Reviews

  • The Voice Within has a theme of contemporary interest

    By its fourth annual edition, Abhivyakti, the City Arts Project, has proved that it serves more than the one objective it set out to achieve. Yes, it has provided the much-needed platform to budding artists to demonstrate their talent in…

  • Abhivyakti Arts Festival is back to eager, thronging crowds!

    The ongoing Abhivyakti City Arts Festival 2022 becomes the fourth edition of the fortnight long annual art extravaganza in the city of Ahmedabad as it opened this past weekend. The festival is happening at the Gujarat University Campus this time…

  • Riding the crest of success, SSDC opens another branch

    It is heart-warming for an art lover to see a young dancer and her team – Sanjukta Sinha Dance Company – looking back on the last three productive years with pride and riding the crest of success unfolding an optimistic…

  • Bharatanatyam explores Kabir, Gandhi and the Geeta in Tridhara

    The book by Dr Uma Anantani that was released (2/8) with a welcome informality at the H. K. Auditorium has the title Tridhara  (University Granth Nirman Board, 2022), a collection of the researcher-choreographer’s articles in three segments – Dance, Beauty…

  • Anainah demonstrates dancing potential at her debut performance

      Samskaras have significance. They get imprinted in the mind of a child. On completion of ten years of training in Bharatanatyam, Anainah, just out of teenage years, presented her first and thematic solo performance Bhakti Yug at the H…

  • Two young dancers present the emotional world of the vyandhal community

    Abhivyakti emboldened Bharatanatyam dancers Kathanki and Manasi to present the emotional world of the vyandhal community through the sharpened skills of their dance medium. Researchers, journalists, fiction writers and theatre persons have focused on the alienation, aspirations and suffering of…

  • Sonal brings to light her nayika from the oblivion in Lakshmanaa

    Sonal Bhargav Sonal Bhargav’s Lakshmanaa is yet another instance of a pretty good response to the ambience and creative space Abhivyakti provides to budding artists. At KCG on Tuesday evening interest among the educated in the auditorium for its theme…

  • 32nd One-act Competition held by GST and INT : Impressions

    At the semifinals of the 32nd All Gujarat Intercollegiate One-act competition last January the number of participating colleges went down to eighteen. At the same time, as every year, there were welcome surprises. Young minds are so gifted and with…

  • Mallika Sarabhai takes the bull by the horns in V for …

    You cannot keep count of the number of segments in Mallika Sarabhai’s creative stage performance V for … on the final day of Natarani’s Sunday to Sunday Theatre Festival. And each segment is perfectly chiselled with all its details. It…

  • Dwija at Natarani gives Guru Drona human dimensions 

    The solo performance Dwija by V Balakrishnan, Chennai-based Theatre Nisha’s artistic director and actor last Thursday (Day Four) in Natarani’s theatre festival stood out as a vigorous one enumerating and analyzing episodes from Guru Drona’s life and work beginning with…

  • Clowns present Shakuntalam with a twist

    Under the direction of Rupesh Tillu, who has specialized in Physical Theatre, Theatre act staged Shakuntala – Agar Pura Kar Paye on Wednesday at Natarani’s week-long Theatre Festival seeking to present a sample of the variety of representative forms in…

  • Kamfucious stages short English plays in an unconventional mode

    Of late there have been welcome developments in local theatre. Youngsters have been taking an active interest in scripting, direction, acting and other aspects of theatre with novel ideas and that has been attracting young viewers to it in small-size…

  • Young actors give a feel of four of Girish Karnad’s plays

    Young actors of Gujarati theatre led by Ankit Gor and Gaurang Anand in Children of Karnad, a reading performance in Hindi held at Studio One Third last Thursday, got the audience to know the significance of Girish Karnad (1938-2019) as…

  • Kumarasambhavam at ’Sanskrit Vaibhav Darshanam’ drips beauty

    The narrative at the basis of Kumarasambhavam is a two-dimensional one stressing the need for Shiva to father a warrior who could destroy demon Tarakasura. Mahakavi Kalidas invested the tale with the poetry of such beauty with his creative imagination that…

  • Confluence : a meeting of Indian classical dance & music

    A trained vocal artist, CY contributor Meera Desai shares her experience as she goes on a musical journey with ‘Confluence’.  The brainchild of tabla player Sapan Anjaria, ‘Confluence’ put together a meeting of kathak, Hindustani classical and Carnatic classical music.…

