Jaipur Gharana: The rhythm unbroken

Gan Gan Ganpati Siddhi Vinayak..." he chants, his ankle-bells keeping time with the beat, his graceful hand gestures, vigorous footwork and mesmerising chakkars invoking Lord Ganesha as he practises his art. The Kandivli home of kathak maestro Vinod Hasal, 45, is a study in contrast. Instead of the classic Indian look with a mandatory Nataraja idol as you might expect, it evokes the spirit of Africa with a Johannesburg skyline in silhouette, South African masks, shields, spears and animal-print upholstery.

Keeping rhythm with him is his daughter Vinodini, who, as the ninth generation artiste, will shoulder the responsibility of taking the Jaipur gharana's legacy ahead.

"We feel as South African as Indian after the years we've spent there," laughs Vinod. This eighth generation Jaipur gharana kathak dancer, who runs nine kathak schools across South Africa, can count Nelson Mandela's eldest daughter Zindziswa among his 5,000 students.

"Madiba (Mandela's Xhosa clan name by which he's referred to) attended a 1994 performance of mine. He came up on stage and hugged me. He was very moved with the ballet I'd choreographed. Blacks, coloureds, Indians and whites danced together to 'Krishna Nee Begane Baaro' by Colonial Cousins. In the audience, people across religions were holding hands and weeping. It will always be one of my favourite performances, especially since Madiba himself praised it," he remembers.

"I want Vinodini to carry this mantle ahead," he adds.

The obviously nervous Vinodini smiles. "With every passing day, the anxiety is growing. The expectations are understandable but it can get very scary."

But this modest child prodigy has been dancing since she was five. "My brother Shvetank and I inherited a sense of rhythm when very young and our training began when we had barely found our feet," remembers the 21-year-old Xavieirite who schooled in South Africa. "We were given a traditional upbringing with the best of Indian values. That has helped me on my journey in dance," she explains.

And how did Vinod, a Rajput from Mumbai, land in South Africa? "In 1990, I was invited by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISCKON) to conduct lecture demonstration sessions on Indian classical dance in Cape Town," he says.

"When the invitation arrived and I travelled to South Africa. I was astounded at the thousands gathered to cheer me." This first Indian artiste in many years to go to SA at a time when apartheid meant no direct visas to the African nation, he was asked to stay back and continue with his dance there.

Two years later, his heart yearned for India for a completely different reason – his Bohra college sweetheart Aliya. He returned to Mumbai and, much against his family's wishes and the communal tensions at the time, the couple got married secretly and fled to South Africa via Mauritius in March 1993.

The Hasals' journey has its moorings in the foundations laid by Vinod's father Acharya Ganesh Hasal, who has seen big names in kathak such as Birju Maharaj, Lachchu Maharaj, Shambhu Maharaj and Chitresh Das rise to fame in front of him. He, along with his father, were the founders of Delhi's Triveni Kala Sangam and were the ones to choreograph the first kathak ballets like Call of the Drums and Rainbow. Even before the formation of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, he had performed for India's first president Dr Rajendra Prasad. He can count among his students the who's who of Bollywood, including the actress Sandhya.

But the senior Hasal, 76, brushes off all talk of bitterness. "I know that many rank juniors, several of them my students, have been honoured with not only the Padma Shri but even the Padma Vibhushan, while it took me until 2012 to get the Maharashtra Gaurav Award. But that's alright. If my teaching has helped someone grow, why should I grudge them their growth? At the end of the day, if the art and the art fraternity benefited, that's enough for me," says the man whose footwork still dazzles. In fact, the late Ravi Shankar, mesmerised with his routine, was the first to record to him dancing.

The lineage has worked against his son Vinod, rues the senior Hasal, hoping that his grandchildren don't have to face this. "Even if they face negativity, I want them to resolutely commit themselves to serving the art. Vinod did that and see where he has reached."

Vinod – fed up with politics-and-pettiness-fraught dance fraternity – says he's thankful to a "diva" who tried to put him down.

Today, his Radha Krishna dance school is credited with strengthening India-South Africa ties. "We generally see funds end up being used for diasporic activity like get-togethers and parties in most countries. But in South Africa, we found that large numbers of locals had actually enrolled and followed Hasal's work," says former Indian Council for Cultural Relations director general Himachal Som.

Vinod's nine schools in Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Alexandra, Tembisa and Soweto are largely managed by 29 graduates trained by him. A give-and-take with local styles is encouraged and this has led to many fusion pieces with ballet, Zulu, gumboot dancing, Pantsula, tap dance and flamenco.
Vinodini explains, "There's already such a rich socio-cultural resonance with the Indian subcontinent that South Africans find it easy to relate to emotions being portrayed in a performance. Once an episode from a legend is narrated, they take to it immediately."

In fact, she too, will present vignettes of this give and take at her debut performance. "One wants to stick to the classical paradigm primarily, but also use the platform to prove that this ancient genre gives you the flexibility to adapt and do what you want."

And if her Mumbai performance yesterday was anything to go by, she has proven that on several counts.

Hasal family tree
Guru Moti Prasadji
Kathak exponent-guru, vocalist, poet and pakhawaj player

Guru Puranchandji
Temple performer in Jaipur & Bikaner court

Guru Dungarprasadji
Cultural minister, Bikaner court

Guru Baldevprasadji
Kathak, folk dance exponent-guru

Guru Gopalprasadji
Set up Guni Jan Khana in Jaipur & Delhi

Guru Hiralal and Guru Pyarelalji
Attached to the Raigadh court

Guru Ganesh Hiralal and Guru Babulalji
Started first kathak school –Triveni Kala Sangam in Delhi – and choreographed the first ballets

Dr Vinod and Pt Umesh
Kathak exponent-gurus and musicians

Vinodini and Shvetank
Child prodigies who began dancing at five