A moving tribute

On Rabindranath Tagore’s 161st birth anniversary, three dance groups will showcase the poet’s connection with Indian classical dance

Rabindra Jayanti celebrates the birth anniversary of Nobel laureate, poet, scholar, novelist, playwright, humanist and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore. It’s 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 Arts’ (NCPA) Celebrating Tagore, three dance groups will reflect on the poet’s deep connection with dance and interpret some of his most celebrated works.

“Tagore is probably the only poet who has given rise to a dance form — 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 dance,” says Swapnokalpa Dasgupta, head of dance at NCPA and the curator of this event.

Debi Basu

Interestingly, Tagore also became part of the history of Gujarati dance dramas. “Two ex-students of Visva-Bharati 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 scripts,” she reveals.

In 1933, Tagore came to Mumbai to present different works and deliver a lecture. One of his most popular work — Tash Er Desh (The Land of Cards) was presented at the time. Dasgupta tells us that in a letter to his daughter-in-law, 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. “It 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 dance,” she shares.

The 90-minute 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 co-founder of Samyuktam, an organisation dedicated to the enrichment of the dance form. She will interpret Tagore’s poem Sagarika, which is believed to have been inspired by  his visit to South East Asia. 

The second performance is by Ambali Praharaj, a Kalakshetra dancer and founder of Kanakangi and Nritya Kallolini. It will be an interpretation of Tagore’s poem Sadharon Meye - The Ordinary Girl. The final act will feature Dasgupta herself along with Latasana Devi, Sarmishtha Chattopadhyay and Purbita Mukherjee — teachers who are part of NCPA’s  corporate social responsibilty (CSR)-related activitities. 

These activities aim at the education of underprivileged children. The group will present songs from Tagore’s Bhanusingher Padabali, a compilation of songs in Maithili-Brajabuli language (similar to Hindi) written by Tagore on the eternal love story of Radha and Krishna. “Bhanusingha was Tagore’s pen name. The poems were written over many years. They were published much after the death of his sister-in-law Kadambari Devi, who had been his inspiration for the poems,” shares Dasgupta. 

On: May 8, 5 pm
At: Experimental Theatre, NCPA. 
Log on to: ncpamumbai.com 
Cost: Rs 300 and Rs 400

Watch
>> The most popular of Tagore’s films is Satyajit Ray’s documentary titled Rabindranath Tagore (1961). Shot in black-and-white, the film was released in his birth centenary year.
>> Jeevan Smriti (2013), directed by Rituparno Ghosh, was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture.
>> Thinking of Him, directed by Pablo Cesar is based on Tagore’s relationship with Argentinian writer Victoria Ocampo. It is due for release this month.

Listen
>> The audio podcast, In Our Time, Tagore, has Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Tagore on BBC Radio 4. 
>> The Sadhana: Realisation of Life by Rabindranath Tagore is an audiobook of his lectures on Indian philosophy and culture at Harvard University. 

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