A posse of knights is following the army commander’s instruction, as if they are on a warring mission. The band of young boys comprise the Pungcholam drummers from Manipur and the stern master trainer is none other than Padma Shri Astad Deboo, the pioneering contemporary dance virtuoso of India.
Keeping a hawk-eyed vigil on the rigorous rehearsal sessions, this silver-streaked sexagenarian maestro literally made the performers sweat it out at gruelling grind of a stupendous spectacle. A minor mistake here and there would call inevitably for a strict teacher’s chide directed at his disobedient pupils. For we all know, he is a tough taskmaster and a rigid disciplinarian. He would never dither to tighten his leash when it comes to raising the bar of performance and setting a benchmark for excellence. The result was obvious. Packed to a huge capacity, the spectators were left spellbound with the show.
Paying alert attention to his designed choreographic piece, the drummers on the other hand, seldom got distracted to miss a single beat or a rhythm, despite the language barrier. Of course, an interpreter from the North East was present all along to guide them through thick and thin.
But as the versatile guruji says, “Dance has its own lingo of understanding.” And it certainly rings true if you watch his work-in-progress from near proximity. A flurry of activities dominates the scene. The nimble-footed leaps, an agile footwork, wavy torso movements, speedy acrobatic skills, a perfect balance, rippling arms, fluid limbs, supple backward arches or forward bends, claps and syllable chants — all accumulatively conform to an imaginative painting drawn in the airy canvas or an ethereal poem floating around in motion.
A prolific nartak in his own right, Deboo has been formally trained in Indian classical dance forms like Kathak and Kathakali styles apart from his forte, which lies in the contemporary genre. He further develops and expands the horizon in sync with the subject of his choreography. In the process, the unorthodox elements naturally creep into his frame of composition. “If you don’t brace your basics well, you can’t grow and evolve ahead. To mentally evoke a barrage of futuristic concepts, one needs to know the core by heart. Strengthening your foundation as a solid rock is the key mantra of long-term success,” says the perfectionist dancer, who is a stickler for the “practice what you preach” adage.
Rhythm Divine, the 70-minute piece is a beautiful creation by Deboo, who takes centrestage in an embryonic position to denote the genesis of this vast, gigantic universe. “The birth takes place from an embryo or a foetus. It further elongates to blossom into buds, leaves, trees or a human/animal form or any other living organism that we witness around us. We try to imbibe the rhythm of this constant flux of the beginning and ending within our surrounding environment. Via my dance and expression, I then thank the Lord Almighty — the supreme force — to bestow us with this gift of life and creation through his benign blessings,” he says.
Admitting that the plum project was both challenging as well as fascinating enough to put up before a large cross-section of masses, the exponent says, “Look, the Pungcholam drummers are traditional instrument players and not trained dancers. They are loyal to their indigenous craft and like to adhere to it infallibly. But here the case was different. They had to break free of their usual mould and sort of step out to assimilate and adapt to my minimal vocabulary. The idea was to merge a tradition with the contemporary. I kind of pushed them to a limit. Well, you may say that I don’t keep wolves on the loose.”
From Pungcholam, the drummers slowly took a Bolcholam turn, where they had to recite bols and play kartals, attired in their conventional costumes. “The bols are similar to khayal and qawwali renditions. This is my maiden performance with the Manipuri drummers in Kolkata. Earlier, I performed with an akin troupe in Bhutan during a coronation ceremony of the country’s 5th monarch, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, in 2008,” he says. Before touching down in the city of joy, the Rhythm Divine recital drew accolades from a series of concerts hosted in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Auroville, Jamshedpur and overseas in Frankfurt, Belgium, Spain and so on. One whose creative productions speak for himself, gladly affirms, “Not that all my shows have always found audiences in droves, but the performances have assuredly been appreciated. And that’s the greatest certificate of reward for any artiste.”
Performing with effortless ease at this ripe age, the expert of Martha Graham dance technique wears a composed smile when he says, “One has to keep working without a hitch. Otherwise, resting leads to rusting. A human body is like a machine you see. No magic can crack wonders unless you keep it well-oiled and in a moving condition.”
Having coalesced his unbreakable ties with provincial drummers, this doyen recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi award says,” This is a living artform. The Pungcholam drummers eke out their subsistence by performing at weddings, temples, funerals and at other public social gatherings. It’s a ritualistic parampara (tradition) in a nutshell. They use percussive instruments in diverse shapes and sizes widely ranging from a tabla, chanda, cymbals, dhol, pakhawaj to a dhak or a drum. Besides, they use hands, feet, spins in the air and other physical movements to complement the beats generated by their accompanying instruments. The striking difference between a tabla player and a Pungcholam drummer is that the former is static and sticks to his ground, whereas the latter is mobile and dynamic. They shift and rove around within the circumference of their performance.”
While he agrees that government aids support an ethnic performing art, yet he says that it can barely cover 1/10th of the total production cost. “With rise in expenses, the contribution seems a minute speck on the measuring metre of a commercial sponsorship, that shells out money at exorbitant rates,” he says. Anybody listening?