South Gurukul Society presented Bahamana, an initiative supported by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India with the presentation of Rabindrantha Tagore’s “Mayar Khela” – a musical and dance extravaganza in the Odissi dance style, exploration of how to make Maya visible,creating a world of wonder,mystery and curiosity, even before the story unfolds. Mayar Khela succeeds in taking the audience to a journey with the juxtaposition of love,illusions,dreams and reality with melodious music,sparkling dancers with intense expressions that stirs your heart and creates a lasting impression on the spectators. This spectacular presentation was held at the Bal gandharva Rangmandir in Bandra on 11th September.
The highlight of the performance is that,unlike most presentations when the expressions are intense, the body hardly moves, but Vidushi Sutapa Tulakdar;s choreography takes you to a different level of expressional dancing, as the dancer continues to dance with expressions that would intensify along with the dance moves, which would either become slow or faster depending on the intensity of the emotion displayed, varying accordingly. Another specialty of the performance was the fine uniformity , synchronisation and team spirit All the dancers performed quite well. A fine combination of both pure
dance and expressions with classical and naturalistic Odissi style. Music by Padmashri Tejendra Narayan Majumdar. Direction and choreography by SNA awardee Guru Satapa Talukdar from Kolkata. Script by Padma Bhushan Sankha Ghosh.
Vocal support by renowned Rabindra Sangeet artists Jayati Chakraborty,Supratik Bhattacharya, Saheb Chattopadhyay and Ranjini Mukherjee.Bengali narration by Sreela Majumder, English narration by Rudraprasad Sengupta. Lead dancers Sabarnik De as Amar, Srijoni Nandi as Pramoda, Oishanee Bhattacharyajee as Shanta. On the whole it was a wonderful presentation;
Before the presentation of Mayar Khela, leading Odissi dancer Namrata Mehta and Bharata Natyam dancer Prachi Mehta presented an impressive duet of Shiva and Shakti, exploring the speciality of both Odissi and Bharata Natyam dance styles with their distinct movements.
GURU VIJAY SHANKER
