International Arts and Cultural Foundation presented a unique three-day Festival of musical storytelling “Katha Kuthuhala’from March 27 to 29, at Bangalore Gayana Samaja auditorium, under the banner of STRI Sanskriti Mathosav 2019.
Inaugurated by Manju Bhargavi, a renowned classical dancer and an award winning film actor, this festival featured Kathakalakshepam from Tamil Nadu, Pandavani from Madhya Pradesh, Harikathe from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, Kanhopatra from Maharashta and Baul singing from Bengal.
The opening day of the festival saw two very impressive presentations - RituVerma from Chhattisgarh rendered in Hindi the story of Draupadi from Mahabharat in ‘Pandvani gayan’ and V. Malini from Karnataka told the story of Chamundeshwari in Kannada – from
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Ritu Verma is renowned worldwide for her Pandavani gayan. Pandavani literally means stories or songs of the Pandavas, the five heroic brothers of Mahabharatha. Ritu Verma presented the episode (which is known as ‘Prasang’ in the parlance of Pandavani gayan) of the Pandavas losing in the deceptive game of dice and Draupadi getting shamed in the court of Kaurava king Ritu Verma enacted, sang and narrated the whole episode with such power and command, that there was pin drop silence in the auditorium. Redolent and evocative, solid and real, every utterance of hers reverberated all around. Clad in a crimson colour saree and holding the ‘tambura’, which was decorated with small bells and peacock feathers, Ritu Verma looked boldly striking. She used the tambura as her prop, turning it into a mace when required, and with another hand she struck the cymbals in sync with the taal. Her ambidextrous skill and her thunderous voice added to the whole dramatic effect very commendably. She was in a sitting pose on her knees throughout – (which is called as ‘Bhedmati style ) which requires great stamina and core energy. The powerful narrator-singer also sprinkled some humour in between and also shared some personal anecdotes from her travels to many countries abroad as a performer. She told that though she never had formal education, she could memorize all the 18 chapters of Mahabharath.
Her music accompanists harmonized with her presentation in an invigorating manner. A special mention must be made of the singer who sang the refrain and provided vocal backing in a high-spirited way. Ritu Verma and her team received the much deserving applause.
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Then followed the Harikathe by Malini – the story of Chamundeshwari Devi, from Devi Mahatme . A veteran in the field, she sounded confident and at ease to present a Harikatha sitting down – which is unusual in traditional Harikathe format. Malini started off with a slokam- a hymn on Devi, followed by Krishna and Ganapati slokams. She elaborated in an extensive manner on the power of Devi as Shatki devathe. As the fierce form of Devi, how she had killed terrible demons like Chanda, Munda and Mahishasura and rid the worlds from their malevolent destruction – every detail was conveyed very powerfully. She summed up the episode in a very invigorating way – though she dragged it too long before getting into the actual story. She shared important details about how katha kirtana started in Karnataka – how Gubbi Veeranna’s mother Nagamma started the genre in a small way but took it to a greater height. Malini and her accompanists were duly applauded.
As master narrators, Ritu Verma and Smt.Malini emoted every nuance with great felicity and mastery and conveyed the stories in their very own culture specific way. The heroism, chivalry or the message embedded in the stories were conveyed with aural gusto and body/ facial gesticulations.
Srivatsa Shandilya, Curator of the Festival and Director of the International Arts and Cultural Foundation said: “ India is the land of storytelling since the days of yore, through the long periods of powerful bhakti movement, but sadly India’s name doesn’t feature prominently in the world of storytelling. My endeavour is to see that this generation doesn’t see this storytelling as a dying art, so I envision these festivals. To date, there is no documentation of women practitioners of these art forms; it requires a broader and deeper inquiry and study into the form.”