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 Shahana's tribute to Tagore and Rabindra Nritya - Vijay Shanker e-mail: shankercsn@gmail.com September 26, 2019 Shahana, Tagore Centre for Indian Music and Culture, celebrated forty four years of its fruitful existence with the presentation of Rabindra Nritya and Sangeet at Balgandharva Rang Mandir, Mumbai, on 31st August. As we all know, Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranth Tagore was one of the pioneers in promoting and propagating Indian classical dances on the international platform. Rabindra Nritya is in fact based on Rabindra Sangeet in which varied ragas of Hindustani music are used through the medium of poetry with a holistic perspective blending well with cultural and moralistic values of human life and existence. Rabindranath Tagore started learning Hindustani music at a very early age and then went on to make use of these lessons, to elevate his poetry to unexplored dimensions. Later he learnt western classical music as well and used this influence to set music to many of his songs. What we know of Rabindra Sangeet is a masterful confluence of his poetry and musical influences.  Anilkumar Singh and Sohini Dasgupta  Anushree and Nilesh Singha The evening's presentations explored the influence of both western classical music and Indian classical music on Rabindranath Tagore's musical creations. Shahana is the leading organization in Mumbai that promotes and propagates Rabindra Sangeet in its purest and original format. Founded by Indrani Acharya, the trustees include Udayan Bhattacharya, Sunanda Majumdar, Manabendranath Saha, Sucheta Neogi and Shubhash Majumdar. 'Robi Raage' is a composite presentation in music and dance, based on evening and night ragas in order to explore the rich and intense Rabindra Sangeet that portrays the richness of his poetry with the perspective of human interest, life and existence. Rabindra Nritya forms its own style, drawing movements from varied classical and folk dances that is aesthetically executed with slow and lyrical movements in order to picturize themes like 'consciousness' and life. The entire presentation in Bengali with English interpretations at times were overdrawn as it is not easy to maintain the interest of the audience with metaphysical and abstract themes of life and living, based on philosophy.  Triya Bonnerjee, Sohini Dasgupta, Anilkumar Singh Concept, direction and dance choreography by Anushree Bonnerjee, with varied dance styles like Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Manipuri, Odissi and Rabindra Nritya were used. The dancers were Anushree, Nilesh Singha for Bharatanatyam, Ayan Banerjee for Kathak, Manipuri by Purbita Mukherjee, Odissi by Namaha Mazoomdar and Rabindra Nritya was performed by Anil Kumar Singh, Triya Bonnerjee and Sohini Dasgupta. While most of the dancers performed well, dancers who stood out for their individuality of style and performance were Nilesh Singha and Anil Kumar Singh. Script by Upamanyu Bhattacharya, recitation in English by Anindya Sequeira made it on the whole a unique and unusual performance that portrays the varied colours of life and existence both on the physical and sublime level. The commendable singer of the evening was Kaustuv Kanti Ganguli, who carried the entire show to a higher level, tabla by Tejovrush Joshi, sarod by Aditya Apte, harmonium by Siddhesh Bicholkar, keyboard by Pratik Shah, tabla and khol by Shankar Nandi, mardal by Kaushik Basu, side percussion by Subasish Mukhopadhyay, nattuvangam by Mubina B and flute by Milind Sheorey. Vijay Shanker is a Kuchipudi and Kathakali exponent, teacher, bilingual journalist, arts critic and actor. |
