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 Mardala and Manjeera - Tapati Chowdhurie e-mail: tapatichow@yahoo.co.in January 18, 2024 The words Mardala and Manjeera mean classical percussion instrument and clash cymbals respectively. Very significantly, the curator Arnab Bandopadhyay named his latest series 'Mardala and Manjeera' to mean "Divine rhythm". Rabindra Sadan auditorium at Kolkata was bursting at the seams to enjoy an evening of Odissi. In a compelling dance sequence, Odissi exponent / guru Aruna Mohanty summed up Bhumi Suta's life, before she disappeared in the open chasm to be with her maker, Mother Earth. In the flowing movements of Odissi dance and abhinaya she retold the poignant tale of Sita's thoughts and emotions caused by the ignominy and shame she had to go through. Her narrative made an impact and resonated with the times. Learning from past experiences human beings plan their future. Today women do not wish to suffer in silence; they would rather plan their own destiny. Kedar Mishra was Mohanty's script writer. Uniqueness of the music of Odisha with Bijaya Kumar Barik, Rupak Kumar Parida, Agnimitra Behera, Jabahar Mishra created heaven with the strains of mardala, vocal, violin and flute.  Aruna Mohanty In the second piece, Aruna enacted the story of Aswathama, son of Dronacharya and friend of the Kauravas. In spite of his virtues and knowledge of warfare which was no less than the best of the best Kshatriya warrior, he was not allowed to fight in the battlefield of Kurukshetra for being a Brahmin. Aruna emoted Aswathama's suffering in silence. As the battle took its toll on the Kauravas, Aswathama was given an opportunity by Duryodhana to lead the Kauravas. Aswathama entered the Pandavas' camp at midnight and consumed with intense rage, killed the five sons of the Pandavas in their sleep. Ashwathama had broken rules by killing unarmed innocent children in the name of war. He was cursed by Krishna to immortality. So he lives wounded in hell. The script was by eminent writer Kedar Mishra with choreography by Aruna Mohanty. Music composer and rhythm composer Ramhari Das and Dhaneswar Swain gave the piece a new dimension. The choreographic work delved deep into roudra rasa with its sthayi bhava krodha which was replaced with self-pity. Aruna linked the emotions felt by Aswathama with the emotions of eternal man. Her plea to contemporary man was to shun negative qualities like ego, jealousy and its associated emotions. Her nuanced acting moved the audience. The ace music makers of Odisha made the piece intense. Excellent light designing helped in building the tragedy of Aswathama. Accompanying artistes were mardala expert Dhaneswar Swain and Bijaya Kumar Barik. Tabla was played by Ajay Kumar Choudhury. Rupak Kumar Parida sang into the hearts of the rasikas. The brilliant duo Agnimitra Behera and Srinibas Satpathy played the violin and flute respectively. Prakash Chandra Mohapatra strummed beautiful strains on the sitar, while Bibhuprasad Tripathy was on the keyboard.  Team Darpani Team Darpani presented a bouquet of dances composed by old masters like Kelucharan Mohapatra, present gurus such as Ratikant Mohapatra and their artistic director Arnab Bandopadhyay. He took out from his treasure trove, Shiva Tandava composed by the great music and dance stalwarts Pandit Bhubaneswar Mishra and Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. Shiva's description in the vocabulary created in post-colonial reconstruction of the Odissi form by gurus was well practised and rendered. The colour scheme and the design of the costumes, light-designing, sincerity to the Odissi idiom, group synchronization of the presentation was a delightful watch. Consecrated by the flow of water from Ganga hidden in his locks, a snake hanging round his neck like a garland, the damaru making the sound "damat damat damat damat", his head wearing the sacred Ganga and its waves like a jewel, with the crescent moon on his head, Lord Shiva performed Tandava in Bhatiyar raag with the beat of khemta taal. The trio Arnab Bandopadhyay, Anusmita Bhattacharjee and Nikita Das sought his blessings for everyone. Then it was the turn for a group rendition of Pattdip Pallavi. Though Pallavi is termed as pure dance involving elaboration of nritta, there is still the emotion of the joy of movements which brings satisfaction to the performer and the onlooker. The graceful and lyrical movements were supported by intricate rhythm patterns of exceptional beauty. Together they created a beautiful tapestry of rhythm, music and movement. The dance and the music composers were Guru Ratikant Mohapatra and Pradip Kumar Das. "Lalita lavanga lata" from Jayadeva's Geeta Govinda needs no introduction. When the spring breeze is blowing Krishna the eternal lover spreads love feelings in all things in nature, which include mortals. Anguished Radha searches for Krishna. It was an enactment of romance in its most beautiful form. The music of the piece was by Pandit Jasraj. The experimental piece 'Ananta' was both innovative and exploratory. It drew from the most profound philosophical concepts from the Vedas and Upanishads. Arnab used the Odissi idiom as well as creative movements, classical music and Vedic chanting and choreographed a neat piece of sangeeta which evoked adbhuta rasa. The piece was about man. Our cosmic quest of the world starts from the point of Pancha Bhuta or five elements, which is the basis of life force, later to disintegrate with the five elements. It successfully left the audience in a state of wonder. Featured in this production was the soulful music of noted classical vocalist Dr. Subhadra Desai. The narrative for this performance focused on themes such as creation, and the five elements. 'Ananta' was scripted by Sreyashi Dey to the music composition of Sandipan Ganguly. Choreography, costume designing and direction were by Arnab Bandyopadhyay.  Tapati Chowdhurie trained under Guru Gopinath in Madras and was briefly with International Centre for Kathakali in New Delhi. Presently, she is a freelance writer on the performing arts. |
