Those who smooth the way
CHANDRAKANT
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The Vikramshila Festival took place recently in Bihar. Some highlights.
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PHOTOS: CHANDRAKANT
UNEXPLORED TOPICS Kathak dancer Rama Das.
Artistes have been depicting Buddha's journey from a prince to the Enlightened One, his sermons and teachings through choreographic pieces. But the women like Yashodhara, Sujata and Ambapali who were responsible for the turning points in Buddha's life, have remained unexplored topics. Rama Das, a Kathak dancer of Lucknow and Rajgarh gharanas, presented a beautiful piece on this aspect at the first Vikramshila Festival held recently at the ancient site of Vikramshila in Bihar.
The event was held by the Department of Culture as a part of the yearlong celebrations of the 2550th year of the Mahaparinirvan of Buddha. Similar events have been organised at six other Buddhist sites in Bihar.
Winner of many state and national level awards, including the Sringar Mani title, and a member of the East Zone Cultural Centre (EZCC), Kolkata, Rama has presented Buddha's life at many music festivals and conferences. But this time the theme was three women in Buddha's life. Yashodhara, Sujata and Ambapali represent three phases in his life and the presentation wove the events related to all three, their views and thoughts and also their mental agonies.
It began with Yashodhara, the wife of Siddharth, who suffered from self-denunciation, as Siddharth did not share his feelings with her. The mood was highlighted through Maithilisharan Gupta's poem, "Sakhi wei mujhse kah kar jate", beautifully composed and voiced by Rekha Ratnam, a Kirana gharana singer. Rama played the character well with subtle expressions and restrained movements of a princess. The ochre colour costume of the artiste suited the mood of the moment.
Next came the portrayal of Sujata, the tribal woman who offered food to Siddharth while he was meditating in search of eternal truth without food and water in a forest.
Once he accepted the food, he realised that health was equally important for human beings, and this realisation opened a new chapter in his life.
Rama's disciple Priyanka Manohar depicted Sujata as a simple but emotionally rich human being in an impressive manner. Priyanka is endowed with great aesthetic sense and this was reflected in this piece also.
The choreographic piece concluded with the depiction of Ambapali, the Rajnartaki of Vaishali. It was she who insisted on the inclusion of women in Buddha's Sangh. Rama again came on the stage, presenting the dancer as a woman of rare intellect.The way she portrayed Ambapali as an artiste and as a woman was commendable. The other artistes in the choreographic piece, Ujjawal and Satish, displayed their competence as well.
Rama added innovations in the musical aspect of her choreographic piece also.
The entire piece was choreographed over a melodious piece, `Journey' by Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. The piece had a number of segments featuring different moods as well as different rhythms that suited the theme well. The script by Rekha Ratnam was well conceived and well written.
Instrumental duet
Sarod player Reeta Das.
The next item was a duet on the sarod and the guitar by Reeta Das and Samarjeet.
A sarod player of the Maihar Senia gharana, Reeta has received training from Ustad Ashish Khan, the late Ustad Bahadur Khan, Pandit Sunil Mukherjee and her father and disciple of Baba Allauddin Khan, C.L. Das. Only recently she performed at the Pratibha Utsav at Patiala organised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, Delhi.
Beginning with a brief alap in the raga Kirwani, the artistes presented Maseetkhani and drut laya (fast tempo) compositions.
The notes and phrases in the alap were combined well by the two artistes, and in the segment of rhythmic compositions they displayed good rhythmic sense. The Jhala was forceful and Reeta displayed tremendous speed and energy in this segment.
They were accompanied on two tablas by Amit Kumar and Phanibhushan.
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