The ghungroo spoke Birju Maharaj

SRI KRISHNA GANA SABHA

Source

The ghungroo spoke

RUPA SRIKANTH

MAESTRO Birju Maharaj demonstrated how every nuance in creation can be captured in rhythm.

Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

Electrifying presence : Birju Maharaj.

The aged and rather diminutive man, dressed in a white and gold churidar-kurta with a broad red belt, appeared silently on stage. His bright, twinkling eyes were the only give away as he struck a pose of Krishna with the flute. Yes, it was the legen dary dancer, Pandit Birju Maharaj, whose very presence seemed to electrify the atmosphere.

‘Krishna Vandana’ done, Birju greeted the audience and introduced the concept of rhythm. “The first rhythm that God made was in the heart... in man, bird, deer… In every rhythm, there is bhava. And everything has a beat — a bird flying, lighting a fire, sleeping...” He demonstrated examples of how every nuance in creation can be captured in rhythm. The improvisations in teen taal (16 beats) were translated into different expressions of ‘sparkling stars in the sky’ followed by rhythmic sequences visualised as a romantic jugalbandi between a man and a woman with the tabla representing the male and the ghungroos or ankle bells representing the female.

Spellbound rasikas

Pandit Birju brought a novel way of looking at a slow vilambit and a fast drut taal through a conversation between two friends, one lazy and the other active. He already had his rasikas in raptures, and when he enacted a tihai as the dialling of a number on the telephone with the ‘hello’ on the sam, he simply brought the roof down. And there was more to come.

Being a representative or rather an inheritor of the Lucknow Gharana’s abhinaya expertise, the legendary dancer took one line of a tumri, ‘Ja main tho se nahi bolungi,’ in which a gopi tells Krishna that she will not speak to him and gave it many-hued interpretations of annoyance, anger and flirtation. A gat bhav of Krishna’s butter stealing or Makhan Chori enacted to rhythm was also sensitively portrayed, it was a treat to see a mature 71-year-old turn into a mischievous child with one flick of the wrist that held the flute.

Saswati Sen, senior most disciple of Pandit Birju, held court for the next segment. Her exposition of the Ashta Mangal taal (11 beats) shone with virtuosity as she performed the tihais and paramelu sequences with chakkar or pirouette and precise footwork.

The Ahalya Udhar from the Ramayana was extra special because of Guru Birju’s participation as vocalist. The Guru played out the final beats of the two-hour programme in a drut laya tatkar (footwork) in teen taal.

The wonderful musical support was provided by Utpal Ghoshal (tabla), Ramen Deka (harmonium, vocal) and Chandrachud Bhattacharjee (sitar). The evening was dedicated to the memory of Yagnaraman, secretary, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha.