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 e-mail: khokar1960@gmail.com Dance on... November 21, 2024 PUNE PADHARO! Pune has finally a swanky new terminal to say Padharo! Pune today ranks as the HQ of Hindustani music, film and television training and new trends in dance. India's only yearbook on dance (attenDance) in its 25th anniversary issue focused only on artistes of Pune. Gurus like Shama Bhate are changing Kathak without changing its form or structure. She has come up with many productions over the years to extend the language and create new works. Unnayan is a smashing, sophisticated and spiffy production with high values of discipline, diligence and depth. Add teamwork and seamless transition in every department. Malavika Sarukkai, the Bharatanatyam dancer of Chennai, had undertaken the story of Thimakka some years ago in a solo format. Guru Shama Bhate's Unnayan now is a group dance tribute to Saalumarada Thimakka from Northern Karnataka - barren, poor and marginalised to boot but didn't scoot from planting thousands of banyan trees with her husband. Highway or my way, took a new meaning in her hands as she planted 18 km of trees by the highway, giving go green a totally new twist. Padma Shri is the least the government and system could give her; she deserves more: housing, health benefits and even an expert advisor or teaching job in forestry department or govt nurseries. She could not have children so she sired thousands of trees and is thus an environmentalist of highest order. Born in 1911, she's now 113!  Unnayan When Guru Shama Bhate premiered her latest work Unnayan last week in Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, the open-air setting was magical. It was a wow moment when the green lights came on real trees. Magical. It took one to Peter Brooks' Mahabharata done 40 years ago, premiered in a dusty quarry miles out of a hot and happening Avignon, where we Indians had gathered to witness the world premiere. Mohan Maharishi, director of NSD, Sonal Mansingh the star dancer, Ashok Vajpeyi then in-charge of Bharat Bhawan, L.Subramanian the maestro who had done music for the Mahabharata and Pupul Jayakar, the grande dame of culture as the cultural advisor to the PM then, were all special invitees to see an all-world star cast, in which the lone Indian artiste was French speaking Mallika Sarabhai in the role of Draupadi. The opening was a wow moment and 40 years later, the same feeling came seeing Unnayan in Pune. Guru Shama Bhate took a dozen of her best Nad-Roop students, whose tayari proved an asset to dance in unison, even Kathak to South Indian flavoured music which was mridangam intense. North Karnataka style sari was the main costume and the lone boy, from village India, did justice to his role. The best part was not in front of stage but back: one dancer hugging the tree, one hanging, enjoying. The under an hour production anchored by translator-writer Bhide, was superb in music, sets and design. Choreography of guru Shama Bhate is well known so as to have won her both the coveted attenDance Uday Shankar Award in 2022 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2023.  Ameera Patankar She represents a cut-off point in Kathak aesthetics, without sacrificing content, form, or language. Dancers Ameera Patankar, Avani Gadre, Esha Nanal, Shraddha Mukhade, Shreya Kulkarni, Pramod Wagh, Prachiti Bhave, Nayan Kohale, Shalaka Kango, Mrunmai Kulkarni, Chinmayee Kelkar, Riya Phadke, Trupti Chandan, Himani Pile, Sakshi Gaikwad and Sanika Godse, gave a spirited and teamwork presentation, each a seamlessly meshed scene. In fact, if one wished to clap in between, there was not even an extra second! It was so tightly knit and that rarely happens in India. In fact, most dancers in India don't know the art of editing! Guru Shama Bhate does. She is a very sorted and secure guru. Music by Vinay Ramdasan was simply superb because it used mridangam and tabla, violin and saxophone in same scape. What an original composition. Pune again is far ahead in music than rest of India. Mixing and mastering was by Ishan Devasthali and TSM Studio, costumes by Sheetal Oak. Lights by Harshawardhan Pathak and Rutvik Keluskar, stage setup by Ashok Sonawane were important to this production. It was nice to see the layered ankle-bells of Kathak (108 bells on each foot is standard in Kathak) and Ameera Patankar justified her solos. The whole group shone with Avani Gadre, Pramod and Esha coming in for special mention. Pune turned up in droves, with not a single seat left. When the 500 plus audience rose to give a standing ovation, it was again a wow moment. The CM showed up too (Chanda Maama!). Being Kartik Purnima night, how could the moon not come to earth to see this seminal show? ART HUB, a new initiative in art support, paid all production costs and that's a welcome change for dance! LASYAPRABHA 2024 It started 20 minutes late - that's a no, no these days. Everyone's time is precious and valuable. And if the organizers are waiting for the main guest (now there are atleast 3-5! Please one please all: local level guest; state level, then regional, and national. Even international) to show up, it tests the patience of the audience.  