An instant connect with hill audience

Shailaja Khanna

The annual Shimla Classical Dance Festival organised by the Department of Language Art and Culture ended on a high note, despite the cancellation of the first day’s festivities due to national mourning after Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s death. 

The dance of the iconic “Queen of Odissi” Sujata Mohapatra (disciple of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra) was cancelled, but the department quickly swung into action and organised a recording of her dance by the Shimla Doordarshan Kendra, which was broadcast a day later. An additional delight for Shimla-ites was her impromptu offering at the Tara Devi temple, where she danced to the recitation of a mangala shloka from the Devi Saptashati. Her devotion and graceful mastery of her art could be experienced palpably, as she slowly bowed to Goddess Tara.

The festival opened with a Kathak dance by Yashika Ghamta from the village of Barthata, Jubbal. Creditably, this young dancer, who has been learning Kathak since her school days, is now training under the great Pt Rajendra Gangani of the Jaipur Kathak Gharana. Incidentally, Pt Rajendra Gangani opened the festival last year, and his disciple Vishal Krishna also danced last year. Yashika had trained under Vishal for three years before now learning in Delhi. It is to her credit that despite being a relatively new disciple, her Guru Rajendra choreographed her entire performance, from the opening invocation to Lord Shiva, to the display of “layakaari” ending in a piece focused on “bhaav”. 

Yashika is tall, graceful and full of poise and will be seen more frequently on stages across India.

The next artist was the young, talented Jai Quehaeni from Chennai. Familiar to Shimla audiences, Jai Quehaeini had performed at the Gaiety Theatre last year portraying the role of Meera’s husband, the Rana, as part of the troupe, which had enacted Meera the Soul Divine, choreographed by Guru Padmashri Smt Chitra Visweswaran. In love with the hills, Jai Quehaeni had been happy to persuade her Guru to choreograph a special act for Himachal Pradesh for her. Aiding the visuals was the aural aspect composed by Vidushi Bombay Jayashri, whose disciple Vijayshri Vittal provided the vocal accompaniment to the performance. Despite being trained in the Carnatic tradition, Vijayshri has an instinctive feel for the North Indian style; which her Guru is honing for her.

The opening invocatory piece merged into a depiction of the Ganga, then into a composition of Tulidas composed in Banaras, in praise of Lord Kashi Vishwanath. The next piece invoked the three aspects of the Goddess – Kali, Lakshmi and Saraswati. But the piece that had an instant connect with the hill audience was the Panchaakshar stotra composed by Adi Shankara. Jai Quehaeni danced on all five stanzas. The music is composed in Raga Bhairav, which is traditionally depicted visually as Lord Shiva was beautiful, with the structure of the piece being a fast paced thillana. Jai Quehaeni has a magnetic stage presence and her lithe graceful dancing was hugely applauded. Bringing the performance alive and comprehensible to the audience was the articulate explanation by Vidya Ravindran Anand, whose dignified presence on stage enhanced the performance. The performance ended with an ode to our motherland — India on music composed by late Pt Vishweswaran.

The final day of the festival saw performances in kathak by local dancer Pawan, an Odissi solo, then duet by Solan-based Minaketan Sahu and his disciple Dr Manisha Sharma. Laudably, Sahu has been running an institution in Solan teaching Odissi for the last 19 years, in the tradition of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.

The grand finale was a performance by 11-member Kathakali group, led by one of the greats of Kathakali, SNA awardee Guru Kalamandalam Ramachandran Unnithan from Kerala. The depiction of a scene from the Mahabharata involving the meeting of Bhim and Hanuman, played by the Vidwan was one of his most popular acts.