Reaching the last lap of its year-long Golden Jubilee Celebrations, Kalamandalam Kolkata celebrated “Bhasha Dibash” at Rabindra Sadan, Kolkata recently, by saluting all those who sacrificed their lives in the Bhasha Andolon (Language Movement) by paying respect to the ‘mother tongue’ through dance choreographies in different Indian languages. Since a memorial for the language martyrs is planned in the compound of Rabindra Sadan, the “Bhasha Dibash” of Kalamandalam seems to be significant.
Somnath Kutty, author and secretary of the institution who conceived and directed this programme, has besides Bengali, which is celebrated in West Bengal and Bangladesh as the official language, extended his respect to other Indian languages as well and conceived six meaningful pieces choreographed by his mother Guru (Dr.) Thankamani Kutty and presented by the repertory of the institution. But why Bhasha Dibas?
“Bhasha Dibash always fascinated me”, explains Somnath. “It is not known whether anywhere in the world there was a movement for a language with so many people having embraced death. We never had staged a programme on or celebrated Bhasha Dibash. So when we got the booking of this hall on February 22, I thought it was God sent and jumped at it to celebrate the great day. Besides the day is generally celebrated through songs, poems and readings but perhaps not dance.”
What was his mother’s reaction to this idea? “At the beginning, she wondered how this could be framed, but being a very open-minded person, was overwhelmed after the concept was explained to her and started working on the choreography immediately,” replies Somnath.
Expression of love
The evening began with an earlier production “Shuncho Bhanusingho!” (Bhanusingha are you listening?) mounted for the first time in the Bharatanatyam idiom. It was an interesting adaptation of Tagore’s famous “Bhanusingher Padavali”, a collection of songs and poems embracing the Vaishnavite tradition composed in Brajaboli , expressing the love of Radha and Krishna. The piece was given a daring hue by Somnath by conceiving that Tagore wanted to justify his love for his sister-in-law Kadambari Devi, a couple of years elder to him, with the Divine love of Radha and Krishna, through dialogues in Bengali and five songs from the Bard’s compositions.
02dfrShakti by Mohul
This was followed by the release of a book of translations of Bhanusingher Padavali in English titled “Tagore’s Ballad of the Sun-Lion” written by Padmashree Utpal K. Banerjee and dedicated to Dr. Thankamani Kutty for the golden jubilee celebrations of Kalamandalam, Kolkata in presence of dignitaries.
The invocatory Ganesha Keertanam “Pari Pari Nee Padame”(Telugu) written and composed by Dr. Balamurali Krishna in raga Hamsadhwani, Adi taal and presented by four female and three male well-trained dancers, could not have been a better beginning of the evening. “Shakti”, a solo in praise of the Divine Mother, was by talented dancer Mohul and it was composed with Sanskrit stotras. The elaborated performance of Ardhanareeswara and the final prayer “Jayanti Mangala Kali Bhadrakali...” made for a visual and aural treat. Poet Jaishankar’s “Hamara Pyara Bharatvarsha” was in Hindi. A duet was set to a cult song “Ami Banglaye Gaan Gayi”, a much loved, widely sung emotional number of Bangladesh and West Bengal penned and originally sung by Indian poet Pratul Mukhopadhyay. The capacity audience was overpowered with the sentiments of the song than the choreographic imagery of the lyrics!
Rhythmic “Chandana Mamazha”, a happy Malayalam song, which compares the raindrops with sandalwood was an enjoyable number by young girls. In the Tamil padam “Aadinaye Kanna” in Mohana Kalyani, Adi taal Jhinuk proved her abhinaya skills. The evening concluded with the thundering plea “Bho Shamabho” to the Supreme Lord composed by Dayanand Saraswati in Ragamalika, Adi taal.
