Email
Print
ShareA new Indian dance and music presentation takes Mumbai to Stuttgart to cement a friendship. Amarendra Dhaneshwar reports
Officially, Mumbai, India, and Stuttgart, Germany, have a 40-year-old relationship. Students of modern history know that the first flag of India's independence was unfurled in Stuttgart by Madame Cama in 1907, extending the relationship even further through time, over 100 years now. As a part of the celebration of this bond, several cultural programmes have been planned. A troupe from Mumbai led by scholar-musician Ramakrishna Das is scheduled to perform at the open air theatre at the Marktplatz at Stuttgart on June 29. The troupe is getting set with a two-hour presentation called Glimpses of Mumbai.
"Our metropolis is a melting pot of several linguistic groups and its culture is cosmopolitan in character. The basic ethos is of the local Marathi manoos. We have sought to incorporate all these elements in our show, which will offer glimpses into the folk forms of Maharashtra as well," says Das, a pupil of sitar exponent Arvind Parikh and classical singer Neela Bhagwat.
Das speaks with the expertise of one who has authored a book in English on Amir Khusro and his contribution to music. He is also a Baul singer who can take listeners to dizzy heights with his voice projection. "In Mumbai one witnesses two distinctive streams of music: art and folk, as well as music from Bollywood. They can gel together very well."
Devotional songs written by Tukaram and Dnyaneshwar, well-known saint-poets of Maharashtra, have been included in Glimpses of Mumbai. And "We have two young and talented dancers in thetroupe -- Sanjukta Wagh, a Kathak exponent, is a pupil of Rajashri Shirke; and Miskil Dharmadhikari is a pupil of Jhelum Paranjape. They will present the songs in their specific dance forms."
The troupe also includes tabla player Girish Nalawade and harmonium player Niranjan Lele, seasoned musicians, as well as flautist Ninand Mulaokar, who has performed as a soloist in Kazakhstan as a National Child Musician scholar. These young artistes will carry the spirit of Mumbai across the globe to Stuttgart.
