The elegance of Kathak with musical soiree at Chhayanaut

Kathak, one of the major forms of Indian classical dance, traces its origins to the nomadic bards of ancient northern India, known as Kathakars or storytellers. Its form today contains traces of temple and ritual dances and the influence of the bhakti movement. From the 16th century onwards, it absorbed certain features of Persian dance and central Asian dance which were imported by the royal courts of the Mughal era. Now it has become a popular and an established stage performing art form.

To relay various aesthetic elements of Kathak, noted Bangladeshi exponent Munmun Ahmed paired with her talented daughter Aporajita Mustafa, and performed in a programme titled “Ekoi Brintey Pushpatroyi”. Rewaz Performers' School arranged the elegant Kathak recital event, held at the main auditorium of Chhayanaut on January 31.  The second half of the event featured a solo musical soiree by renowned singer Sujit Mustafa. Three artistes from the same family truly mesmerised the packed audience with their arts.

Noted Indian instrumentalists Subir Thakur (tabla) and Sandip Niyogi (sitar) embellished the dance performances while accomplished Bangladeshi instrumentalists Apurba Deb (tabla), Nasir Uddin (guitar) and Binod Roy (keyboard) accompanied Sujit Mustafa's fantastic treat for music lovers.

The event started off with a sitar recital while Munmun Ahmed and Aporajita Mustafa took the stage to perform laikari with tehai. Later, the dancer duo displayed sparks of beauty while performing their solos and duets by turns.

Employing their grace and following live melodies and rhythms, they artistically presented various technical pieces of Kathak including – thaat, uthaan, amad, padan-amad, tej-amad, tehai, tukra, ladi, parmilu, thumri, dadra chhanda, gat nikas and more at the event.

The graceful Aporajita earned the hearts of many through her performance of a thumri “Chhedo Na Nand Ke". Munmun Ahmed too was riveting in her presentation of a thumri “Tore Bina Mujhe Chyan Nahi".

Munmun Ahmed and her daughter enthralled the audience performing several experimental tehai and gat nikas in the form of interpretive dance depicting daily motion, such as throwing a cricket ball, riding a train, embodying styles of various animals, flowers, boat, flute and arrow.  Solo tabla lahora and duet recital of tabla and sitar followed in between the dance performances.

Sujit Mustafa melodically performed an array of Nazrul Sangeet together with adhunik songs penned by his father, the eminent litterateur Abu Hena Mustafa Kamal, and several other songs originally recorded by Manna Dey and Manabendra Mukherjee. The singer swayed the audience with his rendition of a Hori “Brojogopi Kheley Hori”. The audience thoroughly enjoyed Sujit's offering of timeless songs -- “Tomar Kajol Kesh” and “Ami Sagorer Neel” that his father had written. He had to fufill many requests from the audience. “Jodi Kagoje Lekho Naam” and “Bon-e Noy Mon-e Mor” were the songs he performed on request. He wrapped up the soiree with presenting a Manna Dey number “Shudhu Ekdin Bhalobasha”. Doubling the joy for the audience, an outspoken Sujit Mustafa also shared banter, skits and memories amid the performances.   

Noted music and dance connoisseurs -- Dr. Shahidul Islam and Professor Afroza Begum -- assisted in the arrangement of the event.