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Much like the Vaishnav

sakhi bhava tradition, poet Bulle Shah

was known to dance in

female attire.

Photo: Deepak Mudgal

Step by Step Probal Gupta and Manjari Chaturvedi in performance.

To present solo Kathakali to taped music is to rob the dance of its life force flowing from the dancer-accompanist interaction. If that was not bad enough, the vocal music in parts was indifferent. The dancer chose only stree vesham items, beginning with Iraiyiman Tampi’s padam from Daksha Yagna, where the micro/macro mingling is represented through Sati’s yearning for Sri Neelakantha Shiva, whose physical attributes the abhinaya revels in. His cheek muscles and eyebrows very mobile, Probal has mastered the technique of mukhabhinaya. But what he needs to improve upon is the internalising of emotion, which now appears vapid.

In Pootanamoksham, where the demon Pootana disguised as Lalita sets off on the mission given by King Kamsa to kill baby Krishna, the joyous disbelief at the beauty of Ambadi as she wanders around in search of Nanda’s house, and her inborn motherly instincts kindled on seeing the delightful baby, were not communicated with sufficient conviction. The latter half, as the demonic side takes over with the pain and shock of the baby suckling out her life, came off better. The music in Anandabhairavi as Lalita fondles the baby and even the earlier Kambodhi bit had none of the magic in the singing.

The Kathakali torso shivers expressive of intense emotion need more subtlety. The thumb twisted round the raised left big toe suggesting the typical baby’s habit of putting the foot in the mouth, was subtle.

More of nritta technique characterised Purappadu set to four rhythm cycles. Innovative in tradition with streevesham kalasams and Kathakali’s descriptive elaboration was Vande Mataram in Desh, which the dancer revived in his guru’s style with the help of Sukumar Kutty the guru’s son, who also provided vocal support.

Manjari Chaturvedi’s endeavours in what she calls Sufi Kathak are a decade old. Based entirely on a visualisation of Sufi poetry as expressed in the verses of legendary poets like Rumi, Kabir, Amir Khusrau, Bulle Shah, Manjari’s recital, called Raqs-e-Ruh, at the Kamani had its strongest inspirational point in the music provided by qawwals from Awadh, classical musicians from Lucknow and the irrepressible Manganiyars from Rajasthan. Manjari’s movements are clean and endowed with supreme grace. The dancer’s silhouette slowly emerging from the swirling mists, in searching movements of what was described as the flight of the soul was a metaphor which, barring the Shivaranjani bit on the flute, conveyed little. So too Rumi’s poetry, where the devotee bedazzled by the power of His eyes, loses herself, had to be lifted over the literal level by more use of ‘nazar andaz’ in the dance.

The item that blended the devotional and the romantic in a convincing rendition was Amir Khusrau’s “Eri Sakhi, Mor Piya Ghar Aye” sung spiritedly by the qawwals. Much like the Vaishnav sakhi bhava tradition, poet Bulle Shah was known to dance in female attire. His “Tere Ishq Nachaya” marked the climax for the evening, with the thunder stolen by the Manganiyars whose ebullient singing and castanet rhythm had every heart dancing. In the tarana in Durbari too their performance made the dance look an also ran.

The metaphor of colours while describing love by poets, with qawwals singing, did not quite come off in the dance interpretation. The intimate exchange as the devotee after realising the Godhead within says “Mujh me rehkar, mujh se purdah’ saw some evocative moments. Manjari has certainly worked hard at creating an original genre. If she could use more of abstract Kathak rhythmic virtuosity in evoking the ecstasy of total surrender, the dance, given its delightful grace, would wear less of a monochromatic one-tone look.

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