At the crossroads
HUMRA QUREISHI
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Bharati Shivaji on the performance that changed her life.
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Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
Bharati Shivaji
Bharati Shivaji’s name is almost synonymous with Mohiniattam. And when I asked her about the turning point in her life she said, “Though I was initiated into the classical dance form and was well into Bharatanatyam and in the midst of learning Odissi, the turning point came the very day I saw Indrani Rahman perform Mohiniattam. I can’t really describe what I went through, but there was that emotional longing for this dance form. Somehow I could relate to it, I could identify with it. And when I learnt that it’s been one of those neglected dance forms, the involvement grew. I decided to get to know more of it and learn it and do whatever I could to preserve it.”
So much so that she even began learning it, but the actual turning point came towards the mid-’70s. When Kamala Devi Chattopadhyay, who was then chairperson of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, saw her performance at the India International Centre and offered her a project on this dance form. “And that project was the turning point…I was finally aware of the various aspects of Mohiniattam and was guided by the well known scholar Kavalam Narayana Panikker.”
What if she had not got “hooked” to this dance form, then what would have been the focus? “I can’t say what would have happened. It had to happen. I very much believe in destined turns… It had to happen. The day I saw Indrani Rahman perform I got hooked on it.”
I had to ask her whether this feeling for this neglected dance form came through because she was herself going through a low and neglected phase on the personal front? “Probably yes… but then, as I just said, it had to happen. And it had to become the very purpose of my life….”
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