Festival of loyalty and devotion

Last weekend Mumbai witnessed a storm. I am not talking about the untimely heavy rain that stopped the fast paced life of the city, but I am talking about the magnificent Pt Durgalal festival organised by Sam Ved Society of Performing Arts and Kathak maestro Uma Dogra. This storm lasted for two days and every art lover was submerged in what they observed, three young masters Shri Shekhar Sen, Pt Ronu Majumdar and Pt Deepak Maharaj mesmerised one and all when they came on stage. This festival was celebrating its 26th year. This celebration of art through Pt Durgalal Festival emerged out of a void, an irreparable loss, which Uma Dogra experienced when her Guru and mentor Pt Durgalal died at the ripe young age of 42 and at the peak of his career.

For 26 years now, Sam Ved and Uma Dogra have been inseparable. Even as Umaji has taught and performed all across the world and won acclaim and plaudits for her achievements in the field of kathak, including the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi award, her role as the managing director of Sam Ved Society for Performing Arts has been an integral part of her artistic identity. The tragedy left her heartbroken, but it also evoked in her a desire to keep his legacy alive and to do her Guru proud and so in his memory she established Sam Ved Society for Performing Arts and started to organise the Pt Durgalal Festival which has now become a calendar event for Mumbai art lovers. You name the artist and they will proudly say that they were honoured to be a part of this festival dedicated to the guru. Some of the eminent artists from the field of dance include Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, Pt Birju Maharaj, Kathak queen late Sitara Devi, Dr Sonal Mansingh, Dr Kanak Rele, Hema Malini, late Pt Chitresh Das, Uma Sharma, Madha vi Mudgal and many more have danced. From the music field, Pt Jasraj, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma, Begum Parveen Sultana, Pt Rajan Sajan Mishra, Ustad Shahid Parvez are a few who have been part of Sam Ved’s 25-year long journey.

But this year Umaji decided to change her way of looking at the festival. For years it was dance and music based, but she felt that art should not be restricted to just that, so she included theatre in it for the very first time. Speaking to me, Umaji said, “Sangeet, Nritya and Natya are the essence of any performance. All these years Sam Ved only concentrated on Sangeet and Nritya, but this year I am glad that we have included Natya too and this new addition is indeed a welcome change and makes the festival a complete festival of art totally dedicated to my guru.”

Sangeet Natak Akademi chairperson Padmashree Shekar Sen, presented his famous mono-act play Soordas on the opening night of the festival. In two magical hours, Shekharji took us 600 years back in time and drowned us in blissful ocean of pure devotion of sightless poet-saint Soordas. The dance drama had simple production value just as the life of Soordas, yet Sen arrested us with his charismatic ability and held the audience in his artistic style as he shared the stories and songs spanning 105 years in the life of a remarkable legendary saint. Gems from the 10,000-plus strong literary treasure of this spiritual giant, particularly the enticing pieces capturing the Bal Leela; the influence of Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya on Soordas; his momentous interaction with greats like Swami Haridas, Tulsidas and Meerabai all were shown solely by Sen to perfection.

Day two saw two renowned masters come together, world renowned flautist Pt Ronu Majumdar and Kathak Prince Pt Deepak Maharaj came on stage and took our breadth away. Ronuji, who recently received his Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, fused the elements of gayaki and tantrakari, and created a different expression intrinsic to his rendition and on the other hand Deepakji, son of the legendary king of Kathak Padma Vibhushan Pt Birju Maharaj created a spell when he danced his famous Tukdas, including his mesmerising abhinaya which his renowned family is known for.

The Bhavan’s cultural centre was packed with art lovers, there was Dr Kanak Rele, Darshana Jhaveri, Nadira Babbar, Pt Nain Ghosh, Padma Sharma, Gyan Sahay, Atul Trivedi, Amit Khanna, and many more young artist who could not take their eyes off the stage when the three renowned performers acted, danced and made people sway to their tunes.

After the two enchanting evenings, I spoke to Umaji, who finally put her graceful feet up on the table to talk to me. She said, “In India, it is sad to see that when big, renowned and famous Gurus are around the younger generation masters who are also maestros in their own right rarely get a chance to show their skills. I am proud to say that henceforth young geniuses will be performing on this devotional stage of my festival.”

Some festivals are made to make commercial success, some are made so that the organiser can make a name for himself, but this festival is none of that. This celebration of art was born out of love, respect, loyalty and commitment. The guru-shishya relationship that India is famous for can clearly be been at this festival and in the eyes of the emotional Umaji who till today gets teary eyed when she sentimentally and proudly talks of her Guru Pt Durgalal.

Bringing all these artists together and mounting a big festival year after year in Mumbai and sometimes even outside of the city is no easy feat. But Umaji has against all odds managed to do so for over two decades. It is a job that requires tremendous passion, a never-say-die spirit and mad devotion toward the departed soul. I am sure the success of this glorious festival is all because of Pt Durgalal, who somewhere up there is looking down at his devoted shishya and blessing her for her devotion and love.

Sandip Soparrkar is an internationally renowned ballroom and Latin dancer and choreographer. He has also made his name as one of the top Bollywood choreographers of India. He can be contacted on sandipsoparrkar06@gmail.com