His name has made the crossover to mainstream media and begun to symbolise a new breed of architect, one whom is at the forefront of young British architecture. He is very much a star in the ascendant and at 38, has already become an architect of international renown despite his youth.

Having set up his own practice in 1994 it was not long before he developed a strong reputation for quality modern design, with an architecture that is easily read and therefore accepted by the general populace and not lost in an egotistical intellectual vagueness. In the 12 years of his practice, his oeuvre has built up from small-scale private commissions (private houses, cafes, bars) on to a wide range of high-profile public buildings, which include libraries, art galleries and theatres. His current project list continues to include his iconic individual residences but now also has an impressive array of all manner of civic and cultural buildings across the globe, a portfolio of work that no doubt is looked on with envy by not only his contemporaries but also the established names, both at home and abroad.

Adjaye’s designs are often radical yet in a manner that allows his buildings to sit well in historical contexts, with designs that provide a new generation of building that is a world away from the pastiche and shallow commercialism that sadly blights much of today’s ‘standard’ architecture.

Adjaye has a uniquely intuitive design approach that allows him to root a building not only to its immediate context but also to imbibe a cultural and historical link that manages to anchor his work to local communities in a familiar and un-patronising manner. A strong sense of materials, texture and light and their interplay, absolutely critical to successful architecture, are all components present in his work.

As an architect he has many artist friends, one of the most prominent of which is Chris Ofili, for whom he designed the artist’s studio (also in the east end of London) and who has collaborated with Adjaye on a number of projects. Much of Adjaye’s work has an artistic flair which is not only due to these close links with the art community but also no doubt from his having studied a fine arts foundation course prior to studying architecture.

Despite his rapidly increasing fame and international stature, Adjaye is rooted in the east end of London and several of his seminal early works (Elektra House, Ofili’s studio) and of late the Whitechapel Idea Store, not to mention his own office, Adjaye Associates, are to be found in the area. As such, the opening of a new two month exhibition (his first major show in the UK) at the Whitechapel Gallery is an absolute must-see.

Key building by David Adjaye:
Idea Store, Whitechapel, east London

New Buildings by Adjaye/Associates:
Timber-frame prefabricated house, de Beauvoir Town, Hackney, east London
2007

Rivington Place, Rivington Street, east London – 2007

Manchester gallery project, northern England – 2007-
David Adjaye with Maurice Shapero + Stephenson Bell
£55m: Apartments, gallery, retail, market, bus station

Stephen Lawrence Centre, Deptford, southeast London – 2007

Bernie Grant Centre, Tottenham, east London – 2007

inVIA – Institute of International Visual Arts, London – 2007

Museum of Contemporary Arts, Denver, USA – 2007

Buildings by Adjaye/Associates (alphabetical):
Dirty House, Shoreditch, east London, UK – 2001-02

Elektra House, Whitechapel, east London, UK – 1998-2000

Idea Store, Chrisp Street, Poplar, east London, UK – 2001-04

Idea Store Whitechapel, Whitechapel, east London, UK – 2001-05

Nobel Peace Center – Exhibition Centre, Oslo, Norway – 2002-05

T-B A21 Olafur Eliasson Pavilion – Art Installation, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy – 2005

Adjaye/Associates – Stirling Prize nominated 2006 for Idea Store
Client: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

David Adjaye reformed his studio in 2000 as Adjaye/Associates

David Adjaye – Teaching Positions:
Architectural Association, London : unit tutor

Previously:
Royal College of Art, London : lecturer

David Adjaye – Awards:
RIBA First Prize Bronze Medal : 1993

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Roger Corman’s B-movie factory of the sixties and seventies produced a number of leading film talents like Francis Ford Coppola,Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson and James Cameron who have become big cheeses in Hollywood. They’ve each created large niches for themselves and become marquee names whose presence will guarantee a following. Even more regular cheeses like Joe Dante, Peter Bogdanovitch, and Monte Hellman have become known for their idiosyncratic visions and their adherence to signature styles. Graduates from the Corman studios tended to become iconoclasts, probably as a result of Corman’s high concept, high turnover approach forcing directors, writers and actors to think on the run and be brave with their decisions. Fellow Corman graduate, John Sayles has always been different – one of America’s best independent filmmakers, he has worked with genuine skill and clarity as a writer, director, editor, actor and script doctor for nearly 30 years. What separates John Sayles from his peers is his refusal to play out his work in terms of a simple hero/ villain morality, his refusal of the strictures of iconoclasm.

