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Vasantahabba If there were an Indian classical dance and music dictionary, it would start with 'V' and not 'A', with first entry being Vasantahabba: Vasantahabba, va-sant-ha-bba, n. aka Vasanthahabba, Vasantha habba, Vasanta habba. The festival of Spring. The soul purifying and culture-quotient-enriching dance festival organized by Nrityagram and held at the outskirts of Bangalore on the first Saturday of February every year. Over a period of 12 years that it has been in existence (as of 2003), Vasantahabba has come to be known as the Woodstock of Indian classical dance and music. Is all the hype and hoopla about Vasantahabba justified or is it just another hip-and-cool event where everyone likes to be seen and tell their friends later that 'yeah I was there'?. Well, I guess the crowd is a mix of people who can genuinely appreciate the classical music and dance, and that of explorers like myself. Now, I might not have a background in classical music and dance but that does not mean I can not appreciate the same! People like me goto Vasantahabba to explore our traditional music and dance forms and try to take a bit of it back with us. People come with families, kids, relatives to have fun in one night full of melody, rhythm and dance. Vasantahabba brings me face-to-face with the latest in Indian classical dance and music and leaves me awestruck at the end of the morning. So, I would say there is no hype and hoopla about Vasantahabba. It is as truthful an experience as it can be. I can only suggest to you people to NOT miss out this GREAT festival, esp. if you happen to be in Bangalore around the time it happens. I would have written this suggestion in bold with 72 font size but my screen size limits me. Vasantahabba 2005: Canceled (Originally scheduled Feb 5th, Saturday) Vasantahabba 2005, originally scheduled for 5th February, 2005, was canceled approximately 3 weeks before the scheduled date. That's so sad to know. The quoted reason is to pay tribute to the Tsunami victims. Oh, how I waited for it (just like I do every year). Never mind. After all, 2006 is another year!! The Nrityagram official response on cancellation of Vasantahabba 2005: Dear Friend, Vasantahabba 2004: Feb 7th, Saturday Vasantahabba 2004's list of performances: 1. Beliappa & party (as always) - Dollu
Kunita Detailed write-up will come up soon on Vasantahabba 2004. In the meantime, Vasantahabba 2004 Pics on AcousticsControl, providers of sound equipment for the event. Vasantahabba 2003: Feb 1st, Saturday A crowd of 35,000-40,000 people!! Most of them outside the amphitheatre as it has capacity of 3000 people only. Imagine 0.75% of Bangalore's population at one show! Or 10% of the number of people who attended Woodstock '69! Man, this is some one festival I didn't want to miss!!
Vasantahabba 2003 Logo - Kite Vasantahabba Exhibit at the entrance This was my second year in succession at Vasantahabba. At the morning when Vasantahabba 2002 had ended, I had made up my mind to be there again in 2003. And sure there I was at Vasantahabba 2003! Me, Pankaj, Seema, Vani, and Neha started at around 1530 hrs (which is actually late if you want to get a seat), from campus and reached Nrityagram at around 1700 hrs. The 3000-seat amphitheatre was all full! But since we had asked Prof (Pankaj Kulshrestha) and Lanni (Laxmi Anita) to save us some seats, we could manage to squeeze in somehow. To get a seat in amphitheatre, people start arriving by 1330 hrs or so even though the programme starts only at 1830!! Vasantahabba 2003 was inaugurated by Mr Belliappa, the leader of Dollu Kunita performers group. Dollu Kunita is a traditional Karnataka dance. Mr Belliappa and his troupe have performed at every single Vasantahabba since it started! Kudos to organizers for recognizing his contribution and asking him to inaugurate the festival. Actually that gesture underscores the spirit of the festival: No chief guest, no fancy inauguration etc, Just pure music and dance, exactly what people come for! So Vasnatahabba 2003 got to a energetic start with Dollu Kunita dance performance by Belliappa and Party. (picture didn't come through due to low light and because my camera roll was just beginning :( ) After that came village children. Nrityagram teaches classical dance to around 300 children from nearby villages. For Free! And the training showed in the children's stunning performance. They presented Odissi, Kathak, and Bharatnatyam. The Nrityagram Dance Ensemble came next. The Nrityagram Dance Ensemble has won accolades world over ("One of the most luminous dance events of the year" - New York Times). The rigor in their training was visible in the spectacular Odissi performance.
Nrityagram Dance Ensemble Nrityagram Dance Ensemble in motion Mohiniattam, the classical dance from Kerala was performed by Ms Mandakini Trivedi. She performed four pieces, all wonderfully. Especially the comical one where a young lover disguises as a woman to reach his beloved. It was then the turn of Kuchipudi - the classical dance form of Andhra Pradesh. It was a duet performance by Guru Jayaram and Vanashree Rao. The synchronization between the two was incredible. And then came the stunner: dance on brass plate! Both of them stood on a brass place each and performed (moving forward and backward and all!) quite a few episodes in Kuchipudi. In the end they showed the 'Abhinaya' (acting/drama) element of Kuchipudi. The duo performed 4 pieces in total.
Guru Jayaram and Vanashree Rao Performing Kuchipudi The last group to perform in dance section was the Stem Dance Theatre. That is a group of young men and women who perform contemporary dance. Its headed by Madhu Heri, who learnt Kathak from her mother Maya Rao, a well know artist. Accompanying them was Amit Heri Group. Amit Heri is from Berkley School of Music and is into fusion music. His group included Ravi Chandra on flute and Carl Peters on Bass Guitar. They provided live fusion music for Stem Dance Theatre to perform. It was all very visually appealing. Especially the overflowing costumes designed by Wendel Rodrick.
