Pandit Birju Maharaj (picture), the unparalleled Kathak dancer belonging to the Lucknow Gharana, is still young enough to shake the audience's hearts with his footsteps. Thanks to the initiative of Kajal Rekha Musical Foundation, the city got a chance to watch this living legend perform at G.D. Birla Sabhagar recently. Kajal Rekha Musical Foundation had been created in the memory of Kajal Rekha Banerjee by her son, Shubhankar Banerjee. Kajal Rekha was a singer and social worker who became an inspiration for others in her short lifetime in which she had overcome the pain of losing two legs to polio at the tender age of four, to work tirelessly for the people. The programme commenced with the tabla lahara of Gobinda Bose and his son, Somenath Bose. They showed their expertise in teentaal through some complicated bols, especially toras, parans and chakradhar parans. They also presented some rare tukras from the eminent Farukhabad Gharana, to which they belong.
The longing came to an end when Pandit Birju Maharaj stepped onto the stage. He started with Krishnapadam in Raga Malkauns, followed by different angles of thaats. He made a simple teentaal presentation extraordinary through his visualization, variety of thaats, complex tihais, amods, tatkars and parans. He also enthralled spectators by presenting wonderful gats and bhavas as well as with the picturesque representation of Nanda Kishore.
His famous disciple, Saswati Sen, gave a brief and enjoyable performance on dhamaar and entertained the viewers with her sparkling poise, rotation and articulation. She presented some captivating footwork and bols inspired and created by her guruji, with a portrayal of the day-to-day events of life that included street cricket and hockey. The audience enjoyed the sawal-jawab part of both guru and shishya, accompanied by the electrifying tabla of Shubhankar Banerjee. Saswati's performance with the famous thumri-based song of Begum Akhtar, " Koyeliya gan thama ebar" (in both the Hindi and Bengali versions), was exceptional.
In the concluding part, Pandit Birju Maharaj painted the attributes and nuances of life through his mesmerizing gaze and bhavas. The audience got the opportunity to observe the trademark features of his style in the depiction of the flourishing of nature and human relationships, the return of birds, friendship, competition as well as the steps of the eternal journey from birth to death in one circle of a paran. The programme would have been incomplete without the vocal support of Anirban Bhattacharya, and the sitar and sarengi accompaniment by Chandrachur Bhattacharya and Umesh Mishra.