Silver Star, Sayles’ latest release due out in late July, is three films in one: a detective story reminiscent of Chinatown, a satirical look at the political and intellectual credentials of George W. Bush, and an indictment of the weakness of mainstream journalism in pursuing politicians and their paymasters. John takes us through his gallery of shady deal-makers, migrant Mexicans, leftist bloggers, cynics and the disaffected to delineate his vision of what really has gone wrong with the American political system, using an extraordinary cast headed by Danny Huston (who, after his performances in this and Ivansxtc, is as amiable as freshly buttered toast and should be in every American film made from here on in). The film feels like 70’s conspiracy thrillers in the vein of Winter Kills or The Parallax View with an overriding air of pessimism rather than paranoia – the bad guys can’t be caught, nothing really changes by the end of the film and the only victories are relatively minor human ones.

Silver Star flies in the face of prevailing Hollywood wisdom (leftist documentaries aside), being both political and not particularly heroic. Most, if not all, Hollywood films have a very simple structure: present the hero as someone in whom the hopes and ideals of the audience can be vested, introduce and play out a conflict that the hero must overcome, and finally see the conflict resolved. Simple. Except that life is rarely ever that simple, even if information is increasingly skewed to this model; witness the last Gulf War where first we see Bush and Blair as heroes fighting terrorism introducing the threat of weapons of mass destruction wielded by Sadam Hussain (the pre-eminent bad-guy of our times), secondly the exposition of this conflict through various media, and finally ‘shock and awe’ – roll credits. The good guys win, the bad guys are made to suffer, and we, the audience, are invited to cheer. The duplicity of this structure is that you either go with it or you refuse to suspend your disbelief, there is no active engagement with the scenario and no nuances to discuss or modify. John Sayles’ work displays exactly the opposite sensibility drawing on stories that are as much about the society in which they are based as they are about the people that inhabit them. His work tends to act as a social, political and emotional travelogue rather than a straight-line narrative. The films are all about nuance, all about the compromises that exist between individuals and the society in which they live; points of view being drawn richly, sympathetically and non-judgmentally (he mostly eschews didacticism in favour of letting the audience make up its own mind). Community and social mores emerge as lead characters in his stories and, since changing society is as difficult as twisting a melon, his stories tend to have downbeat or open-ended conclusions.

After graduating with a Psychology degree in 1972, Sayles worked in a series of blue collar jobs whilst penning short stories for magazines and working on novels. He eventually found work with Roger Corman as a writer, producing scripts for Piranha, The Lady in Red and Battle Beyond the Stars (all, quite frankly, derivative of other more successful films but fun with a nice line in characterisation), learning the rudiments of film-making along the way. Using the money saved from writing these films, he made his debut as a director with The Return of the Secaucus 7, a warm, dialogue-heavy comedy of character and connections whose story structure was followed three years later by Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill. The film was a critical success but not a commercial one and John went back to his day-job, writing scripts for films such as The Howling and Alligator (both of which are terrific monster movies, The Howling in particular being a witty and postmodernist update of the werewolf myth and just about the best werewolf film ever made) whilst raising money for his second film Lianna, dealing with issues of sexuality and its social and emotional fall-out. His first studio film, Baby It’s You, again showed Sayles’ ability to write wittily and incisively about personal and social issues with a story about a high school romance that falls apart in the post-school years because the social gulf between them is just too wide. Sayles never worked for a studio again because of arguments over the final cut of Baby It’s You.

His independence allowed him to make a string of American film classics exploring the emotional, social and political landscape of America working with a regular cast of actors including David Strathairn, Joe Morton, Chris Cooper and Gordon Clapp. The Brother from Another Planet looked at Harlem through the eyes of a mute alien on the run from bounty hunters, Matewan used a Western scenario to present a complex look at union politics, Eight Men Out presented the story of a sporting scandal in rich and illuminating detail, City of Hope used a multiple narrative to show the workings of a city bathed in compromise and on the edge of despair, Passion Fish showed the often fractious relationship between two very different women and earned a best original screenplay Oscar nomination, Lone Star distilled issues of community and race from an investigation into a 20 year old murder using multiple narrative and gained another Oscar nomination for best screenplay, Men With Guns was filmed entirely in Spanish and uncovered the harsh politics of an unnamed war-torn Latin American country, Limbo is a parable about three people trapped on an island tinged with ideas about the death of community, Sunshine State was another multiple narrative tale about a real estate development in Florida, and Casa de los Babys which was a study of six women who travel to South America in the hope of becoming adoptive mothers. In between films Sayles works as a script doctor, lending his intelligence to films like Apollo 13 and Mimic amongst others.

