Keeping pace with the season
LEELA VENKATARMAN
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From the monsoon to multi-media, there were plenty of reasons to dance in Delhi this past week.
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-- PHOTO: PTI
SHORT ON PERFORMANCE Sharmishtha Mukherjee in `Varsha Mangal'.
`Varsha' conjures up images of moving clouds, of the distant rumble of thunder, of ripples of slanting rain with the lisp of leaves and the smell of the earth - all churning the creative imagination of poet and painter, and in India significantly, of musician and dancer. To showcase monsoon moods through varied art expressions, contemporary and traditional, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations mounted a four-day Malhaar Festival. While the packed Kamani audiences thrilled to the piercingly exquisite strains of Megh Malhar on the sitar, lilting kajris, and robustly meditative Malhar in Dhrupad, the dance component of the festival, `Varsha Mangal', conceived on the basis of Tagore's evocative poetry on the rains and visualised in the Kathak idiom by dancer Sharmishtha Mukherjee, fell far short of expectations.
Notwithstanding strong credentials of training under Guru Uma Sharma, Guru Rajendra Gangani and the late Pandit Durga Lal, backed by unflagging commitment to the dance, Sharmishtha has yet to master ensemble choreography to the point of raising it beyond the level of the banal in sharpness and clarity of design, arresting freezes, and group synchronisation. The delightful light blue backdrop with hanging net-like cloth panels, with the hinterland of moving clouds was marred by the plethora of over-bright floral panels in front, preventing the changing landscape of group formation silhouettes from standing out. How does dance paint space already painted?
The three male dancers, while physically present, seemed to have left head and heart at home - so emotionally disengaged was their dancing. The inalienable virtuosity of Kathak in the non-narrative part of the dance could have been made to look like a natural extension of the songs. For instance, lyrics like "Hridoy amar nachare nachare" with the percussive footwork where the ankle bells can create just about any effect, could have transcended predictable interpretation. Tagore's poetic mysticism gets lost in bald, on-the-surface dance passages. Instead wispy brushstrokes of suggestion could have been created with male and female dancers disappearing and surfacing in mist-like atmosphere, retaining the delicate quality of the poetic union. And whatever happened to the music? Discordant voices in chorus, male and female voices in unmatched octaves, the female singer's wobbly higher notes and inability to stick to the sur made one wonder where the nectarine quality of Rabindra Sangeet had gone.
Environmental cause
Yet again based on Kathak, but with a half-full Kamani, was the ballet `Shrushti' spearheaded by Sumitra Mahajan's mission to spread the message of ecological preservation, conceived by Anagha Ghaisas of Creations Entertainment, Pune, with dance conceptualisation by Roshan Datye, a senior disciple of Guru Rohini Bhate. Fourteen polished dancers with impeccable laya and polished group interaction, high quality taped music composed by Apy Parand and Harshavardhan Pathak's clever lighting made for an excellent base for the dance, beginning with a tarana invoking Akash, Vayu, Agni, Jal and Prithvi. From Tulsidas poetry and songs of Braj to quotes from Kautilya's Arthashastra and Kalidas' Ritusamhar, the wide spectrum of the textual format was complemented by audio-visuals ranging from the Deedarganj Yakshi to Bishnoi's love for trees and forest life - lifting the endeavour above the simplistic multi-media treatment. With all the plus points, Datye failed by overstretching scenes - the self -indulgent folk dance scene seemingly never ending. Tightening the ballet with editing would make it an ideal hour's infotainment for schools and colleges. Is Spic Macay listening?
Sans internalisation
At the India International Centre, a short Manipuri recital by Deboleena Paul from Lucknow, a disciple of the late Guru Bipin Singh and Kalavati Devi, lacked the deeply internalised meditative quality of Manipuri. Despite aesthetic costumes and grammatical correctness, the very externalised quality of the fast-paced dance made the recital too mechanistic. For instance, the repetitive movements in the Maibi dance and Thaibi from Lai Haroaba lacked the hypnotising concentrated intensity, and even Krishna Abhisar in the Manipuri dance needed a deeply felt faith lifting the item above the level of the mundane.
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