Of Steps and Notes

The Taramati Baradari is a historical monument in Hyderabad that was built by the seventh Sultan of Golconda, Abdullah Qutb Shah in remembrance of his favourite courtesan Taramati. It is basically an elevated platform with 12 arches and an acoustic technology way ahead of its time, evident from the fact that the Sultan would keep an ear to the strains of music from the Golconda fort, a few miles away. This has been refurbished by the state's Tourism Development Corporation and now houses a hotel with banquets and a 1600-seater cultural complex. Given the nostalgia associated with the place, it can be safely said that there could have been hardly a better place to house the Golconda Cultural Festival that started today.


To make things better, the evening had a Kathak performance by V Anuradha Singh. She was followed by Rahul Sharma on the Santoor.

I had never been to a Kathak performance before and all that I had seen of it was from a classmate way back when I was in school. Twice every year, on the day of the Individual Performance exam, she would come up and do the exact same steps for about a minute, falter at a particular step each time, giggle and run back to her seat. To see a masterful act after this was a hallowing experience. She came on to the stage and started off with a Shiva-Vandana before speaking to the audience. First on was a Chalan, which focusses solely on footwork, and the audience got an indication as to what was in store. Ably assisted by a harmonium, two tablas, a violin (playing like a Sarangi, which I sorely missed) and an almost redundant keyboard, she doled out small but highly effective doses from her repertoire to the audience. The person in the harmonium doubled up as the vocalist for some of the performances.


She presented short steps on tabla bols, then upped the momentum to depict some improvised sequences like a fish swimming in the river being picked up by a bird, the dance of a bee around a blooming lotus, a group of ducks moving about in a lake, deer-hunting, Lord Krishna playing with a ball, and so on. She explained that she developed these sequences as a layer over the traditional steps of Kathak, before moving on to some more traditional jugalbandi with the tabla, vocals, violin and then a few Chaturanga sequences on Raagas like Hamsadhwani, Shivranjini and Malkauns with all of these together. Overall, hers was a wonderful amalgamation of tradition and contemporary. While the tradition was epitomised by a breathtaking series of 42 back to back spins faster than the count from one to forty-two by the vocalist, the contemporary was best depicted by an item on what she called an Arabian Sufi Kathak, for which four dancers from her troupe added colours to the show. Coupled with a very able sangat by her musicians, her feet rained on the stage like wild rain and her ghungroo would make you believe it was raining on a tin roof. It was indeed a great performance by the artist in that it did not allow the mind of even a first-timer like me to waver.


Rahul Sharma built his performance on three pieces - one what he called as an impromptu nameless piece, a Jazz item and finally what he called the Music of the Himalayas. He was accompanied by a tabla, drums, keyboard and a jazz guitar - the first two instruments being the dominant supporting cast. As evident from the instruments, it was fusion that he served to the audience, probably aware of its composition. I wish there was a complete performance on a Raaga with just the tabla and maybe, a sitar/sarangi/violin. But he had clearly decided on keeping a fast tempo throughout keeping the audience in mind. All in all, it was an enchanting performance by the prodigious talent. His performance was laden with improvisations as well - once he was using only one striker and plucking the strings with fingers of the other hand to create a fresh set of notes, as if coming simultaneously from a santoor and a sitar. There was another prolonged period of time when he kept on playing a stock tune while allowing the tabla and the drums to take the initiative, which both the players did with finesse. Moreover, he was very patient with the glitches, when the power went off twice and the microphones were suddenly not catching some of the instruments.

All in all, this was a great start to this weekend.