goons of a local body election candidate
when he was performing a play in Jhandapur, UP.
Who is the subject of this painting? What is the
painting titled as? Image follows.
05

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Safdar Hashmi
Halla Bol
The title of the play he was performing at the time of his death.
05

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Jemji is a horned musical instrument that works on
the principle of a flute.
The Jemji is normally carved from the horn of a
particular animal, which serves as the state animal
of two neighbouring states in India. It also appears
on the official emblem/seal of these two states.
Identify any one state. Which animal’s horn is
used to make the instrument? Image follows.
06

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh
Mithun or Gayal
06

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
This clipping from 1975 features one of India’s
finest filmmakers interviewing a long-time friend.
The footage was originally shot to make a
personality study documentary of the friend in
question but it never saw the light.
Identify both the individuals.
Video follows.
07

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Ramkinkar Baij
07

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Ritwik Ghatak
07

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
The track Waqt Ne Kiya from 102 Not Out is a
reprisal of an earlier version which appeared in a
1959 film. While the original version featured Guru
Dutt and Waheeda Rehman, with music composed
by SD Burman and the song crooned by Geeta Dutt,
the new version has music arranged by Rohan Utpat
and Vinayak K Salvi.
Who provided vocals for the 2018 version?
Where did the song originally appear?
Audio follows.
08

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Kaagaz Ke Phool
Amitabh Bachchan
08

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Yusuf Lien is a book illustrator best known for his
work on the Amar Chitra Katha comic book series.
His dream-like sensual work on the titles Tansen
and Mirabai are among the most-admired and
many believed he had the most distinctive style
among the ACK artists. However, one day he took
an abrupt decision to stop drawing comics and
started to focus on calligraphy instead.
What according to his daughter Najiba made him
give up drawing altogether?
09

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Being a devout Muslim, he gave up drawing as
illustrating animate beings is a form of Haram.
09

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Identify any 2 out of the 3 films.
What connects the 3 films?
Videos follow.
10

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Nayak
Unnaipol Oruvan
Ek Ruka Hua Faisla
The plotline of these 3 films are set within 24 hours.
10

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Boiled Beans on Toast is a 2014 play that featured 9
actors portraying the lives of 21 interlinked
characters coping with the stresses and
opportunities of India’s urbanisation. The story
depicted varied vignettes at disparate places like a
rich, urban home, a village home, a coffee shop; an
IT company lobby and even city bylanes.
Which legendary playwright penned the play?
What widely believed theory is the title of the
play paying tribute to?
11

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Girish Karnad
The etymology of Bangalore.
Benda kaalu (boiled beans) -> Bendakalu-ooru -> Bangalore
11

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
A significant work of the Indian Parallel Cinema
movement, it was shot in 1972 and was Kumar
Shahani’s first feature film. It is set at a time just after
India’s independence and touches on themes such as
class and caste prejudice, the decadence of aristocracy,
gender subordination and how Nehruvian socialism
had began taking on the existing feudal hierarchy.
Identify the film. Which legendary dancer
choreographed the climax sequence of the film?
Video follows.
12

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Maya Darpan
Chandralekha
12

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
After hearing about how people rushed out of theatres
upon hearing Kumari Rukmini’s songs from his 1945
movie Sri Valli, director A. V. Meiyappan took inspiration
from an experiment made in a Kannada film by PU
Chinnappa. He procured the tapes of Sri Valli from all
theatres, made a change, and redistributed the movie.
After these changes, the movie became a huge hit.
This sequence of events had an everlasting effect on
Indian cinema. While it helped phase out one existing
norm, it led to the introduction of another that is
followed to-date. What did it lead to?
13

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Since people hated Kumari Rukmini's screeching
voice, the director introduced playback singing with
Periyanayaki dubbing the songs.
This led to the decoupling of acting and singing.
It was because of this that stars like MGR and Shivaji
could emerge. Earlier, actors had to sing the songs
themselves.
13

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
This Indo-Canadian poet’s verses on love, sex and race
have made her the most revered – and reviled – of
today’s ‘instapoets’.
The criticism is mainly lashed towards her trademark
fragmented free verse which is written exclusively in
lowercase, and uses only the period as punctuation.
Identify the poet. What reasoning did she provide for
following this unusual structure?
Images follow.
14

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Rupi Kaur
The Gurmukhi script follows just one case and
only periods are used.
14

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
A hallmark novel, it has been cited and studied by many
scholars in India and abroad. The title of the novel is taken
from the 1825 poem Work Without Hope by Samuel Taylor
Coleridge: “Work without hope draws ______ __ _ _____,
And hope without an object cannot live”.
Published in 1954, the novel is about a woman’s struggle
to find happiness during a period when India underwent
intense urban development. The story is told in the first
person by Rukmani beginning from her marriage to
Nathan, a tenant farmer, at the age of 12 until his death
many years later. Identify the novel. Who authored it?
15

