The Aakriti Foundation, committed to a holistic view of the arts, presents its annual festival, “Tasmai – 2012” starting this Thursday at the India Habitat Centre. Every year, says Aakriti founder member Sushmita Ghosh, a noted Kathak dancer trained under Gurus Tirath Ram Azad, Munna Shukla and Reba Vidyarthi, the Foundation chooses one personality from the world of arts to pay homage to through the works presented.
This time the three-day festival is dedicated to Guru Jnan Prakash Ghosh. A tabla exponent, vocalist and composer, he was better known as the guru of eminent performers like Ajoy Chakraborty and Shankar Ghosh, remarks Sushmita. “I came to know him through my colleague (and another Tasmai co-founder) Shiv Shankar Ray, his disciple,” she says, adding she has always liked the late guru’s compositions and “the totality of the person: his sincerity, his honesty, his commitment to music.” She was further impressed on reading his autobiography in Bengali, titled “Tehzeeb-e-Mausiqui”.
Tasmai this Thursday evening 7 p.m. onwards, features venerable sitar maestro Debu Chaudhuri’s reminiscences of Pandit Ghosh, besides Kathak solos by Jayashree Acharya and Sushmita Ghosh. Both dancers will perform to Ghosh’s compositions. Friday evening begins with a khol and tabla duet by Madhu and Gopal Barman, to be followed by a vocal concert by Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra, accompanied on the table by Shiv Shankar Ray. “Tasmai” moves to Epicentre, Gurgaon, on Saturday, 7.30 p.m. with a sarod concert by Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar (again accompanied by Ray on the tabla), followed by a dance ballet by students, “Paraatatwa”, choreographed by Jayashree.