Murali Mohan Kalvakalva & Pavanee Having said that, let's go straight to the concept of the show. Mothers and daughters. Fathers and sons? No, daughter-father duo, in this case senior Kathak dancer-guru-choreographer Murali Mohan Kalvakalva. And daughter Pavanee. What a jodi. Other than biology (DNA) they had chemistry going for them too. He looked at her sweetly, covered up in places too in nine and a half matra piece and made space for her to show her best. That's the way to go in a show. Enliven it. Their entry was without fuss and they even smartly used the stage props on the side. Before Kelubabu started putting Jagannath murti on stage, no one did. This is a historical fact. What was the need to, when no one from stage even bows to it? Just decoration. Murali being Murali, a first rate professional, was the only one who used it effectively. Doing Ganapati Vandana bowing to even Lord Jagannath. They are all the same, after all. Hinduism is the most democratic way of life. Gods are friends and individualized and multi-purpose too! Firework footwork then rain splash, that was them, concluding with Tarana, a composition of guru Dharamshahji Shah of Bhavnagar (That's where Murali grew up and this guru is a direct disciple of Pt. Sundarlal Gagani, MSU Baroda). Here's a new dashing dance pair! Father-daughter in dance. I thought then, how many such pairs in dance history? Very few actually. Father-daughter only three: Uday Shankar, daughter Mamata Shankar. Raja Reddy, daughters Yamini and Bhavana, C.V. Chandrasekhar with Chitra and Manjari. Any others? Bipin Singh-Bimbavati in Manipuri. Birju Maharaj had Kavita, an excellent dancer, who after marriage to Rajan Misra, didn't dance. Kelubabu didn't have a dancing daughter. Debaprasad Das had 3, of whom Bipanchi continues. Anyone else? In any form? Do write in. My memory deserts me when I need it like now. Not hobby dance. I mean dance professionally. So then I thought mother-daughter combo more? Only Balasaraswati-Lakshmi; Indrani Rehman had Sukanya. She danced for some time. Kamala Laxman, M.K. Saroja, Vyjayanthimala didn't have daughters. All biggies of next generation like Yamini K, Sonal Mansingh, Padma Subrahmanyam didn't have children. Kumudini Lakhia, Sanjukta Panigrahi also had no daughter. Valli, Samson, Sarukkai have no children. So, youngsters do understand DANCE ALSO CALLS FOR LOTS OF PERSONAL SACRIFICES in keeping to the course. One has to give up lots to be on top syndrome. Next generation Vasantalakshmi Narasimhachari has Lavanya and Lasya. Daksha Sheth has Isha. Next generation Rama Vaidyanathan has Dakshina; Sujatha has Preetisha... Like that, far and few. Only now, in modern times, some daughters are seeing the social outreach of dance or health benefits or simply out of love or being forced to learn dancing, maybe some learning till they marry or can. Let's see how much staying power they have.  Yasomati Mishra & Saanvi Thakur Saanvi Thakur seemed to. Tenth grade going, she looks involved and doesn't even sit enough but dancing with her mother, Yasomati Mishra, she looked winsome. Yasomati is a student of Raghunath Dutta and Kelubabu and she has a good foundation. In all the items they did, the musical quality was the fulcrum. First was fast, speed, rather filmy music Odissi is now suffering from even in Odisha (but more in Kolkata recording studios). Ratikant Mohapatra choreography is known for being spiffy. Not much lalitya in that. Second item, a Pallavi in raga Kirwani tala khemta was composed by the legendary Bhubaneswar Mishra. Music to die for. Orissi flowered. Lights by Navin were excellent and in places, psychedelic too. The third piece Ardhanarishwara of 16 year old boy-saint Adi Sankara was set to ragamaalika talamaalika by Sanju naani's (that's how the great Sanjukta Panigrahi was known to us) hubby vidwan Raghunath Panigrahi and it was memorable. Yasomati's best feature is her smile! The daughter will come into her own with age. These were baby steps after all.  Rhea & Anuradha Vikranth She looked innocently sweet. This daughter of Drishti's Anuradha Vikranth, called Rhea, was in element and both danced with involvement. They also chose unusual pieces, last one tad too long but Balamurali's Omkara Karani in raga Lavangi, was of high quality. Having learnt from gurus Nirupama - Rajendra (convenors of this year's Natya Kala Conference) she learnt from Guru Narmada and last decade from Dr Padma Subrahmanyam. Good choreography was the hallmark of this mother-daughter duo, with split stage put to good use. All in all, a good time was had by all. The compere conducted appropriately.  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 Responses * Thank you for such honest, constructive and encouraging writing. You always bring the viewer perspective and also learned individual's art of having known something into words which definitely has a lot of credit to hold on to. Like always, your writing paints visuals of the presentation. Thank you. - Anil V Iyer (Nov 22, 2024) * Very comprehensive article. Ashish ji has the eyes of a connoisseur and critic. He encourages young dancers with his positive comments and analyzes events minutely. A must read piece by the ace writer of our times. - Meenu Thakur (Nov 21, 2024) * Lovely article, thank you so much for being our eyes for the performances that we cannot witness ourselves! Loved the comprehensive description of all the performances, I feel like I'm watching them in front of my eyes! And I'm so touched to be mentioned by you in the mother-daughter category! Thank you, Ashish ji! - Dakshina Vaidyanathan Baghel (Nov 21, 2024) * Duos dancing of two different generations and dance experience coming together written so well to get realistic idea of show. Thank you, Ashish sir, for this review. - Archana-Chetana (Nov 21, 2024) * Your review made me feel like as if I was watching the shows. - Poorna Acharya (Nov 21, 2024) * Ashish ji, Namaste. Despite all odds you made it to the performances in Pune and in Bangalore. Thank you for noticing the nuances and your appreciation means sheer encouragement that will keep us going or growing better. Sincerely appreciate your presence again and such a wonderful unbiased review you being you. - Murali Mohan Kalvakalva (Nov 21, 2024) 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. |
