As a young child, Mallika Sarabhai remembers visiting the opening ceremony of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) along with her mother, legendary classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai. “Dr Jamshed Bhabha (co-founder of the NCPA) and Amma had a lot of respect for each other. A lot of the initial planning and thinking about the NCPA was done between them with me very much present, almost like a fly on the wall,” she reveals with a smile. Fifty years hence, the noted Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam dancer is all set to perform at the NCPA Add Art Festival as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the institution.
Cultural showcase
Sarabhai’s performance is one among the many celebrated acts by national and international artistes that the institution has lined up for three days. Committed to spreading awareness and introducing a broader set of audiences to the world of performing arts, the multi-genre extravaganza will showcase performances across theatre, dance, music, film screenings, stand-up acts, puppetry and more. NCPA, chairperson Khushroo N Suntook, feels that this is the right time to showcase the international standards and the modern facilities that the institution has introduced in the last five decades of its existence. “The festival took a long time to curate as we wanted to give each genre a chance to perform,” he says.
From a gala concert by the Symphony Orchestra of India to stand-up acts by Zakir Khan and Amit Tandon to performances by some of the legends of Indian dance and music such as Hariprasad Chaurasia, Malavika Sarukkai, Zakir Hussain, Aditi Mangaldas and Birju Maharaj among others, there is something for everyone. The festival will conclude with Roysten Abel’s The Manganiyar Seduction , an internationally-acclaimed audio-visual spectacle which brings together nearly 40 talented Manganiyar musicians.
Artiste speak
It’s the first time that Cuban-American jazz musician and ten-time Grammy award winner, Arturo Sandoval is visiting India to perform at the NCPA. Sandoval had earlier expressed a desire to visit the country and play along with Indian musicians. Now that he will be here to do a live concert, a jam session and hold a masterclass, what’s he looking forward to the most? “Everything! Is that too much to ask?” he laughs.
The virtuoso of jazz trumpet is known to get his audience in a musical trance during his sold-out concerts. “I think I’m very honest on stage and people connect to that,” he says.
The first day of the festival will see Zakir Khan bring his brand of humour to the NCPA stage, a first for the stand-up comedian. “It’s great that prestigious cultural venues such as [the] NCPA are recognising stand-up as an art form,” says the artiste, who will be performing an act called Tathastu for the audience. “It is about my grandfather and the things he used to say. It’s about how I saw those things then and how I see them today, a coming of age sort of story,” reveals Khan.
Danseuse Sarabhai will perform her much celebrated act, In Search of the Goddess on the first day of the festival. “It’s about how society makes deities of some women out of convenience. It’s a serious but light-hearted piece, where I use Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam, martial arts and dance theatre to bring out the thought behind it,” she adds.
The NCPA Add Art Festival will be held from November 29 to December 1. More details at bookmyshow.com