  • Pythagoras addresses an educational problem in a refreshing style

    Pythagoras, which was staged on Sunday as the concluding performance of over a two-week long ‘summer festival’ of arts in Ahmedabad Abhivyakti Edition Two to a nearly packed Dinesh Hall despite distractions in a refreshing style is reassuringly indicative of…

  • Aaj Rung Hai has the focus on a legendary relationship

    When Rupanshi Kashyap of Kadamb Centre for Dance thought of a dance piece with her current students for Abhivyakti edition Two, so it seems, she looked at their teenage group and decided it has to be anchored by a narrative of…

  • Metaphoric communication on the loss of sensitivity in Still Water

    Art thrives on suggestion and what suggestive power some of the segments of Vaishali Trivedi’s Kathak dance Still Water develops at Abhivyakti Two! Even with reservations for the way the concept unfolds in the 50-minute thematic dance piece rather hazily,…

  • Swami’s Sound Studio: The noisy life of a Foley artist

    Abhivyakti in its Edition 2 is before us right in the summer – or in its break for the younger lot of students. While this Edition, as its itinerary of a fortnight indicates, is shorter in duration compared to Edition…

  • Delightful classical dance performances at Nrutyotsavam

    On Day Two of Kalalayam’s Nrutyotsavam, Dr Haripriya Nambudiri, who combines scholarship with dance skills, in her solo Putana in Kathakali style gave a cherished performance. In immaculate resplendent traditional costume and aharya, she rendered her visual narrative so beautifully…

  • Kadamb teachers recreate their guru’s celebrated choreographies

    The dance teachers at Kadamb – Sanjukta, Rupanshi, Nandini, Nilima, Manasi – turned its annual day programme (H. K. Auditorium on 17/3) into a well-conceptualized event. They surprised their celebrated guru Kumudini Lakhia, who is showing no signs of growing…

  • A glimpse of a nine-generation lineage in Kathak at Saptak

    Pandit Birju Maharaj at Saptak (file photo) Charisma is not definable. It drips and gets felt. Among performing artists, Pt Birju Maharaj has it. That had the audience that chilly night wait right till midnight, as it does every year…

  • Not silence, communication is a virtue in matrimony, Naomi asserts

    The interaction that followed Naomi Ackerman’s 50-minute solo performance Flowers are not Enough at Natarani last Friday as the inaugural presentation in the three-day 40th Vikram Sarabhai International Art Festival was as long as the performance. No one left nearly…

  • Maati Baani performance gives listeners a rocking time

    Nirali Kartik and her Maati Baani band who gave a performance at Natarani on Sunday, November 4, 2018, is visibly on the crest of success they have achieved in taking Indian music abroad in an original style with an appeal…

  • Parampara Academy welcomes other arts on stage

    It is heartening to see that a few young classical dancers from time to time take the initiative to explore ways of reaching out with a difference to contemporary viewers even as they explore the roots of our classical arts…

  • Three literary figures come alive in ‘Jaane Vo Kaise Log The’

    With deft touches, Abhinay Banker creates (Day Six, Sunday to Sunday Theatre Festival) characters, both major and minor, and the time they belong to in his two-act play Jaane Vo Kaise Log The at Natarani amphitheatre chock-a-block dominantly with keen…

  • There were performances that touched a chord at SNA Fest

    The Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, though a throbbing national cultural entity, has remained a distant existence for Ahmedabad all these years. With twin objectives its current Chairman Shekhar Sen, a versatile performing artist himself, set to it, it came…

  • Ratan Thiyam’s Macbeth has a powerful recurring visual motif

    It was just as well that Ratan Thiyam’s Macbeth, SNA’s final performance at the Amphitheatre of the Gujarat University, was in Manipuri, the language nearly everyone in the audience did not understand. It was through its recurring strong visual motif…

  • Mother River carries on a legacy and heralds a fresh vision

    How do you commemorate an existence that had something of the Being she had kinship with? For those who knew her and grew up breathing the breath of her breath Mrinalini Sarabhai, who straddled a century as a legendary Bharatanatyam…

  • Hunting the Sun gives a rare taste of political theatre

    It is heartening to see in recent weeks young amateur performers taking theatre seriously, not as a medium of light entertainment. Hunting the Sun in English at Scrapyard at its second show last Sunday kept the viewers, both young and elderly,…

  • Our deeply ingrained gender prejudice surfaces in Tara

    At a single Reading Performance (HK Hall, September 6) of Mahesh Dattani’s famous play Tara by teachers of English, final-year students of Special English must have understood its theme and characters much better than during many hours in the class.…

