An exhilarating session features only women percussionists performing for the first time in the city. In its fourth edition, ‘Women of Rhythm’ will see performances by Dandamudi Sumati Ramamohan Rao on mridangam, Sukanya Ramgopal on ghatam and some young performers like Mitali Khargoankar on tabla, Debopriya Ranadive on flute and Chandana Bala’s vocal performances.
With International Women’s Day being celebrated on March 8, the event cherishes the power of these women musicians. Sonia Acharya of the Mumbai-based event management company Event Shevent shares that the first edition was held in Mumbai in 2016.
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“We did not consider much and looked at it like a regular concert. The turning point came last year when we interacted with women artistes and they shared their work, how they have overcome challenges to be where they are. We realised there is no separate stage for them. When you combine male and female artistes, the male artistes get all the attention.”
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The initiative picked up momentum and after shows in Pune and Mumbai, it comes to Hyderabad which has an audience to understand and appreciate this kind of concept. “We wanted the next city to reciprocate to this initiative. We decided Hyderabad as it adapts to all kinds of classical forms and Hyderabadi artistes are open to travel to other cities to perform.”
The line-up has been created women percussionists from niche categories. “Vijayawada-based India’s first woman mridangam player Sumathi Ramamohan Rao is a sweet, humble person but transforms into an amazing powerful player on stage. It is hard to believe that a 60-year-old has so much energy inside her. Her hard work and determination that she has put through all these years comes out on stage,” states Sonia.
Most of the artistes come from a musical family and the spotlight will be equally shared by all the percussionists. The ‘first lady’ of ghatam, Sukanya Ramgopal is the senior disciple of Vikku Vinayakram.
The Hyderabad edition will have a blend of Carnatic and a bit of contemporary like the jugalbandi between a drum and tabla player so that it doesn’t become stagnant and monotonous.
In the three-hour show, the audience will get to see the social media favourite Chandana Balaji’s phenomenol (konnakol) and a Spanish Fleminco artiste Bettina Castano who will tap dance to Sukanya’s ghatam performances. “It is a testing phase for us to see whether the audience will connect with it not.” More than the large format shows, the company plans to hold four shows in a year and go to to new cities. “We plan to do the edition next in Surat in May.”
(Women Of Rhythm, an initiative of Event Shevent and Eleven Point
Two in association with Motivity Labs will be held on March 10 at CCRT Amphitheatre, Madhapur from 7 pm onwards)