Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Dance, music... LOVE AND LIFE
|
The timeless traditions of Pandit Amarnath once more. The magic of Maya Rao. Two books on two legends bring to us the joy of Indian classical music and dance once again. ANJANA RAJAN flips through.
|
WHO WANTS to read about dance? Who wants to read about music? `Boring!' as the tiny tots would say. Right? Right, say most book publishers and a number of newspaper editors. Some, however, may wish to differ. But how do you fight a system where V invariably follows T in the popular alphabet, and entertainment refers more to mental sludge than anything remotely challenging or edifying? Ashish Mohan Khokar, dance historian and editor of Attendance, the Dance Annual of India, says, "It struck me there are a lot of stories of dancers that have not been written. But publishers are not interested." Ashish found his solution by starting his own publishing house, Ekah-Bios, devoted to publishing books on Indian dance. His "Guru Maya Rao", recently released in New Delhi, is the first in the Pioneers of Indian Dance series.
Maya Rao's being the first biography in the series was partly dictated by circumstances. He had planned to start with the great dancer Ram Gopal, but the work could not be completed due to his passing away. Then, Maya Rao is based in Bangalore, Ashish's usual headquarters. But these facts do not in any way take away from the merit of the subject. This pioneering dancer and choreographer was among the first two performers - the other was N.K. Sivasankaran - sent on an official scholarship to Moscow, back in 1960, to learn choreography. "Nowadays they do choreography even for dhokla," comments Ashish referring to the ridiculous way the term is bandied about.
Raja and Radha Reddy, Sonar Chand, Shambhu Hegde, Shakti Bhatnagar, Rani Karnaa, Pratap Pawar, Satyanarayan Charkha were among those Maya Rao taught during her days at the Natya Ballet Centre.
Ashish is happy that Maya Rao, who turned 75 early this May, is alert and active, since he feels that "biographies should be written while the person is still alive."
While he prefers documenting dance history rather than delving into dancers' possibly `juicy' personal lives, Maya Rao's story is not without its candid moments and recounting of art politics. Her experiences in Moscow, with the temperature at minus 29 degrees, and the way their bodies suffered when it was assumed they were already trained in Western Ballet, make for absorbing reading. The veteran dancer also does not shirk to relate how some of the current czars and czarinas of classical arts in Delhi, then just spreading their wings, tried to clip hers.
With the Gurus of Indian Dance and Legends of Indian Dance series on the cards too, Ashish is clear about his plans. "At least in 20 years' time, when our children grow up, there will be a dance section in book shops!"
WHEN YOU hear that Bindu Chawla has authored a book, you refer to it as hers. But Bindu Chawla doesn't call it her book. "This is my father's fourth book," she says, finding nothing strange in attributing the authorship of her current and future works to her late father Pandit Amarnath, the celebrated Hindustani vocalist. If we fail to understand her drift, it would be because we forget that in all her endeavour, Bindu Chawla is nothing more nor less than her father's daughter, whose constant endeavour is to put down in words his thoughts - on music, philosophy, life. In the case of the latest work, "Conversations with Pandit Amarnath" published by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, she feels her own contribution is particularly feeble as compared to his, since it is written in the form of a dialogue. "I asked the questions. He answered them," she says of the book, the idea of which germinated, she tells us in the preface, when the great musician and guru was lying in hospital and she felt the need to brighten his thoughts by turning them towards the subject he loved.
That Bindu is a classical vocalist in her own right and her father and guru was an exponent of the Indore gharana of Hindustani music, a disciple of the great Amir Khan, might explain why parts of the book make for heavy reading for all but the musically well versed and technically inclined. That should not deter the lay reader, feels Bindu, because the later chapters are less technical.
"I hope and pray and wish the book would be read by common people," says Bindu fervently. This is particularly important to her, since she feels Pandit Amarnath was "a man of the masses". Yet, she adds, "The masses also need to study and look inwards to understand his contribution." So while grasping the philosophy and technicalities of Hindustani music might not be as easy as apple pie, Pandit Amarnath, she points out, never considered this art as an elite form. "He felt it was from my heart to your heart."
On the other hand, she did not write with the masses - or anyone for that matter - in mind.
"One doesn't think of readership when one gets into writing a book. One thinks of preserving a heritage." But Bindu is certain that neither the present book nor the ones she has written earlier, nor those yet to come would be able to encompass the extent of the contribution of Pandit Amarnath or his musical and philosophical traditions. "One thinks of the ice berg," she explains, and this time, we know what she means.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
