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 63rd Swami Haridas Sangeet Sammelan & Sakhi - Vijay Shanker e-mail: vijaydance@gmail.com May 13, 2024 63RD SWAMI HARIDAS SANGEET SAMMELAN Mumbai's premier cultural organisation, Sur Singar Samsad, organised the 63rd Swami Haridas Sangeet Sammelan featuring some accomplished classical dancers hailing from various parts of the country. It was established by Sangeetdas Brij Narayan, who was a great promoter of classical dance and music. Although the management has changed, the dynamic secretary MK Patel continues to organise the festivals with the same amount of passion and spirit. The chairperson is bhajan samrat Pandit Anup Jalota. The five day festival commenced on 27th March and concluded on 31st March at Chokshi Foundation hall in Vile Parle, Mumbai. The festival was jointly organised by Nanavati Performing and Fine Arts Forum and supported by Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Like most festivals, Bharatanatyam and Kathak dominated the scenario but it was refreshing to watch Odissi, Mohiniattam, Kuchipudi and Manipuri as well. The participants of the festival were Shubhada Varadkar, Prachi Saathi, Mukta Joshi, Sarita Panda, Tejaswini and Grishma Lele, Keka Sinha, Debi Basu, Latasana Devi, Manasi Deshpande, Bala Kondala Rao and Aditya Rao, Lata Surendra, Parul Mishra, Asavari Pawar, Debasish Pattnaik, Mandakini Trivedi and Dr Jyotsna Sahoo. The comperes of the festival were Anand Singh of AIR fame and Narhari Acharya. The festival commenced with an exquisite Odissi performance by Mumbai's leading Odissi exponent and mentor Shubhada Varadkar. Shubhada presented a concise version of the Ramayana based on Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas that highlighted the various episodes and concluded with the ultimate triumph over evil, as Ravana is killed by Lord Rama. The dramatic ability of the dancer coupled with the suitable and melodious music, formed the highlight of the presentation.  Shubhada Varadkar  Prachi Saathi One of the fine dancers of Mumbai, Prachi Saathi commenced her Bharatanatyam performance with "Meenakshi Memudam," a composition of Muthuswamy Dikshitar in praise of the goddess Meenakshi, following it with the varnam "Viriboni" incorporating the varied facets of Lord Krishna. Prachi's precise and distinct movements besides her natural command over expressions won her appreciation from the select audience. Prachi was accompanied by Vidya Harikrishna for commendable singing, nattuvangam by Kaliswaran Pillai, mridangam by Prajesh Nair, and Bharat Raj on flute. Thane based Kathak exponent Mukta Joshi regaled the audience with her flawless and technical excellence, exhibiting the highlights of the Jaipur Gharana. She commenced with vilambit teentaal, followed with uthaan, tukde, Gat-nikaas of the deer, chakkardar paran, tatkaar and jugalbandi with tabla and concluded with the interpretation of the festival of Hori as Krishna dances merrily with Radha and the Gopis. Mukta was accompanied by Ashish Chatterjee on tabla, Somnath Mishra for vocal and Sonar Yuvraaj for flute. Mumbai's leading Bharatanatyam exponent and mentor Guru Lata Surendra and her talented disciples presented a dramatic version of Valmiki Ramayana, executed with commendable angika abhinaya, spectacular movements with complex choreography, special effects of the terror and arrogance of Ravana and ultimately the sattvika element coming forward as righteousness overpowers the evil when Ravana is killed. Lata received a standing ovation for the brilliant exposition.  Mukta Joshi  Asavari Pawar New Delhi based Kathak exponent Asavari Pawar, daughter and disciple of Guru Pratap Pawar along with a team of four male dancers and three girls practically set the stage on fire with their vivacious and brilliant performance. Besides the flawless and rhythmic rendering of the Tarana, the dancers concluded their performance with the festival of colour Hori. It was amazing to watch Asavari rendering a charismatic performance with her talented team. Bangalore based Debasish Pattnaik presented sparkling Odissi performance with dancers from his Debnrutyam Studio. They performed Vallabhacharya's "Adaram Madhuram" that incorporates the manifestation of Lord Krishna as sweetness incarnate. The performance concluded with the Maha Raas in which every Gopi feels that Krishna is dancing with them for eternal joy and happiness. Veteran Mohiniattam exponent Mandakini Trivedi's performance and Kuchipudi by Bala Kondala Rao and Aditya Rao were the top performers who created a lasting impression with commendable control over abhinaya and complex movements. Jyotsna Sahoo and her talented team of Odissi dancers were noteworthy for their vibrancy and elegance. On the whole it was a grand festival with a variety of talent exposure. DRAUPADI AND SITA AS SAKHI - THOUGHT PROVOKING AND ENTERTAINING  Draupadi & Sita Keelaka Dance Company and Jyotsna Shourie Dance Society (New Delhi) presented their latest dance theatrical production 'Sakhi' at the Royal Opera House Theatre in Mumbai on April 5. Sakhi features the conversations between Draupadi and Sita, the leading female protagonists of Mahabharata and Ramayana, pertaining to their life and the significance of their existence. It was unusual and novel to witness such a presentation that features two contrasting individuals on the same platform but both relate to fire, as Draupadi was born out of fire and Sita had to go through agni pariksha to prove her chastity.  The presentation commenced with both Draupadi and Sita as Sakhi, facing diagonally opposite to each other but yet together, raising pertinent questions like, how would Sita describe her abduction at the hands of Ravana? Would Draupadi describe the Mahabharata differently if given the chance, followed by the main scenes of Ramayana and Mahabharata? In the Sita Swayamvaram scene, after the marriage I was surprised to see that it was Sita who was escorting Rama and not the other way around, possibly to give prominence to female centric protagonist. Another highlight conversation between Draupadi and Sita was when Draupadi affirms the varied qualities of an ideal man, and hence married five of them, as every person had a distinct quality but Sita retorts and says what is the use of five husbands, when not a single man could come to 'your rescue when you were in distress?' Ultimately it was Lord Krishna who had protected Draupadi who vowed that she would tie her hair, only after it was smeared with the blood of Dushasana and the ultimate downfall of Kauravas.  Draupadi vastraharanam With vachika abhinaya, blending with dance and expressions in Bharatanatyam style with suitable and powerful music, male dancers in contemporary, creative and Chhau dance movements, added visual appeal to the entire presentation. Concept, choreography and voice over were by Guru Jyotsna Shourie, music composition and voice by OS Arun and MadStarBase. Lead character of Draupadi was played by Nandita Kaalan and Sita by Aneesha Grover. Joe Mathew enacted Rama; Shakuni and Hanuman was enacted by Amrita Sivakumar, Benjamin Jacob played Arjuna and the golden deer, Sagar Vashisht played Ravan and Dushasana very well. On the whole it was entertainment with a different perspective. Jyotsna Shourie said, "At the onset of my career as a classical dancer and mentor, I always wanted to work outside the box. The response has been varied, traditionalists may or may not appreciate my ideology or style of presentation but I am trying to take classical dance to a larger section of the audience, hence such initiatives."  Vijay Shankar is a Kuchipudi and Kathakali exponent, teacher, bilingual journalist, arts critic and actor.. |