A john Sayles film has a ‘no bullshit’ guarantee, he strives as he scribes to find the emotional and intellectual truth in his material with dialogue that is pithy, witty and wise (and often all three at the same time). Like Mike Leigh or Ken Loach, his films are heart-felt and humanist, although he tends not to involve caricature as much as Mike Leigh and works on a broader canvas than Ken Loach. Like Robert Altman, Sayles’ technique of using multiple narratives offer the opportunity of looking at a subject in different and sometimes contradictory ways but unlike Altman, whose approach produces a compendium of short stories, Sayles uses it more as a novelist would, to deepen and enrich the story. John Sayles may well be the most politically aware director working in America who has pursued his writing career with a blue collar work ethic. He is a true individual, telling complex stories with precision and, in turn, should be seen as a real icon.

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Bollywood is now India’s biggest calling card in the ever growing business of entertainment. It is the new buzzword and mantra in Diasporic cross cultural worlds and even the average non-Indian has some idea about the glossy wedding songs in Indian films. Bombay makes a staggering 700-800 films a year, an average of 10 feature in the UK and US top tens every ye

ar. Larger than life heroes love, hate, strut and sing across giant screens romancing their lady loves, traipsing across the globe in fantasy sequences. The global entertainment market has flattened borders for the Bollywood film industry as thousands throng to the theatres from Dubai to Jamaica, from London to New Jersey.

Bollywood is technically savvy, its structure grows more corporate, its world brims with talent, its market fetches ever increasing bucks. The industry has grown from its native origins to comfortably vie with films globally. Not all films are about fantasy and romance, family and patriarchy. Some mature filmmakers deal more seriously with the medium and more ambitiously with the genre.

The Rising, directed by Ketan Mehta, is the latest feather in Bollywood’s cap, with all claims to be the biggest Indian film to hit the international scene. Set in 1857, this historical epic unfolds against what the British called the Sepoy Mutiny. In effect it was the first fight for freedom from the exploitation of Britain’s East India Company.

Produced by Kaleidoscope films, The Rising takes another look at colonial history, power politics and the growing awareness of the nation and its people. When history is being revisited by different nations and communities, this film deals with friendship, loyalty, love and leadership set against the backdrop of the bloodiest revolution in human history. This epic saga has the legendary folk hero Mangal Pandey at its nucleus; a man about whom there is very little historical detail. ‘Where history meets proud folklore, that is where heroes are born,’ the opening lines of the film determine the treatment, which swings from realistic documentary feel to the colourful strokes of vintage Bollywood.

The story of a lowly Sepoy and his rise against the British first captured director Ketan Mehta almost 15 years ago. At the time a project on this scale, for a world market was inconceivable in India. Ketan held the project close to his heart until a global market made this possible. Producer Bobby Bedi known for making films of international standards took up the project. The UK Film Council got involved; this is the first Indian film to receive lottery funding for marketing and distribution. The script shifted hands and Farrukh Dhondy (Red Mercury 2005, American Daylight 2004, Exitz 2004) came on board. Aamir Khan, a star known to be choosy about his projects, joined and immediately raised the stature of the project. Bobby claims that his choice of subjects reflects, “a different take on biography,” and that The Rising boasts a -crew “from the Indian and British industry, with a healthy fusion of professional expertise and great team spirit starting from the lead actors, Aamir Khan and Toby Stephens.”

