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 e-mail: khokar1960@gmail.com Natyarpana by Natyamurthy August 21, 2024 While Yamini Krishnamurthy was forgotten soon enough (Delhi being Delhi or reality of life today in most metros), one function that stood out was by her mansik shishya, Abdul Khalid. He is an Eklavya of and in Kaliyuga. Ask him his thumb and he'd give his head for his guru. Possessed by dance like no one I've seen in recent years, he is a survivor. No money, no mentor, no nothing in hand but dil ka dhani and dimag ka dabangg! He dedicated his annual day Natyarpana to his mansik guru's memory and it was not tokenism as such things often become. It was genuine. The emotion, the energy, the eclectic audiences of babus, defence officers, dancers, business class, parents and all.  Abdul's aesthetics manifested from entrance. The banner had a floral WELCOME! Inside, the whole stage reflected sobriety and celebration. Sobriety for the deceased icon Yamini Krishnamurthy and celebration for kids who are learning a dance form away from their moorings. Noida is a suburb of Delhi. It is technically a highly developed city of UP. That's not ulta pradesh it used to be for decades but upcoming state thanks to a good administration that's put goons in jails and no one can get bail, almost. Uttar Pradesh is India's most densely populated state too, in direct proportion to being the least educated or developed in central India, what we call the Hindi heartland. All those films one sees on Netflix from Mirza-pur to Allaha-bad (one British visitor asked long ago why either most cities were poor like kan-poor; jaun-poor or bad: allaha-bad and murada-bad! My answer to him was: you looted India and scooted long ago! That's why) reflect how bad things were in the interiors. Abdul comes for Gorakh-poor. He ran away from his home to learn dance. All he had was one cassette of a regional talent Sudharani Raghupathy and he treated it as a treasure. He played it a thousand times and danced to it a million times. His trials and travails were immense but with tenacity and hard work he survived all and today is teaching many enthusiastic kids in the neighborhood of Noida where many support him.  While he has trained all to best of his ability, some are more focused than others. And some little ones had spark and some substance. What these neighborhood dance schools do is keep children meaningfully busy and engage them in social activities. Children indirectly learn some mythology, history, scriptures. Shlokas, Shastra and Sangeet. When they grow up they may become an IAS or astronaut, ballerina or a banker but they will have some sensitization to art. They can then sponsor or help others learn like the sponsor of the evening D. Sugara (Easy Care.) A total of about twenty shishyas (Aanvi Jain, Atishisthi Tejswi, Dhruvi Dwivedi, Dea Singh, Devisha Sugara, Elina Kumar, Inaaya Singh, Kaavya Shukla, Kashvi Singh, Meher Khosla, Priyasha Sugara, Rhythm Dhanak, Riyanshi Gupta, Riya Handa, Shreya Thakur, Sharvani Yadav, Veda Samudrala, Vishalakshi Awasthi, Yashashvi) showed their absorption of the art, from basic to the evolved. One or two had real spark and some may be good for dance drama productions. In each item they did, from opening invocation to Ganesha to end Thillana, they showed a sense of space, stage and structure of Bharatanatyam. It was nice to see Krishna with eye glasses! Showed innocence. Music was uneven, loud in places and the Hindi compere gave instant reviews also in her screechy voice! The one in English had a professional voice, intonation and delivery.   Such functions reinstate three things: Indian classical dances are best way of teaching kids team work, discipline and stage worthiness. Additionally, a sense of music and rhythm. Add colours and costumes, lights and cues. A good time was had by all. Abdul didn't dance himself as he was still in mourning for his mansik guru. If this is not guru bhakti, what is?  Critic, connoisseur, historian, author, artivist, archivist, administrator and more - editor, columnist and mentor Ashish Khokar remains true to his muse. More on attendance-india.com Post your comments Please provide your name and email id when you use the Anonymous/blog profile to post a comment. All appropriate comments posted with name and email id in the blog will also be featured in the site. |
