Chapekar’s magical Nrityaganga

NAGPUR: Day two of the ongoing music festival Anubhuti got a scintillating start with a mesmerizing performance by Bharatanatyam exponent Sucheta Bhide Chapekar and her disciples. Known for her adaptation of the South Indian dance form with Hindustani classical music to create her own dance form Nrityaganga, Chapekar introduced her performance with some detailing about how she evolved this form 28 years ago.
“I thought it would be appreciated more if people beyond the south Indian states could enjoy it as much,” she said and added that she was ably assisted by classical vocalist Prabha Atre, Vasantrao Deshpande and tabla maestro Suresh Talwalkar who helped her to develop this unique style.
Moving on to the performance, Chapekar began with the invocation of Ganesha, Guru and Shiva. Her next presentation was a Prastaar which she began with ‘adav’, the basic postures of Bharatanatyam. The abhinay presented on a raag Bihag bandish, ‘Deveon ke rajan Mahadev’ had bol kavya or paran composed by Pt Suresh Talwalkar.
Chapekar followed this with an abhinay styled on Thanjavur literature and composed by Vasantrao Deshpande. The bol were set by Pt Talwalkar. The composition ‘Sun sakhi piyu morey kahan’ had the right mix of various emotions of joy, love and pining which were expressed with grace. Her disciples performed Paran. The danseuse excelled with her solo performance of ‘Ram naam’, which narrated the incident of Baal Krishna hearing the story of Sita’s abduction and getting terrified by it.
She closed her recital with a unique Raag Taal malika which was a mix of six raags and as many taals. Based on raag Basant, Bahar, Chayanat, Darbari, Shankara and Chandrakauns, the malika was set on Tritaal, Jhaptaal, Dhamar, Chautaal, Rupak and Ashtmangal. Her daughter Arundhati Patwardhan and three other disciples along with the musicians complimented her performance. Excelling with vocals was Rishikesh Barve who with his renditions provided depth and meaning to the dance.
The second presentation was a solo performance of Taalyogi Suresh Talwalkar. Giving a twist to his recital by having a vocalist accompany him instead of the usual Sarangi, the renowned percussionist stressed upon taking tabla more towards music rather than gimmickry. His presentation of Jhap taal to a bandish in raag Tilang, ‘Puja se pawan ho man’ was punctuated with academic fine points.
The final presentation was a rendition of raag Malkauns by Pt Ulhas Kashalkar. This brought the curtains on the music and dance segment of the event.