The dancer has all the ingredients needed for a kathak performer — which he has to develop and evolve.The writer is an eminent dance critic. His jawab/sawal with the percussionists was confidently executed. But the general apathy makes a sad commentary on audience responses in general.l. Rajan and Pt.The last of the dance part of the evening, before the famed dhrupad duo, Pt. The competent musical team with tablist Mohit Gangani and Pakhawaj played by Ashish Gangani had Mahendra Songram as vocalist.PROMISING KATHAKTaking the stage at the Stein Auditorium of the Habitat, Sudeep Chakraborthy, a disciple of Jayakishen Maharaj, earlier trained under Pranab Sanyal and Sandip Mallick, showed promise of a good future, given the right opportunities for evolving. Providing tuneful accompaniment and lehra refrain on the sarangi was Azeem Ali Khan. The beginning was with a Krishna Karnaamritam Bilwamangala verse. What started off with a pitifully small audience gradually saw more people coming in. Sudeep should try and develop this talent for abhinaya, which is even otherwise having such a minimal presence in the kathak of today. But dancers must develop a grater feel for sound balancing. A sahitya line "Balma mori tori sang laagli preet", the dancer’s minimal accommodation of the interpretative, expressing love’s deep desire, though fleeting, gave a hint of a talent for emoting which few male dancers have. Still carrying the flavour of Shivratri, on the day after, the dancer’s invocation was with "Bhasma bhusan anga Shiva, gale shobit mundmala" set to raga Jog in chautaa.

The fact that he is having pakhawaj lessons under Ravishankar Upadhyaye gives his feel for laya that special edge. The entire problem lay in the recorded music, which for an open-ended dance form like kathak, becomes too tailored, losing out on improvisation. But one wishes they had designed the recital with greater sagacity, making the main Shiva item which was well choreographed, a starting point instead of presenting it at the end of a programme, with the usual Radha/Krishna thematic concerns — which on this occasion, became redundant. Gifted with a stage presence, Sudeep has anga shuddha and holds himself well. He continued with the 12 matra chautaal for the nritta section, with a starting upaj and laya baant, the improvisations woven into the tala cycle neatly executed. That he evinced the confidence to dance in an open-ended recital, holding his own against polished percussionists was a statement in itself. With the drums much too loud, not a word of the singer could be made out and the dancer’s forays to the mike for parhant with a very muffled sound made hearing very difficult. Shiva as the ultimate liberator, in his macro formless presence as "Paramjyoti" and "Swayamjyoti" made for a good finish. Sajan Misra, took over for the finale, was a kathak duet by Hari and Chethana, artistic directors of Nupur, in Bengaluru.

Also, the dancer seems to have a mannerism of hands constantly ruffling his short hair — which he would be well advised to get over. The drut section went on to teental presenting an udaan, harimirchi ki paran and gat nikas in which the dancer’s gait was less important than hands showing playing instruments like the flute, the pakhawaj, the sarangi and the manjira. And the perfect visualisation of this was the tarangam footwork virtuosity with the dancer standing with feet planted on the rim of a brass plate. Swati Tirunal’s composition "Chaliya Kunjanamo" in Brindavan Saranga, with a kavit included in the choreography seemed, for this critic, more of the same thing, too often seen in kathak. The teental nritta and sargam with Shivanjali would have made a fine combination. There was also a parmelu with its mixed syllables. Then followed all the intra-forms of thaat, angik uthan, paran amad, ginti tihai, revolving round the number six, and tukras pertaining to tisra, chatusra and misra combinations, all characterised by neat chakkars and footwork.

In one teermanam link between interpretative passages, when the nattuvangam could not find the necessary flow, the dancer, in complete control indicated through her graceful sign language that the segment be repeated, and so it was. The solo Custom Light Box letter Signs factory percussion interventions by both drummers were excellent. Altogether a very fine recital! The dancer had one more item on Shiva, which had to be cancelled with organiser, Kaushalya Reddy, ruling it out for this would stretch the recital beyond the time slot prescribed for every dancer.Following this, performed with great involvement were passages depicting the epithets of Shiva like "umapati", "pannagabhooshanam", "trinetram", "mukundapriyam", etc — all portrayed with the combined skill of nritta and abhinaya with the concluding "anandanatanavinoda" emphasising the ecstatic splendour of the Lord’s dance. With their neat technique and stage presence, the husband and wife team was well balanced, their synchronised moves pleasing to watch.