Champaran ke Bapu, a patriotic tribute through Kathak spins

30-03-2018

Ms Shivani Varma, the renowned Kathak dancer is striking the chords of patriotic hearts with her artistic tribute to Mahathma Gandhi through Champaran Se Bapu, a Kathak treat.

Ms Varma, dressed in a minimalistic Khadi attire and a red bindi, as against the flashy costumes attributed to the dance form generally,is performing an extended version of Champaran Se Bapu, her choreography title exploring the great man's journey from a student to a saint.

The debut of that performance was in last September. This coincided her invitation to perform at the Champaran Sathyagraha movement's hundredth year celebration. Nevertheless, she had to contain her debut presentation to a twenty minutes duration.

Presently she has developed the presentation further adding to it the history of the place as well besides how the Mahathma visited the place on getting to know about the poignant state of its indigo farmers.

The storyline of Champaran ke Bapu is conceived in a way that it satisfies the requirements of Kathak as this as well starts with an invocation before moving to the technical aspects and concluding with emotive movements known as 'abhinaya'.

According to Ms Varma, dancing to a single bhajan would have been convenient although she wanted to bring about something new yet enjoyable for the all sections of the audience particularly the young.

This presentation of Ms Varma includes footwork based on bhajan Vaishanava Jana, although she had originally pondered over a Ram bhajan. She definitely wanted something that was more close to Gandhi, which is obvious here.

As a disciple of Shovana Narayan, famous Kathak teacher, Ms Varma began learning Kathak's technicalities from the age of seven. She was also blessed by the mentorship of Ms Sharmishta Mukherjee, renowned danseuse.