My favourite raga
Aditi Mangaldas: My choice is rag Jog
Aditi Mangaldas is a kathak dancer who uses the traditional repertoire to present modern oscillations. There is a judicious mix of the traditional and the contemporary in her work. She has presented her individual pieces and also the group ensembles
to critical acclaim all over the world. She is the director and the principal performer of the Drishtikon Dance Foundation – a Repertory group of 10. An empanelled artist of The Indian Council of Cultural Relations, she had her grooming under Kumidini Lakhia - one of the leading choreographers and pioneers of contemporary Kathak.
The scion of Kathak, India’s greatest Kathak maestro, the inimitable Birju Maharaj, also took her in his fold and taught her the intricacies of the great tradition and from him she imbibed the humanness of dance.
“I instinctively respond to ragas. I regret for not having a formal training in music. It would have helped had I learnt the different genres.
Evokes emotion
A piece evokes a certain emotion, cannot really say whether it is the lyric, the raga or the image. Finally, it boils down to how a composition is sung. In a literary composition, one is drawn to the literature but rendition is still of paramount importance. Shubha Mudgal is a case in point. She does simple alaps devoid of any frills. In a piece called ‘winter,’ which is sung in rag Jog there are no words but the way it is rendered gives the feel of a subterranean river-the point from where the voice originates, makes all the difference and it really excites me.
“Bageshwari epitomises search and seeking. This is both internal and external. The search sometimes surfaces as a storm. Beyond the mundane life, it could be search for one’s beloved, a search for Truth, a desire to search for something that is not tangible. Aneesh Pradhan, Shubha’s husband, while playing on the tabla seeks in a different way. Each is seeking yet each individual has to work out his own medium.”
Aditi did not accept the Gaurav Puraskar from the Government of Gujarat as it violated her sense of judgment. “Can one celebrate true art through violence? Art obliterates it all, the barriers of class, language and community. It is like a fragrance that travels equally through a gurdwara, a church, a temple and a mosque. It is this spirit of freedom in which the breeze of freedom, of equality and universality can flow,” she says.
JYOTI NAIR BELLIAPPA
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