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya
15

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
The Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival is a 12-day festival of
South Indian classical music and dance in Cleveland,
Ohio, and is held each year around Easter weekend.
In a certain comedy play staged at the festival in 2015,
Neyveli Santhanagopalan played a music guru who
accepts a challenge to teach a fruit-seller girl to sing so
well that she would be able to perform not only in the
season, but also sing the hardest Carnatic raga – the
Thodi, all within six months.
What was the play called?
16

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
My Fair Thodi
(a wordplay on My Fair Lady)
16

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
This is a video clipping from the 2003 Pawan
Kalyan-starring Telugu film Johnny.
Identify the actress featuring alongside Pawan
Kalyan. What was her first big break, something
that captivated the entire country 5 years earlier?
Video follows.
17

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Renu Desai
The music video of Shankar Mahadevan’s
Breathless
17

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Gughi is a 2018 Pakistani television series that
depicts Amar Khan as Nirmala, a young girl who is
kidnapped by a man to settle a family feud.
Which 1950 work is this as an adaptation of?
Who authored it?
Video follows.
18

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Pinjar by Amrita Pritam
18

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
In 1978, this now-renowned director made a short
documentary on the plight of India’s destitute children.
The documentary brought considerable fame to this
FTII graduate director by being nominated for the
Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject.
What is the documentary called?
Identify the director, whose half-brother is famous
for creating the country’s arguably most popular
television series. Video follows.
19

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
An Encounter With Faces
Vidhu Vinod Chopra
19

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Despite being an “outsider” of the Bollywood
industry, this dancer turned choreographer has had
an incredible run. Inspired heavily by Michael
Jackson, he has won multiple editions of the
Boogie Woogie Championship and was famously
recruited by Prabhu Deva to choreograph the film
ABCD: Any Body Can Dance.
Identify him. Which 2015 project’s dance steps is
he teaching in this clipping? Video follows.
20

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Paresh Shirodkar
Lean On by Major Lazer & DJ Snake feat. MØ
20

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
This port city, which also lends its name to the district
surrounding it, has appeared in a particular Amitav
Ghosh novel and was the site where the last Burmese
king Thibaw Min was confined to exile.
It also served as the location for Veer Savarkar’s
confinement by the British and has the distinction of
being the native place of 6 out of a total 45 Bharat
Ratna awardees of India including Sachin Tendulkar,
Vinobha Bhave and B. R. Ambedkar.
Identify this place. Which novel does it appear in?
21

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Ratnagiri
The Glass Palace
21

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Beginning from the mid-1980s, Indian films started
incorporating warm, yellow tones and employed filters
throughout the film to diffuse the violence and the
colour of the blood and to showcase a sense of power.
Two films from neighbouring states make particularly
good use of this technique. The first was a 1987 gangster
film with cinematography by P. C. Sreeram and famously
featured in TIME magazine’s All-Time 100 Best Films,
while the second was a 1995 cult-classic with
B. C. Gowrishankar as cinematographer and has been re-
released a record 550+ times. Identify both the films.
22

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Nayagan Om
22

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
In September 2017, the National Gallery of Modern
Art organised a retrospective of a particular painter
that looked back at 60 years of his work. The artist
cites Paul Klee and F. N. Souza among his influences
and incorporated a lot of folk art in his paintings.
In 2017, he broke a little from his style and created a
mammoth masterpiece that served as the centerpiece
of the exhibition at NGMA.
Identify the painter. What is the 2017 work based on?
Images follow.
23

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Parts of the 2017 work:
23

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Manu Parekh
The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci
23

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
A fictional geographical entity, that serves as a motif and
an important plot location, in a famous 1924 English
language novel was inspired by real-life caves present in
the Jehanabad district of Bihar.
These are the oldest rock-cut caves in India, dating back
to Mauryan period, and some have Ashokan inscriptions.
The caves were used by ascetics from the Ajivika sect,
founded by Makkhali Gosala in the 5th century BCE.
Identify the novel. What are these caves called? Images
follow.
24

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Barabar Caves (or Marabar Caves)
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
24

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
This clipping is from a web series that chronicles the
misadventures of three university flatmates who
decide to start a midnight food delivery service.
Identify the series. What according to the
protagonists are they reliving in the sequence?
Video follows.
25

