After popularity of song from Padmaavat, magic of Ghoomar twirls at a Mumbai workshop

At a 115 million YouTube views and counting, the Ghoomar song  in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's opulent Rs 215 crore Padmaavat seems to have got a life of its own. The song was among the main points of contention for the fringe political outfit Rajput Karni Sena (goons from the lumpen outfit vandalised a school in Madhya Pradesh’s Ratlam city leaving one student grievously injured, after students performed on the song on January 15) which found it offensive that a mythical Rajput queen was dancing. That hasn't prevented the song either being played at a cultural programme in Ahmedabad on January 17 to welcome the Israeli and Indian Prime Ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Narendra Modi or from it becoming popular at every sangeet, dance peformance, reality shows and so on.

Given its immense popularity and the demand from many to learn Ghoomar as a form, the Gangaur Ghoomar Academy (founded by the late Padma Shree awardee late HH Rajmaata Goverdan Kumarri, Santrampur) has organised a five day workshop in Andheri. Noted Ghoomar exponent Jyoti Tomar (who worked closely with the choreographer Kruti Mahesh Midya to put Deepika Padukone through the paces for the lavishly mounted Ghoomar song) who is conducting the workshop said: “Apart from the huge demand, I wanted to use this workshop to set the record straight on the authentic form and style of Ghoomar. I saw how many who simply watched the song were peddling all kinds of wrong information about the style even promising to teach people on the basis of those few steps. That's when I decided to revive the workshops to continue the late Rajmaata's tradition.”

She told this writer how she knew Bhansali from the early 80s when he was also choreographing many dance troupes. “He is an excellent dancer and has an excellent instinctive feel for music. His productions would always stand out,” she recollects. “After I joined the Rajmata's troupe and became the senior most dancer we invited Bhansali who had since become a famous filmmaker to come to watch a performance in 2003. He was so impressed that he said he would like to include a Ghoomar sequence as and when the opportunity offered itself. The Rajmata promises him then and there that her academy would be glad to help out. My involvement in Padmaavat is a fulfillment of that promise.”

That is how Tomar joined the film's choreographer Kriti. “She understands camera movements, lights and stuff which I don't. I only know about ghoomar so it became necessary for us to work together and find out what works or doesn't work on screen.”

She slaps her head remembering the ruckus over the film in general and Ghoomar song in particular. “I still don't get what the protests were all about. Nobody has celebrated Rajput valour and culture like Bhansali and Ghoomar song looked so rich and beautiful,” she says brushing off criticism that the choreography mixed up steps from other Rajasthani folk forms like the kalbeliya and the chari. “The differentiation is in style of presentation and not steps itself. Also those criticising must understand this was a movie, not a documentary. They have to amp things up a bit.”

According to her the response to the word of mouth publicity for the workshop was such that the batch was full within a day of the announcement. When this writer visited the workshop 32 participants were being put through the paces by Tomar and her assistants accompanied by two royal musicians from the Jodhpur palace (Yasin Langa on the Sindhi sarangi and Umar raj Nagarachi on the traditional drums, the nagara). “Remember the ghoomar is not meant to be danced to entertain others. It was danced by the women of the royalty who were dancing to celebrate a festival, a battle victory or a happy occassion like a birth or a wedding and the arrival of a new bride to the household,” Tomar, the Gadhwal native who pursued both kathak and Gujarati theatre for a long time, gave it all up to learn and train in ghoomar under the late queen of Kishangarh state for 30 years, told the participants: “While women in the royal families danced, there was no sense of abandonment. Despite feminine grace and style there could be no abandoning the regal stature and rules of palace etiquette. That gave the dance a sense of a sense of lyrical grace without the movements ever turning bawdy or cheap,” she explains. In fact when she demonstrates she leaves her pallu covering herself in a ghoongat which spreads over on an entire side of her body. “Remember that repeated battles had left many Rajput kingdoms in debt and when these were amalgamated into the Indian nation state and privy purses discontinued many fell on really bad times. Some royals have begun transforming their palaces into hotels to make ends meet but others not blessed with such sprawling palaces have been left in a poor state,” she explains, “But the women would not want the world to know this. So they take the same jewelry and divide it among two women when they dress up to perform. Each woman only wears the jewelry especially the ivory bangles only on one hand while the other is left covered in the pallu, the end of which is never let go while dancing.”

While most of the repertoire of Ghoomar songs deal with shringar – of getting anointed, adorned and bedecked in traditional finery to welcome the beloved who was away in battle, there are some which are marked by a tinge of sadness about loss of braves who did not make it back from battle. Tomar points out how rarely the “only women” environment allows for playful teasing and banter too. “There are songs which suggestively hint at the morning after a night of passion where the heroine complains of her nathh or bangles having broken or the gajra having fallen off.”

She brushes off suggestions that the Ghoomar has a long patriarchal shadow across both its form and content. “That is not how the Rajput women see it. They see it as a celebration of their own feminity.”

It was while speaking of the Rajmata that Tomar's eyes light up. “She was born in 1938 in the rich atmosphere of different styles of music and art of the Kishangarh Palace,” she narrates, “Though she was trained in Bharatnatyam, Kathakali and Oddisi, she never performed on stage because of her Rajput traditions. She learnt Haveli Sangeet and Rajwadi folk music from Kishangarh Palace court singer Lalita Bai and also pursued classical singing from Pt Amarnathji of Delhi.”

Tomar points out how the Rajmata's late husband HH Maharaja Krishna Singhji of Santrampur (Gujarat) provided the necessary support and encouraged her to pursue a hobby into a lifelong ambition and revive the traditional Rajput folk dance in order to preserve its authenticity. “She had researched different aspects of ghoomar over the past many years. To facilitate the strict discipline required, she initiated her pupils with Classical dance movements starting with footwork and progressing into the hand movements.”

This was how the Gangaur Ghoomar Dance Academy was formed in 1984 where she volunteered to teach Ghoomar to students regardless of their caste, religion or community. “It is the only academy in India presenting the authentic Rajwadi form of Ghoomar. As the only lady from the royals trying to revive this dance form, she would later be awarded the Padma award.”

While accompanying her brother Late H H Maharaja Sumer Singhji of Kishangarh, to Rupangarh and Karkeri, she was fascinated by the Gujar women and their dance. These women lit fire on top of metal pots to provide light. Some of the women then gracefully danced with these fire-lit metal pots, balanced on their heads.

In 1960, at the Gangaur Festival held at Kishangarh Palace, she choreographed a synchronized form of the rustic Chari Nritya, which was performed in public. She decided to make Chari Nritya more popular and asked Late Phalku Bai (Raj Malan of Kishangarh) to form a group of dancers. They started performing with other dancers at festivals and other occasions in the year that followed. Today Chari Nritya of Kishangarh is one of the most colourful, lively, and popular dances of Rajasthan. Rajmata Sahiba has been instrumental in giving Thali Nritya a Rajwadi characteristic. In it’s original form of Naach, the dance is performed either solo or as a duet. By adapting movements, she choreographed a dance for performance by a group.

Her efforts saw the Government of Nigeria conferr on her an award for promoting national heritage in 1997. She was also honoured by the Mewar Foundation with the Dagar Gharana Award in 2001. In 2007 she was honoured with the Padma Shree by the Government of India for reviving and preserving the authentic Ghoomar.

Remembering her extensive travels with Gangaur Ghoomar Dance Academy to countries like (then) USSR, US, Venezuela, Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Trinidad Tobago, UAE, Oman among others, Tomar folds her hands moist eyed in gratitude. “It is all her blessings.”