The sound of 'tattu kal' (wooden block and wooden stick) reverberates through an apartment in Matunga as Guru Kalyanasundaram enunciates the words required to perform bharatnatyam, a traditional dance form. He runs the Sri Rajarajeswari Bharatha Natyam Kala Mandir which was founded by Guru Govindraj Pillai and his wife Smt Karunambal back in 1944-45 in Mumbai. Entering its 70th year, the institute has planned year-long celebrations to honour vidwans (scholars) and acharyas of various streams of art.
What began as Rajarajeswari Dance academy in Chetna arts centre at Kala Ghoda soon took its present shape at Matunga, when the founders bought the flat for Rs18,000 with the help of their pupils in 1950.
Today, this school is the city's oldest bharatnatyam school and India's only to be run and managed by natya acharyas who teach the Thanjavur school of Bharatnatyam. Their ancestors performed in the royal courts of South India.
"With the blessings of my father Bharath Vidwan Guru Kuppiah Pillai, my sister Karunambal and her husband Guru Govindraj Pillai began the institute. Fans from Mumbai of the talented trio Lalita, Padmini, and Ragini, also known as the Tarvancore sisters, who were famous bharatnatyam dancers before being celebrated in cinema kept requesting Guru Kuppiah Pillai to train them too. They even came to Thanjavur to learn dance from him but after a few years, they requested him to send masters to the city. Two pupils -- GV Ramani and Keshwarnarayan -- got my brother-in-law here," said 82-year-old Guru Kalayanasundaram, a Sangeet Natak Academi recipient.
The school has produced many stalwarts like Damyanti Joshi, a stalwart in Kathak who decided to learn Bharatnatyam and Sitara Devi, who has been called 'Nritya Samragini' or empress of dance by Rabindranath Tagore.
Famous Bollywood stars like Waheeda Rehman, Kamini Kaushal too learned here along with other actresses like Hema Malini coming for practices. Major exponents of this art form who perform today like Vani Ganapathy, Sudha Chandrashekar, Viji Prakash and Lata Pada have learned from this institute.
"I have learned under masterji (Guru Kalyansundaram) since 1963-64 when I was 13 years old. I have my own school and have been dancing on my own for the last 16 years but I wouldn't be here without their guidance," said Vani Ganapathy, a resident of Bangalore, and has been performing Bharatnatyam for more than 50 years.
Starting a school in Mumbai was not easy as both the founders were from Thanjavur and spoke Tamil. "There were various types of dance forms being taught in Mumbai then but nobody understood the basics of bharatnatyam. They didn't understand what I was saying or doing and I used to communicate through hastas and mudras," said 91-year-old Smt Karunambal, the founder of the school.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}