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Baked
Sholay
25

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
In 1958, the Star ran a story about a certain Mrs.
Leila’s success at the London bar. This headline was a
wordplay based on the fact that Mrs. Leila had given
birth to her son only few months before the exam.
She eventually went on to become the first female
judge of the Delhi High Court.
Her first-born from 1952 achieved international fame
in 1993 for a particular work, and its ‘jump-sequel’ has
been due for release since 2014.
What was the headline? Who is son in question?
26

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Mother-In-Law
Vikram Seth
26

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
This is a track titled Maula from a 2015 historical
drama film that covers the aftermath of Indira
Gandhi's assassination and features Vir Das along
with Soha Ali Khan.
What is the title of the film? Which legendary
singer returned to the film industry after two
decades by lending his voice to Maula?
Video follows.
27

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
31st October
The date of Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan
27

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
In late 2017, a theatre in Bandra had to halt their
show because people started leaving midway due
to a foul smell that emanated making the
experience terrible. The owner of the cinema hall
had to intervene. He gave such a convincing
explanation that people who wanted refund
instead came back to watch the movie by paying
some extra for the same ticket because he claimed
he was providing them with a 4D experience.
Which movie were they playing in this theatre?
28

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Toilet Ek Prem Katha
28

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
The name of this indie rock band from Bangalore
stems from the fact that when they started, three
members of the band were of full Malayali descent
and the fourth member was one-fourth Malayali.
They have released seven studio albums since their
inception in 1996 and have had the privilege of
opening for Guns N’ Roses during the Bangalore leg
of their 2012 world tour.
Identify the band. Image follows.
29

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Thermal And A Quarter
29

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
In 2015, an Indian diamond jewellery brand
unveiled a necklace collection. Each piece took two
thousand hours of work and featured a floral
design that contained over 72 carats of diamonds
set into a handcrafted and flexible mesh necklace,
alongside floating flowers made up of an array of
gorgeous coloured gemstones.
Which brand was behind this magnificent piece?
What was cited as the inspiration for the design,
something that involved the lead designer
traveling to the Normandy region? Image follows.
30

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Nirav Modi
Monet’s Water Lilies
01

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Kevi Rite Jaish is a 2012 Gujarati drama film that is a
satire on the fascination and obsession of the Patels’
migration to the U.S. to establish motels.
One particular sequence of the film required 500 nos.
of a particular entity, which the production team had
to start scouting for 8 days prior to the shoot schedule.
During the nights, they visited places ranging from
‘Ravi vaari bajaars’ to posh hotels, residences to open
grounds and managed to finally obtain 731.
What were they trying to gather for the shoot?
31

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Liquor bottles
Gujarat has alcohol prohibition, and this required the film team to
go through great lengths to collect empty liquor bottles.
31

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
The blanked-out portion of this tweet is a clever
wordplay involving the term used to refer to a duet
of two solo musicians in Hindustani classical music,
and something that Usha Uthup is famously
associated with. What’s been blanked out?
32

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Jugalbindi
Jugalbandi + Bindi
32

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Although he is a scion of a political family, his literary
fondness is well marked by the fact that he has penned
four books of entirely unique genres.
His three internationally acclaimed coffee table books
are titled as A Second Paradise, A Desert Kingdom: The
People of Bikaner and Garden of Life: An Introduction
to the Healing Plants of India. His fourth book titled,
Sacred Geography of ____, is an extensive compilation
of a religious city in the state from which he hails.
Who is this? Which city is the fourth book based on?
Images follows.
33

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Naveen Patnaik
Sacred Geography of Puri
33

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
A particular 2015 film featured a grandiose set
designed by Nitin Chandrakanth Desai that was a
replica of a pavilion constructed in 1631-32.
This set took 90 days to construct and required special
artisans from Rajasthan. Over 10 million objects of a
certain class was used to craft the set. This was the 2nd
instance a replica of this monument was constructed
while the 1st time was over five decades earlier.
Identify the 2015 film. What was this set a replica of?
What was the earlier instance? Images follow.
34

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Prem Ratan Dhan Payo
34

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Sheesh Mahal
Mughal-e-Azam
34

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Identify this band, which primarily performs in
Chokri, a language spoken in the Phek district.
In 2015, the band covered the track Barso Re from
the film Guru. Who sang the original version?
Video follows.
35

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Tetseo Sisters
Shreya Ghoshal
35

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Thank you!

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Back-up Question
Complete this list of Vishal Bharadwaj films
adapted from plays by William Shakespeare.
Macbeth -> Maqbool (2003)
Othello -> Omkara (2006)
Hamlet -> Haider (2014)
_______ _____ -> ________ __ ____ (TBA)
36

KQA INDIA MELA 2018
Twelfth Night
Chaudhvin Ki Raat
36

Pushkar: The India Mela Quiz

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