Kathak recital by an exponent
At a South Point-SPICMACAY initiative, Malabika Mitra, one of India's foremost Kathak exponents, presented a recital at the South Point High School auditorium on January 17. The renowned dancer enthralled the with her skill and agility, upto no end.
Her performance started with Ganga stuti (the initial prayer), right after an explanation of the dance form. She explained how Kathak was closely related to mathematics. She expressed emotions in a static posture with only her dynamic eyes, eyebrows and upper part of the body. Her rhythmic, graceful foot movements, adorned with ghungroo, harmonised to live music, mesmerised the audience. She was accompanied by Pandit Dinanath Mishra on tabla and Sandeep Neogi on sitar, with vocal support by Pratip Banerjee.
Malabika is trained in the Jaipur gharana by Late Pandit Ramgopal Mishra, son of late Pandit Jailal Maharaj. She had been studying the nuances of Lucknow gharana and the old traditional temple Art of Story-telling Style of Ayodhya under Late Pandit Om Prakash Maharaj (disciple of great Guru of Lucknow gharana Late Pandit Lachchhu Maharaj). Dr Mitra has also got the experience of the individual styles of Pandit Birju Maharaj, Smt Sitara Devi and Pandit Vijay Shankar. She has performed all over India and abroad. A regular performer at Doordarshan, Malabika was selected for Senior Fellowship in Kathak in 1997 by the Government of India.
SPICMACAY Club members of South Point High School organised Dr Mitra's recital to mark the 14th year of their association with SPICMACAY. SPICMACAY (Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth) is a voluntary movement, founded in 1977 by Dr Kiran Seth. Dr Seth is a Professor at IIT Delhi, and has been awarded the Padmashri for his contribution to the arts in 2009.
The aim of the club is to enrich the quality of formal education by increasing awareness about different aspects of Indian heritage and inspiring the young minds to imbibe the values embedded in it.
Known for entertaining audience, The SPICMACAY Club of South Point High School has also presented performances by Sharmila Biswas (odissi dance), Pandit Kushal Das (sitar), Dr Rajiv Chakraborty (sarod), Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya (santoor), Sandipan Samajpati ( vocals), Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta (sarod), Sounak Chattopadhyay (vocal), and Kalamandalam Amaljith, to name a few.
