Kathak's own
ALKA RAGHUVANSHI
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Keshav Kothari deserves credit for taking Kathak to a new high.
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I remember being marched up to his office and having to undertake the odious task of explaining as to why I had registered myself against my parents' wishes in the Kathak Kendra. While I hummed and hawed, a twinkle of a smile lit up his face, and puffing his pipe, he recounted that my mother had come to him demanding that I be thrown out of the Kendra. He not only convinced her to the contrary but also charmed her into letting me learn!
This was way back in 1979. Then he was merely the head of the institution. Following this incident, it was my privilege to call him my friend and mentor.
But then Keshav Kothari was like that - he had the ability to recognise talent and the vision to hone it. A complete visionary, he was a culture-crat even before the term gained currency, who not only knew his thang-ta and alarippu and the chakkardar paran from his ghoomar and ankia nat, but had the vision to bring our folk, tribal and traditional forms out of their usual contexts to introduce them to urban audiences the world over with tremendous ιlan and confidence. The Lok Utsavs that he had started in the 1980s really educated the urban audiences and put on board forms that had never been seen before. If folk performers like Teejan Bai and the Wadali Bandhu are household names today, the credit surely goes to Keshavji, for he introduced them to urban audiences, many of them for the first time.
Few will forget the Bhakti Utsav that he had designed in 1984, where he brought together performers as diverse as Kishori Amonkar (at an unearthly hour of 6.30 a.m!) and Kumar Gandharva and his son Mukul Shivputra (for the first time) Carnatic bhakti music to Prahlad Singh Tippania singing bhakti music from Malwa and various forms of Kathavaachan from across the country. I was covering the festival for a daily and remember grumbling about the timing of some of the performances - and he laughed it off saying everybody will come. And of course he was right!
A dancer himself
As Secretary of Sangeet Natak Akademi and Director of Kathak Kendra, to him goes the credit of putting Kathak on the world map at par with the best and bringing respectability to the form, changing how the dance form became to be perceived forever. A trained Kathak dancer himself, he had the depth of understanding to change the sequence of performance, the presentation or aharya of the style in an attempt to undo the damage perpetrated by Hindi cinema of those days. Who can forget the dignified, hand woven, plain madder red full-length costumes he designed among others - at a time when virtually all Kathak dancers couldn't see beyond tinsel and bling?
Of course, he had his favourites. Which really sensitive arts person doesn't? I remember how he incurred the wrath of some senior dancers when he opted to send the next generation performers for the Festivals of India organised abroad , saying that the world also needed to see the younger face of India. A multi-talented persona, his scholarly writing gave the intellectual thrust so sorely needed by both Kathak and the other living heritage of performing arts, be it folk or traditional. The paper he wrote on Kathak with emphasis on Guru Birju Maharaj continues to be the last word on both. The understated and elegant designs of the brochures of various festivals that he organised still deserve to be preserved. Whenever I attempted to bully him to write, he would always promise to write it `next time.' Ditto for a book on Bhakti music that I was entreating him to write. I wish someone knew how to bring back the `next time'.
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