Maharaj Kalka Bindadin Kathak Mahotsav, the annual dance festival of Kathak Kendra, is the annual celebration that brings together dancers, dance lovers, scholars and connoisseurs through performances, seminars, lectures and enriching interactions with legendary Gurus and artistes.

The Mahotsav this year was dedicated to the rich heritage of Kathak as upheld in its traditional legacy of performance, training and creative expressions through the evening performances at Kamani and the morning seminar Prabhati at Kathak Kendra, a special re-connect between the rich past and generations to come.

Pt Birju Maharaj, the living legend and the present torchbearer of the Kalka Bindadin Gharana, took this year&’s festival to its climax with his mesmerising rendering of the traditional Thumaris composed by Bindadin Maharaj, in the typical BhavBataana style of emoting the Thumaris while singing, in a sitting posture.

He informed the audience that Bindadin Maharaj had composed more than 5,000 Thumri, Dadra and Bhajans for the Abhinay aspect of Kathak. Offering a peep into that rich repertoire, Pt Birju Maharaj opened with a Bandishi Thumari “Dagar chalat dekho Shyam mero mann lino…” set to Addha Theka of Teentala.

He performed a variety of compositions like the Dadra “Baali umar larkaiyan…”, Jhoola “Jhoolat Raadhe Naval Kishor…” and Bhajan; offering umpteen emotional expressions of each and every word of the melodious compositions.

The evening had opened with a refreshingly different flavour of Kathak by Suchitra Harmalkar, a brilliant disciple of Pt Kartik Ram and Pt Ramlal, well-known Gurus of Raigarh Gharana.Opening with Ganesh Vandana she presented the traditional Nritta aspect of this Gharana in RasaPanchaanan with five kinds of rhythms in different Jaatis.

The Trichakri Paran,Aadipriya Rajni meandering through the off-beat gait and the Nava-Rasa ki Tihai were the very special items of this Gharana.

Suchitra had the best of female artists to accompany her on Vocals, Tabla, Pakhawaj and Sitar, which also made her performance look quite different. Kajal Sharma from UK was the other artiste of the concluding evening. A senior disciple of Pt Birju Maharaj, Kajal was visiting her alma mater after a long gap,hence she was overwhelmed to perform along with a live orchestra comprising Shakeel Ahmed on Tabla, Samiullah Khan on Vocals, Pt Birju Maharaj on Pakhawaj and Nasir Khan on Sarangi.

Opening with Ram-Vandana she went on to present the traditional Thaat, Aamad, Uthaan, Paran, Chakradaar et al apart from the crisp foot work.

The “Dhatak Thunga…” learnt under Pt Lachhu Maharaj that was performed with the Bhaav-Paksh of Chhed-Chhadand the Tihais of various rhythmic patterns were quite special. The Kathak Mahotsava was inaugurated by Pt Birju Maharaj and opened with an invocation by the students of Kathak Kendra.

The other artistes of the inaugural evening were Richa Jain, Rajshri Shirke and Prerana Shrimali. The second evening had performances by Tribhuvan Maharaj, Shinjini Kulkarni, Susmita Misra, Saveri Misra, Trina Roy and Vaswati Misra. Prabhati, the morning sessions on 17 March was focussed on “Kathak Taleem Rs Foundation for Lifelong Education” with speakers like Kumudini Lakhia, Munna Lal Shukla, Rashmi Vajpeyi and Shama Bhate, who shared their own experiences and experimentations in imparting Taleem.

This session was chaired by Shovna Narayan, who herself is an experienced teacher. Sunayana Hazarilal gave a lecture demonstration on “Bhakti-Bhava Rs Abhinaya in Kathak”.

“Evolving Contexts of Kathak Training and Presentation”was the subject of the Prabhati session the next day, which was chaired by Nalini with speakers Abha Bansal, Kajal Sharma, Kamalini Dutt and Saswati Sen. “Bhakti-Bhava Rs Abhinaya in Kathak” was displayed by Sharadini Gole, the senior-most disciple of Guru Rohini Bhate.