Stem Dance Theatre performing contemporary dance It was now 0000 hrs or so and the dance section ended with Stem Dance Theatre's performance. The first artist in music and vocal section was Ms Malni Rajurkar. Ms Rajurkar is a well-known Hindustani Vocalist from Gwalior gharana. She is trained by her father-in-law Pandit Govindrao Rajurkar.
Malini Rajurkar - Hindustani Vocalist And now it was time for pure music! Shashank (Also ShashankFlute, Bambooflute) , the flute prodigy, was greeted with cheers by relatively young crowd. Once he and his group started, the audience went mad especially whenever his flute picked up the tempo and raised the pitch. The fusion group consisting of Mridangam, morching, ghatak, drone performed in perfect unison with crowd not letting them go even after their time was up. Yes, they had to perform encore. It was 0245 hrs by the time the group wound up to a thunderous applause!
Shashank and trope - Fusion with Flute Enter the stage big-ticket performer: Grammy-winning Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt with his Mohan Veena. He was not alone though. He was accompanied by his son Salil Mohan Bhatt on another Mohan Veena, and Vijay Ghatge on Tabla. Vijay Ghatge, with his body language and superb tabla beats, attracted applause like a well attracts thirsty. At one point during Pandit Vishwa Mohan's veena play, crowd was getting restless to cheer and clap when Vijay Ghatge gestured to hold on, not once, not twice, but thrice!! And only when Panditji was through his piece did Vijay Ghatge tell people to applaud!! That was a moment when audience had become totally one with the performers. Like Shashank and group, Pandit ji and group also had to return to stage even after they had disbanded the set-up and almost packed the instruments. In their encore performance, Panditji performed the Grammy-winning composition "A Meeting By The River". It was as wonderful as ever, listening to that brilliant piece sitting under the stars!
Vijay Ghatge, Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Salil Mohan Bhatt After Veena, it was Qawwali's turn. Yes Sir, Warsi Brothers! By the way, they were the only artistes who performed at last Vasantahabba too!! They were brought back because of popular demand. They captivated audience this time as well, what with numbers like "Chaap Tilak sab chhini to se naina mila ke". They touched just the right cord with secularism-promoting number "Har mein Har Ko dekha". One guy in the front row of audience went totally crazy in his appreciation, throwing his body all over the place :-)
Warsi Brothers - Qawwali I had to go out to pee at 0500 hrs. (For people who are planning to goto Vasantahabba next year, an advice: Drink no water once inside :-). Getting out was itself a Herculean task with no room in the amphitheatre to walk. Somehow I managed to do some kinda space walk in the amphitheatre, falling all over the people and all, and came out in one piece. There the scene was totally astounding. There were two big video screens in two different directions and the huge ground was full of people who couldn't get seat in small amphitheatre. I bought a Vasantahabba t-shirt and a couple of books on festival. Now going back in was even a Herculeaner task, what with all the security and all. They wouldn't let me in again! After a lot of nagging and persuading I was finally let in again. And then again it was a spacewalk in amphitheatre to the amusement of audience. But I managed to finally reach my friends again. By this time (0530hrs), Warsi Brothers were winding up and the new day was dawning. The last performance was by Taufiq Quershi and friends. Taufiq Qureshi comes from a family of percussionists: He is the son of Ustad Allah Rakha Khan, and brother of Tabla master Ustad Zakir Hussain. I had seen his performance at IIMB cultural festival only 3 weeks back!! But here it was a different group. It was a fusion performance at the day-break. His friends consisted of Niladri Kumar - Sitar, Sridhar Parthasarathy - Mridangam, Carl Peters - Bass Guitar, Nishad - keyboard, Geetika Varde Qureshi - Vocals. That is an awesome group! Niladri Kumar is the son of Sitar Maestro Kartick Kumar and a disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar. Geetika Varde Qureshi happens to be the better-half (she's the better one, according to Taufiq) of Taufiq Quershi.
Taufiq Quershi, Sridhar Parthasarathy , Niladri Kumar Niladri Kumar becomes one with his Sitar This group was AWESOME to say the least. I couldn't believe the way Niladri Kumar played Sitar: it was as if he was playing the Sitar from within! His gestures and expressions on his face meant that he was in a different world altogether! And whenever he would increase the tempo, which he did number of times, people would go just berserk. I, for one, had never seen Sitar being played like this ever before. He also manipulated strings to brief tunes of a few popular numbers from Hindi films. 'Yeh wada raha' is still ringing in my ears RIGHT NOW as I am writing this. He also did something new: He had recorded a new tune in his mobile phone and he plugged that into the microphone!! Man, was that good or what! I would do anything to get a recording of that! Taal-vartan between Taufiq Qureshi and Sridhar Parthasarathy was really good, especially because Taufiq Qureshi made sounds from his mouth instead of with his instruments. He's a pucca percussionist, alrite! What an awesome night! I came out awestruck and dumbfounded. Nrityagram, even though it records the show does not offer videos/audios of the show for sale. I am looking for people, someone, anyone, who video/audio-recorded the show. If you are one of those people, please, please, pretty please, let me know.
Read more about Vasanathahabba 2003 at 1) another source (The Hindu, Feb 6 2003) 2) and here (Blog of Vineeth S)
Vasantahabba 2002
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Last updated: Jul 02, 2005 Created: Feb 05, 2003 |
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