  • Promising tinkles of Kathak at Sangati

    It’s the freshened Ashadh evening ambience of a spacious chowk, a modern version of the traditional one in pols on the other side of the river, becoming a performance space for Kathak that prompts this response.  The inviting architectural design,…

  • Keya’s decision in Semicolon is a game-changer

    Semicolon, in Hindi, at Ouroboros gives glimpses of the magic theatre is capable of. Watching it, just as performing it for the actors, becomes an intensely engaging experience. There are many factors that produce this experience. The theme of a…

  • An exploratory short dance evening at Kadamb

    Heavy rhythmic thuds made with strong footwork to robust male singing and music emanated from Kadamb’s practice hall instead of the familiar buzz-like soft tinkle of ghungrus last Wednesday evening. Pankaj Sihag, Rohit Parihar and Mohit Shridhar danced three vigorous…

  • Dramatic art at its peak in Atmakatha at the Theatre Olympics

    The final day’s performance of Mahesh Elkunchwar’s Atmakatha, directed by Vinay Sharma, proved an unplanned celebratory finale of the 15-day Theatre Olympics (Ahmedabad). Dramatic art ascended its peak in Kolkata-based Padatik’s production. The overflowing theatre-lovers at the Tagore Hall appreciated even…

  • Veteran director Bhanu Bharti engages the mind in Tamasha Na Hua

    Getting people to laugh with tasteless dialogue is the vulgarized theatre popular in perhaps all languages today at least in India. The function of theatre is not to entertain the audience cheaply, yenakena prakaarena. Theatre has a function, light or…

  • An impeccable portrayal of a reformist ahead of his time

      Among Marathi people, there has been a rich tradition of intellectuals, social workers and performing artists who keep temptations of material gain at arm’s length and with a low profile remain dedicated to work related to social and political…

  • Anastasia’s Piaf celebrates life and love through songs

    In no time were all doubts set to rest on the third day of the ongoing Theatre Olympics at the Tagore Hall. Local coordinator of the event Bhargav Thakkar looked elated that young viewers had nearly packed the auditorium. They…

  • Bhagavadajjukeeyam is a roaring success at Theatre Olympics

      Bodhayana wrote Bhagavadajjukeeyam in the 7th century as a satire on Buddhism. His dramatic talent, however, far exceeded his intent and the Sanskrit classic remains a source of interest for many performers. Both translations and performances have been attempted…

  • Social context in most one-acts at GST-INT finals

    A literary creator with an insight into theatre and a noted playwright, Sitanshu Yashashchandra did not merely light the inaugural lamp at the GST-INT One-act Finals (Thakorbhai, Feb 7). Referring to the origin of Natyaveda, he lit up theatre-lovers’ vision…

  • Sunil Shanbag’s Play is a Timely Celebration of Dissent

    Last night, the city of Ahmedabad saw ‘Words Have Been Uttered’, a breath-taking celebration of the human ability to ask questions and raise voices to the truth. Galileo is ecstatic in the wake of his discovery of the planetary system.…

  • Kadak Badshahi 2.0 captures the magic of the character of our city

    In the realm of art, picking up threads from your earlier performance, it is possible to outperform yourself and marvel at the exceptionally significant fresh outcome. Darpana Academy’s Kadak Badshahi seven years ago was certainly an outstanding multidimensional multimedia production…

  • Mirande sings lyrics celebrating ardour-tinged love

    Within the genres and format selected, Mirande Shah runs the whole gamut of swara notes and shades of emotions with delectable ease in Soz-e-Ishq – ardour-tinged love. Her rendering of gazals and Sufi songs, around a dozen, was all about…

  • May Pt Birju Maharaj’s body and soul dance again!

    A Thumri has thumakna built into this semi-classical 19th century genre evocative of a sensual mood. Thumakna signifies a lilting movement. In Kathak, the dancer is on his/her feet making such limited movement with expressive hand gestures and facial expressions,…

  • Kadamb adieus 2017, welcomes 2018

    No sooner did I enter Kadamb’s cosy hall upstairs that cold Friday evening, I was relieved of all the tension I had carried of parking the car far away from it on an extremely busy cacophonous Parimal Garden Road. As…

  • A Young Vocalist presents Engrossing Morning Ragas

    Time stopped, nearly so, when Omkar Dadarkar recited 10.40 onwards for over two hours at Vishwakosh under the aegis of its Lalit Kala Kendra and Agastya Foundation on Sunday. Viraj and Amar Bhatt had held the programme in the morning…

