Taking forward Guru-Shishya Parampara: Knowledge through surrender

Celebrating and honouring the contribution of Guru Mohanrao ji in Kathak, ‘Ek Antaranga’ organised by Elara Productions concluded in the capital recently.

Present to witness and bless the show were Shri. Suman Kumar (Director, Kathak Kendra & Deputy Secretary, Sangeet Natak Akademi), Guru Smt. Manjushree Chatterjee (SNA Awardee), Smt. Rashmi Vajpeyi, Smt. Arshiya Sethi, Guru Smt. Neelima Adya, Ashok Maharaj and many more. 

Guru Smt. Padma Sharma, Guru Smt. Poornima Pandey, Guru Smt. Roshan Date, Padma Shri Guru Smt. Shovana Narayan (SNA Awardee) and Guru Shri. Mysore B. Nagraj also graced the event with their best wishes and blessings through short videos. 

The event opened with a graceful presentation of a Malkos Tarana by Devika Agarwal, Shreejeeta Ghosh and Amit Ray. Following the Tarana , in celebration and honor of the contribution of Guru Mohanrao Kallianpurkar ji to Kathak – Guru Subhash Chandra in conversations with Smt. Rashmi Vajpeyi took us on a beautiful journey with some unsaid, untold stories and bandish of the puranic era and bringing back some fond memories that a lot would relate to.

L-R Guru Subhash Chandra, Dr. Sabita Kalliyanpurkar, Dr. Vinod Kalliyanpurkar, Smt. Rashmi Vajpai, Smt. Manjushree Chatterjee and Shri. Suman Kumar.

Shri. Suman Kumar (Director, Kathak Kendra & Deputy Secretary, Sangeet Natak Akademi) in the event discussed the contribution of Guru Kalyanpurkar Ji in giving freedom to dance which was otherwise refrained to a Khandan/Home. Performing Arts teaches you a way of life, it teaches you how to live life. Hence this knowledge should be shared amongst all.

Dr. Vinod Kallianpurkar (Mohanrao ji’s son) along with his wife Dr. Sabita Kallianpurkar graced the occasion with their esteemed presence. They were overwhelmed to see the love and respect people had for guruji and his work.

The event brought together disciples, friends, acquaintances, colleagues and family, all under one roof at one time to celebrate the great vidhwan and reminiscing the beautiful 1930’s era.

Elara Productions is a multi-dimensional production house aiming to promote and preserve the art and culture heritage of India. Founded in 2021 by Devika Agarwal and Shreejeeta Ghosh), the production house wishes to bring to the audience rooted traditions in the form of art, craft, music and the performing arts, along with promoting ‘Made in India’.

“This is just the beginning. We are looking forward for a series of events where we all sit together and exchange ideas and keep the traditions alive”, says Devika Agarwal, Co-founder – Elara Productions.

Adding to it Shreejeeta Ghosh (Co-founder) states that, “the production house aims for inclusivity and acceptance across genres and forms which otherwise is a major miss these days. The production house also aims to target and inspire young entrepreneurs in the field of performing arts.

Lastly Elara Productions aims at viewing performing arts from not just an entertainment perspective but also knowledge perspective.”

The world has lost one of the biggest and simply the greatest sportsperson ever on Friday night, when boxing legend Muhammad Ali took his last breath in United States’ Phoenix, Arizona.

Ali was hospitalized owing to respiratory problem, and was also battling with Parkinson’s disease. “After a 32-year battle with Parkinson’s disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74,” Bob Gunnell, Ali’s spokesman, was quoted in the media, on Friday.

Following Ali’s demise, Bollywood celebrities took to Twitter to pay condolences for the sporting icon. The likes of John Abraham, Abhishek Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar, to name a few, used the social media platform to tweet about the legendary boxer.

Here are the messages celebrities posted on Twitter:

Rishi Kapoor: RIP. Muhammad Ali. Was at a function with him in Bahrain think early 80’s. He was unwell and he called me “pretty boy”

John Abraham: “Float like a butterfly , sting like a bee” sad sad sad day #MuhammadAli

Abhishek Bachchan: Rest in peace legend @MuhammadAli #FloatLikeAButterfly #StingLikeABee #GOAT Crushed! @MuhammadAli was the 1st sportsman I was told about by @SrBachchan. He was inspirational and an idol.

Ayushmann Khurrana: “I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.” – #RIPMuhammadAli

Jackky Bhagnani: The greatest that ever was. Eloquent, colorful, controversial and simply brilliant. THE #MohammedAli. RIP Cassius Clay

Kunal Kohli: #MuhammadAli #rip the greatest boxer n sportsman. Celebrate his life n achievements #inspiration

Farhan Akhtar: @MuhammadAli Never before-Never again. RIP Champ.

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Earlier I used to boast about how we never felt the need to book tickets in advance for a movie. That’s because within three kilometer radius of where we stay (Indirapuram), there are at least a dozen multiplexes.  Not anymore.

After trying at four places on the first day, I gave up and settled to watch Bhaag Milkha Bhaag on Monday.All my friends, family liked the movie but I was disappointed. And the reasons could be many. May be I’m now used to watching emotions hidden beneath a layer  – thanks to new young filmmakers like Vikram Motwanes, Anand Rais and Dibakar Banerjees. And no longer like human emotions so pronounced and on the surface, am now used to subtlety.

May be like me many of us watched with two filters – one as a movie fan and the other as a mad sports follower. C’mon this is not a sports film even if run your imagination faster than Milkha Singh in his hey days.

The biggest moment of Milkha Singh’s sporting career is literally hidden at the top. There is no mention of the Rome Olympics moment anywhere in the rest of the movie. And an inconsequential Indo-Pak Friendly event has been preferred as the climax of the movie. Prasoon Joshi, I’m sorry, you might be the most sought after lyricist and writer but you should have shown the script to a sports fanatic before filming.

Like the good old days, Farhan Akhtar becomes a world class athlete from being a knife wielding errant youth within a span of one song shot in the hills. The overplayed trials and tribulations of the hero take centrestage and coaching, strategising the nuances of the sport is sadly missing.
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra might say he didn’t make a sports film, but why not…why not a sports film on one of India’s greatest sporting legend. You can also make millions by telling how an athlete becomes a winner in a pure sports way – how to get off the block faster…how to run the curves….how to run the first 100m….then the next…then the next. Milkha Singh deserved a true sports film. Learn it from the masters of Hollywood, how they turn them into blockbusters.

And then it’s completely unjustified to make full blown scenes out of hero getting excused from regular drill sessions, wearing or stealing the Indian jersey, which contributed immensely to make it a three and a half hour long film. Some of the scenes like a ghee drinking one near the police station did not add anything to the movie or the hero’s character. May be Rakeysh Mehra wanted to portray how corrupt and helpless Delhi police were even then. Simple logic – if you do not have powerful content, enough content then chop the damn movie. The director, producer, everyone must have seen the movie multiple times at the post and post the post production, why nobody decided to cut out a few scenes, which they could easily done making the story telling even crisper.

And what was the need to handle Milkha Singh’s troubled past with kid gloves. He might have turned a hooligan in his youth but the director has been so careful not to tarnish his image that it irritates you. May be Rakeysh Mehra didn’t want to upset Milkha Singh. After all he’d given the director the rights to make the film for one rupee.

Now the makers are basking in the success of the movie. Remember reading Farhan Akhtar’s interview somewhere that the biggest compliment he got was when Milkha Singh cried watching the movie. I have been a sports producer and have made some of the most well-known sportstars cry by producing 2-3 minutes packages on them. So why waste three and a half hour film..