Hailing from a well known producer’s family, Aamir’s acting debut was as a child artist in Yaadon ki Baraat (1973). Starting his adult career with the ‘Indianised’ Romeo and Juliet story in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), Aamir played candy floss heroes for a while and had runaway hits to his credit (Dil, Raja Hindustani, Rangeela, Gulam). His performance in Deepa Mehta’s Earth (1998) as the ‘Ice Candy Man’ fetched him rave reviews from critics. He turned into a meticulous producer-actor with the Oscar nominated Lagaan (2002) and his performance propelled him onto the international stage. Lagaan was about a cricket match between poor villagers and the English cantonment officers. In The Rising Aamir plays the lead role of Mangal Pandey, the man who sparked off the Sepoy Mutiny or the first freedom struggle in India. Aamir thus has his own take on the history of colonialism in India.

Trying to locate him for a phone interview was a whirlwind task. Caught in a frenzy of release dates in Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta, Aamir Khan finally called as he drove to Calcutta airport. Aamir talked of his passionate involvement with the character he plays, “Mangal Pandey is a legendary figure, a symbol of freedom for all Indians. He gave his life for what he believed in, freedom from the exploitation and humiliation of the East Indian Company. He was also a volatile character and the film is about the growing awareness of a man and a nation. Little is known about the man Mangal himself so I had a year to research the background, the history (mid nineteenth century) and evolve a look for the character.”

With the first day reports just filtering in, The Rising collected 40% more revenue than any previous Indian film release in the USA. Does Aamir believe that Bollywood has finally come of age? He answered convincingly, “technically we are at par with Hollywood or anywhere else in the world. There’s wonderful talent and creative energy. The film industry is getting a more corporate make over. With Lagaan we tried to make a film which could compete at par with international projects. It was received so well at home and abroad, but Lagaan was more light-hearted, like an Asterix comic. This film is more realistic and darker in tone. With The Rising we have great talent from the UK. It is an international project both in theme and scale of production.”

Authentic sets designed by Nitin Chandrakant Desai recreate the 19th century ‘Company Raj’ era and lend to the epic scale of the film. Cinematographer Himman Dhamija enhances the legendary story with ambitious camera work, but it is the music which really underpins the folk element of the film. Lyricist Javed Akhtar uses popular ballads he heard as a child in Uttar Pradesh to write the theme song Mangal Mangala. A. R. Rahman reigning composer of Tamil and Hindi films and West End and Broadway musicals (Bombay Dreams, Lord of the Rings) scores a stirring ballad which runs as the theme song embodying the stirring and rising of the nation. However, a few of the musical scores appear aesthetic misfits and sit on cracks in the screenplay. Powerful performances redeem the film, Aamir Khan got into character with 18 months of wearing dhotis (a length of cotton fabric woven around the legs) and boots as the Sepoys used to wear in the British army; he also grew his hair long so as to best portray the brooding and iconic Mangal. Toby Stephens delivers a layered Gordon torn between friendship and duty, Rani Mukherji portrays the spirited Heera, a Bengali nautch girl who falls in love with the fiery Pandey and Coral Reed impresses in the small role of Emily, the Colonel’s daughter.

As a stunning cinematic spectacle The Rising will hold its own against past epics Gandhi (Richard Attenborough), The Chess Players (Satyajit Ray) and more recent productions like Four Feathers (Shekhar Kapoor) or even Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. More importantly it is about identity in a global context. The East India Company, belittles the faith of Hindus and Muslims. Mangal rises above his own cast prejudice to call for freedom for the masses. Gordon, a Scottish outsider within his regiment befriends the local Sepoy and falls in love with a Bengali widow. Heera, the slave girl sold to the brothel frequented by the British soldiers and the low caste sweeper, the true subaltern who propels Pandey into self examination and action. Aamir admits, “delving into one’s history makes me more aware of who I am. It helps me to grow as a person and as an actor. Over the past few years in India with the right wing government and the communal tension, each Indian has had to think hard about his identity and ideology. I had never been so sharply aware of my position as a Muslim, part of a minority community. But in the last elections India’s masses have proved again that they believe in democracy and secularism.”

With 94 prints in the UK alone, The Rising is in the top ten charts with considerable mainstream patrons. Both British and Asian viewers get to take stock of their history from an alternative stance. According to Aamir, The Rising is more about the present than the past, “it was the present that interested me more than what happened 150 years ago. The parallels really drew me. Mangal’s story has a contemporary angle to which I could relate. The East India Company exploited the Indians, today it’s the US exploiting poorer markets; the story has reflections in global capitalisation.”

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