JEDDAH/RIYADH, 12 November — India’s renowned Kathak duo Maulik R. Shah and Ishira S. Parikh gave a spellbinding performance at the Indian International School’s auditorium here recently.
The Consulate General of India organized the two-hour program in collaboration with the New Delhi-based Indian Council for Cultural Relations. Kathak is a dance style from the northern part of India which originated with "kathaks" or the storytellers who enacted as ballads, the stories from Indian culture to the accompaniment of vocal and instrumental music and graceful movement of hands, eyes and feet.
During the reign of Moguls in India, kathak as a dance style was further refined with rhythmic gestures accompanying vocal and instrument music. The performers, who have over 1,000 performances to their credit, nearly half of them before foreign audiences and NRI communities in the US, UK, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Canada and China, started the program with a traditional welcome of the audience to the performance. A "Jugal bandi" between tabla player Vithal Baburao Pawar and Maulik R. Shah followed this. The audience was introduced to the intricate beats of kathak followed by a competition of skills between the table payer and the performer.
The next presentation by the dance duo was "Leela" played to the "thumri" sung by Neeraj Parikh, a disciple of the famous Hindustani classical vocal singer Pandit Jasraj. Neeraj Parikh sang the famous bandish "Mero Allah Meherban," which over the years is being rendered by various Hindustani vocalists in their own styles.
In "Tarana" the performer created vibrant images by their graceful gestures and facial expression. Their closing presentation was "Utsav," an item that celebrates the joy of life and liberty. The performance was a rendering with rhythmic footsteps to the beats of tabla and strains of music from "israj" and "sitar" instruments.
The duo earlier enthralled a capacity crowd at the International Indian School, Riyadh, auditorium. Zikrur Rahman, first secretary at the Indian Embassy who organized the cultural show, gave an overview of Indian classical programs and introduced the performers.
Sunita Ahmad, wife of Indian Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad, spoke about the embassy’s efforts to ensure the welfare of Indian expatriates in the Kingdom. The program started with the "Mohiniattam" presented by M. Anand, a top grade Doordarshan artist. The duo’s performance that followed won the hearts of the crowd.