How monsoon inspires artistes to come up with innovative interpretations

Varsha Mangal festival showcased performances by well-known musicians and dancers

The monsoon has always inspired poets, painters, and musicians. Be it the Sanskrit poetry of Kalidasa and Amaru or the Hindi poetry of Bhakti-kaal, the miniature paintings of Moghul, Kangra, or the Rajput, or the monsoon raags of Hindustani music, especially the multiple varieties of Malhar; they are all soaked in the beauty of rain.

The mood and colours of the season were brought alive at ‘Varsha-Mangal’, a festival of music and dance, organised by Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra at the Kamani auditorium in Delhi. The two-day festival concluded with an alluring imagery of monsoon depicted through Kathak, with Prerana Shrimali taking up well-known Hindi poet Dev’s verses, ‘Jhahari jhahari jhini boondani parati mano/gahari gahari ghata gheri hai gagan mein’ to portray both the sanyog (meeting) and viyog (separartion) shringar. The nayika dreams of Krishna inviting her to sit on the swing with him during rains. But she wakes up to find neither ghana (clouds) nor Ghanashyam (Krishna), but just tears in her eyes.

The melodious alap of Megh-Malhar on the flute captured the emotion in the poetry as Prerana entered as virahini nayika and danced to the bandish ‘Ghanan ghanan garaje badariya’ set to vilambit Teentaal. Visuals of clouds gathering came through in thaat and amad, while the ‘sam’ struck as lightning. The bandish turned into the musical refrain or lehera for the nritta passages depicting nature’s bounty during Barkha ritu. 

In the abhinaya segment, Prerna as an abhisarika nayika goes to meet her beloved amid thunder and rains. The air was heavy with petrichor. As she gently looks up at the clouds raindrops fall on her face. A bandish of Pt. Kumar Gandharva was chosen for this piece. She switches to drut Ektaal to show the movement of the swing in the mango grove. The employed the Mayur Gat capture the beauty of the peacock spreading its colourful feathers. The abhisarika nayika is about to be embraced by her beloved when she comes out her dream to face the reality: ‘Aankhi kholi dekhyo toh na ghan hain na ghanashyam/ Chhai bei boonden meri aansu dwe dragon mein.’

Prerana says, “Dance feels like a raag to me. There is the same kind of vistar (elaboration) in alapchari, and compositions in vilambit (slow), madhya (medium) and drut laya (fast tempos).”

The poem and the bandish (musical compositions in Megh Malhar and Madhuvanti) were transformed into visual poetry with the best of orchestral support from Fateh Singh Gangani on the tabla, Sandeep Gangani on the vocal, Himanshu Dutta on the flute and Fateh Ali on the sitar. The weakest part was the Padhant (the recitation of mnemonics), due to perhaps the faulty mike. 

The evening began with the oscillation of komal gandhar and komal nishad followed by the shuddha nishad in raag Miyan Malhar by Pt Madhup Mudgal, creating the perfect ambience for ‘Varsha-Mangal’. His stoic and powerful vocal recital proceeded with the traditional Bada Khayal ‘Karim naam tero’ set to vilambit Ektaal, and the Teentaal bandish composed by his guru Pt. Kumar Gandharva. This was followed by a variety of Malhars including Megh, and Ramdasi. There was also a tarana, and a couple of compositions in raag Des.