A moving tribute

Rabindra Jayanti celebrates the birth anniversary of Nobel laureate poet scholar novelist playwright humanist and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore Itrsquos an annual tribute where cultural programmes and events are planned across the globe to hail his rich legacy This year in the third edition of National Centre for the Performing Artsrsquo NCPA Celebrating Tagore three dance groups will reflect on the poetrsquos deep connection with dance and interpret some of his most celebrated worksldquoTagore is probably the only poet who has given rise to a dance form mdash Rabindra nritya In odissi and bharatanatyam usually we perform texts by different poets Rabindra nritya is a modern dance form that uses exclusive literary texts by a poet who thought about dancerdquo says Swapnokalpa Dasgupta head of dance at NCPA and the curator of this eventDebi BasuInterestingly Tagore also became part of the history of Gujarati dance dramas ldquoTwo exstudents of VisvaBharati University Bachubhai Shukla and Pinakin Trivedi started writing Gujarati dance dramas They wrote and took the scripts to Tagore who by then had already written popular works like Chitrangada Chandalika and Shyama They sought his advice on their scriptsrdquo she revealsIn 1933 Tagore came to Mumbai to present different works and deliver a lecture One of his most popular work mdash Tash Er Desh The Land of Cards was presented at the time Dasgupta tells us that in a letter to his daughterinlaw Tagore said that when this play was performed for the first time he felt more dance should have been included in the presentation In the second performance this change was made ldquoIt is rare for a poet to think about how dance should be incorporated in his works This is what made me think about how important he was in the field of dancerdquo she sharesThe 90minute show will be divided into three parts The first part will be a performance by odissi dancer Debi Basu and her team Basu who trained under Kelucharan Mohapatra is also the cofounder of Samyuktam an organisation dedicated to the enrichment of the dance form She will interpret Tagorersquos poem Sagarika which is believed to have been inspired by his visit to South East AsiaThe second performance is by Ambali Praharaj a Kalakshetra dancer and founder of Kanakangi and Nritya Kallolini It will be an interpretation of Tagorersquos poem Sadharon Meye The Ordinary Girl The final act will feature Dasgupta herself along with Latasana Devi Sarmishtha Chattopadhyay and Purbita Mukherjee mdash teachers who are part of NCPArsquos corporate social responsibilty CSRrelated activititiesThese activities aim at the education of underprivileged children The group will present songs from Tagorersquos Bhanusingher Padabali a compilation of songs in MaithiliBrajabuli language similar to Hindi written by Tagore on the eternal love story of Radha and Krishna ldquoBhanusingha was Tagorersquos pen name The poems were written over many years They were published much after the death of his sisterinlaw Kadambari Devi who had been his inspiration for the poemsrdquo shares DasguptaOn May 8 5 pmAt Experimental Theatre NCPALog on to ncpamumbaicomCost Rs 300 and Rs 400Watchgtgt The most popular of Tagorersquos films is Satyajit Rayrsquos documentary titled Rabindranath Tagore 1961 Shot in blackandwhite the film was released in his birth centenary yeargtgt Jeevan Smriti 2013 directed by Rituparno Ghosh was commissioned by the Ministry of Culturegtgt Thinking of Him directed by Pablo Cesar is based on Tagorersquos relationship with Argentinian writer Victoria Ocampo It is due for release this monthListengtgt The audio podcast In Our Time Tagore has Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Tagore on BBC Radio 4gtgt The Sadhana Realisation of Life by Rabindranath Tagore is an audiobook of his lectures on Indian philosophy and culture at Harvard University