  • Maargadarshan Makes Metaphoric Communication

    In the tradition of Absurd Drama, we have the legacy of a few dramatic works conceived of in their creators’ most introverted moments post-WW II when they were in turmoil. Like lightning, they blaze a trail to understanding aspects of…

  • Tagore’s Krushnakali in a ringing flowing voice

    Till the other day, though the calendar indicated onset of Ashadh, the clouds showed an anticipating Jyeshtha, and now when Ashadh, at times content with spells of occasional showers, assumes the character of Shravan, it seems the perfect time to…

  • Ashadh ka Ek Din resonates with lyricism

    Missing a target can be excused if you have set your eyes on a difficult one, it is said, but getting set for a lower target can never be excused. Drama students of J G College of Performing Arts read…

  • Antim Vasant Unfolds an Enigmatic Lyrical Relationship

    Among a couple of muses to Rabindranath Tagore, in the opinion of Ketaki Kusari Dyason, a perceptive translator of the poet, Victoria Ocampo was ‘the closest to him in stature.’ The natural beauty she was endowed with had the glow…

  • Contemporary dance choreography in Khwab-sa

      A variety of interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays are being essayed on stage the world over during the year of celebrations of his dramatic genius unravelling mysteries of human behaviour particularly in relation to others.  ASTHA presented Atul Kumar’s Khwab-Sa, which…

  • Fascinating intermingling strands in Muskaan

    Whatever scientists say, the moon will continue to have romantic associations and connotations.  A poet has ‘late night conversations with the moon’.  Another imagines the moon to be a balloon coming out from where ‘it’s always green and everyone’s in…

  • Pursuit of a mirage in Aadhe Adhoore

    As text and, if competently done, as theatre, Mohan Rakesh’s Aadhe Adhoore (1969)has remained a rich source of reference for dramaturgy and theatre language. I recall that when the first theatre version of the play I saw (besides one in…

  • Kadamb’s Dancing Kids Win Hearts!

    Why do some people worry about the future of classical dance?  If they go to Kadamb or any of its performances, they would find it pulsating with the passion for Kathak and a bunch of young teachers here, well-grounded in…

  • A rich tradition presented undiluted in modern idiom

    Our classical dancers are articulate. ‘On this stage you have seen,’ Maulik Shah initially said at Saptak on Sunday, ‘two Kathak performances – one with gaharaiyaa-n in it, the other the tarvaraat of an emerging young Kathak dancer.‘ ‘We’ll try,’…

  • Rupanshi’s glowing performance at Saptak 2017

    Rupanshi Kashyap’s Kathak being the very first recital on Thursday at Saptak, the Kadamb band of musicians chose particularly to present an Uthan for the audience to get warmed up for it. Rupanshi remained on stage, smiling in tune with…

  • Taj Mahal Ka Tender : an experimental retelling

      ‘The show is already houseful Sir’. A response that surprised me pleasantly  because the students of Rangayan Theatre & Acting Workshop, who recently explored their acting skills from their masters, are having their debut show completely sold out. My…

  • Kadamb’s budding dancers delight

    Kumiben, as Kathak Guru Kumudini Lakhia is known to most of us, in her five-minute informal address to the audience at H.K.College Auditorium after Guru Vandana offered to her and other teachers at Kadamb by way of six dainty performances…

  • Ahmedabad Poetry Festival at MICA – a fresh start.

    It was two in the afternoon and drizzling. The sky turned gray and everyone assembled under the shaded premises, called as a classroom. The lush green campus of MICA did help in uplifting the poetic side of the participants. Team…

  • Of Follies, Frailty and Wisdom : Review of ‘The Good Doctor’

    Chekov Anton Chekhov is credited with an eye for observation – not just of what is seen but particularly of the psychology underlying it. On this count, all the neatly presented five playlets dramatizing his short stories in Ouroboros’ theatre…

  • Entertainment All the Way

    Image Credit: Book My Show Yes, Blame it on Yashraj gives viewers an experience of attending a gala wedding where money is lavishly spent and everyone related to the bride or the groom, whether closely or distantly, feels they are…

  • ‘A Palace of Illusions’ Dazzles

    ‘A hundred cook fires may be lit all at once!’ Bheem wished. Nakul wished their animals ‘will be warm in winter and cool in the summer!’ ‘Where kings can discuss statesmanship,’ was what Yudhishthir wished.  Arjun wished to see ‘a…

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