Nritya Natya Kala Bharati's Annual Recital

Most people who have been behind the camera or backstage organizing events know the chaos that goes on unknown to the audience in the front. To put together a large group of kids of all age groups ranging including those who are a couple of years out of their diapers is a daunting task for anyone. I have seen mothers running around, last minute shopping for clothes, the artists dealing with last minute changes in what would be presented, hectic incessant practice sessions, frayed tempers and confusion. Top that with getting a group of exceptionally talented live musicians for the classical pieces together each with conflicting work schedules and commitments and you would think either the show would never happen,or it would be a chaotic mess.
Instead the curtain rose at the Sydney Marcus auditorium, on 7th May at the world congress center before a full house, and a seemingly calm and poised husband wife duo of Kumud and Sandeep Savla, who run the Nritya Natya Kala Bharati dance academy, accompanied by the Pandit Joshi, from Shiv Mandir and co emcee Amitabh Sharma(the other emcee was Anisa Daftary) who is himself very learned in the various religious rituals, on stage. They stood together to light the traditional diya and receive God’s blessings to remove all obstacles before the start of any project, explained Amitabh Sharma.

The program then began with the traditional classical dance segment with live musicians playing in the back ground. The Savlas have always been very particular about having this segment performed to live music as per the tradition since the olden days instead of on cd tracks as many performers tend to do nowadays. The artists themselves, from the magnificent Ed Pias on Pakhawaj, sitarist par excellence Kakuli Bakshi on sitar, flutist Apurva Shrivastva whose son Aditya was supposed to be present but was recovering after an accident, tabla player Amjad Kava, Sohail Ali on key board and Yashvant Panchal on percussion, along with Sndeep Savla and Vijal Shah on vocals. Sandeep Savla had been unwell and said later that his voice was a mere croak. He was down with fever the next day and coughing profusely a couple of days later, but some how when the adrenalin flows on the d-day, everything gets done. Not many members in the audience realized his voice was in bad shape as he sang through the segments pretty smoothly. The classical segment started with the traditional ganesh vandana, followed by sakhee madhur madhur, jahnanana, kathak sargam and kathak tukda performed by younger girls of different age groups. The stage became resplendent with color as girls in beautiful attires in lavender and purple, green and orange with gold work, pink and white and purple, tapped and swirled their way on stage keeping beat to the segments sung by the live musicians.
The highlight of the segment was Ashtanayika-the 8 rasas depicting the many moods of love. Kumud Savla says she had been wanting to do this segment for some time now but wasn’t sure how she could get young girls to express emotions like being separated from the beloved, the distress at separation, anger at her beloved who left her against her pleadings. After considering several options including a video presentation in the background, Kumud hit upon the idea of projecting the emotions, the rasas herself in a pictorial still shot while each rasa was depicted simultaneously in dance by girls and women of all age groups. The final rasa of the nayika running to meet her beloved not fearing any obstacle that came in her way was portrayed by Kumud herself.

After the classical segment came the contemporary dance segment, that had the audience whistling and tapping to popular songs. Mera babu chail chabila, San sananana, by young girls had every one cheering. The young boys dancing to it’s the time to disco in dapper black had every one screaming. The tough moves and the young age of the boys who did it quite effortlessly, brought the house down. Rang deni was another show stopper as was the qawalli Chilman where Kumud Savla created a nice mix of classical and modern moves to give it an exciting twist .
There was a music and tabla recital after the intermission and more contemporary dance on popular songs like Rang he, maar dala. The latter was especially appreciated as adorable little girls, who looked barely 4 and 5 years old dressed in a resplendent green went through all the jhatkas that madhuri dixit depicted in devdas! Dajiva brought back memories of Goa and fisher women and men dancing near the sea, and the little girls continued to charm the audience in an energetic display in aa gaya.

The grand finale was inspired by the tragedy of Tsunami according to Kumud Savla who had initially wanted to do a charity event for the cause. It was eventually decided to dedicate the annual function to Tsunami victims and proceeds from ticket sales and donations to go to the on going relief work. Kumud says she was very affected by the tragedy having lost loved ones in the Gujarat quake and it got her thinking about water-how it can be life giving and a destructive force at its worst, how it inspires song and dance , romance and fun; and tears as it destroys- how from being the very foundation of life, it flows and ebbs away as life does. The entire finale took the audience through different emotions. Many people were seen wiping tears from their eyes as the segment on Tsunami showed the lifeless forms of those that were felled by the malevolent ocean waves, as video clips enhanced the effect.
It was close to midnight when the show ended to reverberating applause. The only sore point in the event was the fact that there were people seen eating inside the auditorium in spite of requests by emcee Amitabh Sharma, to not litter the place, and a rather rude parent who threw a tantrum because he was requested not to sit in the first three rows which had been reserved for the media covering the event and dignitaries. I think we set a very poor example for our children when we act like jerks in public. Eating inside or making a mess will make such beautiful halls inaccessible for future events, and the loss will be ours.