Kathak salutes Tagore

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To celebrate the 150-birth anniversary of the greatest poet Rabindranath Tagore, the 14th Bharat Rang Mahotsav brings the Kshudito Pashan, a unique theatre and dance performance production by Padatik Dance Centre, Kolkata on January 19 at the Kamani Auditorium.

The presentation is based on a short story Kshutido Pashan, which means Hungry Stones.
Jayashri Mitra, secretary Padatik group says, “It’s the first time that Tagore’s play is beautifully represented in Kathak form. Apart from the performance, a lot of stress has been given on sets, costume, music, light design and scripting. An amalgamation of theatre and Kathak will give you the essence of a compact beauty of art and culture. Tagore’s poetry that will be recited throughout the play,” she says.
The play is about a young man’s bizzare tryst with the history of an old palace of the Muslim rulers. A young tax collector decides, against the advice of his head clerk Karim Khan, to stay in a haunted palace, which was once the pleasure resort of Shah Mahmud. Within a short time he is totally under the influence of the hungry stones of the palace and beauty of the Iranian girl. This experience of the two worlds, that of the living and that of the past, pushes him to the verge of insanity.
Kunal Padhy, director, who also plays the main lead in the play shares, “The script has the inherent scope of using Kathak as a major part to bind, enhance and take the play forward. I have tried to retain the classicism of the text, but at the same time present Tagore’s work in a manner, which can be reached to a wider audience. Romanticism is the main crux of the play where the hero is in awe of a period gone by.”
Choreographer Susmita Chatterjee, who plays the Iranian girl in the play says, “The story demands the form of Kathak. The audience will be able to sense how the royal court dancers entertained the royalty. Being a Bengali, I have grown up listening and reading Tagore’s stories and poetries. I have waited for 20 years to choreograph this play.”