GURUGRAM: This city likely has never seen anything like it. With hearts and minds embracing the festive mood, here’s something special to look forward to. On the eve of the Navaratras, the Sudhaaya Dance Foundation will invoke the spirit of the Devi in the multi-artiste spectacle of ‘Devi – Goddess on my Mind’.
This ambitious two-hour production will feature seven different performing arts, each flowing into the other, like a stream into a river, a river into an ocean. These include storytelling (dastangoi), classical dance (Odissi, Pung Cholom and
Bharatanatyam), folk/semi-classical dance (Chhau), Hindustani classical (vocal), and puppetry – all in tribute to the Devi.
For, the Devi is many things. She is the giver who bestows knowledge (Saraswati) and wealth (Laxmi). The goddess, in her numerous avatars, has for millennia inspired the traditions of the performing arts in India. And ‘Devi – Goddess on my Mind’ seeks to twine the magic of all these traditions, by incorporating melody, rhythm, movement, words and narrative in a wondrous celebration of the Indian imagination.
The presentation begins with a storytelling session, in which dastango Mahmood Farooqui pays his respect to Saraswati by drawing upon the tales and poems and myths associated with the goddess of learning, from sources as varied as the Sanskrit, Braj and Awadhi languages, as well verses in Urdu and medieval Persian.
Then, Ma Kali, in the form of Shagun Bhutani, appears in the audience’s midst, as the dastangoi makes way for an Odissi recital, which flows into the Pung Cholom, the classical dance form from Manipur whose atmospherics (whisper-soft/thunder-loud) and visuals (elegant/energetic) make it a treat for the eyes and ears (the performers are students of the Jawaharlal Nehru Manipuri Dance Academy, Imphal).
The Pung Cholom leads on to a regal
bandish in honour of the Devi (set to a raag, sung by
Subhadra Desai), which segues into a Bharatanatyam piece by the much hailed Parshwanath Upadhye, before Dilip Mahato and his Chhau troupe from Purulia, West Bengal, take over the stage for the dance drama of ‘Mahishasura Mardini’ (in which Ma Durga slays the
demon Mahishasur), a robust enactment that melds flashes of colour with vigour-filled sequences. And fittingly, it’s the puppets, the oldest of all storytellers, who bring ‘Devi’ to a close.
‘Devi’, brought to you by the very same team that has successfully hosted ‘The Sufis of Nizamuddin’, will be held at the amphitheatre in the Aravali Biodiversity Park ( October 7, 6.30 pm). It promises to be an autumnal delight!
