Parampara Festival 2021: Tracing the Mudgal legacy

Natya Tarangini, the dance school of veteran Kuchipudi dancers Raja-Radha and Kaushalya Reddy, celebrated the 25th year of its Parampara festival. To mark the silver jubilee, the annual festival of music and dance that celebrates the guru-sishya parampara featured a unique music and dance jugalbandi by Pt. Madhup Mudgal and his daughters, Sawani and Arushi Mudgal.

The Mudgal Parivar Parampara was mirrored through an imaginatively conceived repertoire comprising musical forms such as Dhrupad, Khayal, Thumri, and Tarana and their poetic interpretation through Odissi.

Born to Pt. Vinay Chandra Maudgalya, the multifaceted Madhup Mudgal, musician, musicologist, composer, writer, founder principal of Delhi’s Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, and founder-director of the Gandharva Choir, grew up with music all around him. His two daughters have had the same sort of upbringing

Rich in melody

The evening began with the melodious strains of raag Multani along with the invocatory shloka ‘Varnamam, artha-sanghanam rasanam chhandasam api’, sung by Pt. Madhup Mudgal in Dhrupad Ang Alap, and Arushi opening by dancing to ‘Gam ganpataye namah’ and the virutham-like Kavitta. The following Dhrupad composition ‘Jai ganapati gananam’, set to Chautal of 12 beats cycle, enhanced the rhythmic syllables of the mridang.

The two abhinaya pieces in Brajbhasha, choreographed and presented by Arushi were Dwar and Shyama, composed by Pt. Madhup Mudgal and Sawani respectively. Dwar had interesting dialogue between Radha and Krishna based on Shlesh and Vakrokti where the same word conveyed different meanings. Dwar was followed by Shyama, where after the blissful moments of union the Swadheenpatika Radha playfully exhorts Krishna to reverse roles with the Yaman bandish of Kunvar Shyam “Shyam tori bansuri nek bajaun”. The complete merging of Radha with her beloved depicted through ‘Shyam Shyam ratat pyaari, aap hi Shyam bhai’ was delightful.

The Hindol tarana composed by Pt. Madhup Mudgal and performed by all three collectively, was the perfect choice for ‘Aikya’ (oneness), the concluding piece. Accompanied by a set of competent musicians — Srinivas Satpathi (flute), Kharak Singh (pakhawaj), Gurbhej Singh (tabla), Chetan Nigam (harmonium), Kushal Sharma (tanpura and vocal support), the Mudgals explored the state of oneness through abstract music and movement.

The tarana moved from slow to medium to fast tempo with avirbhav and tirobhav of other raags. The visual poetry etched delicately by Arushi dancing to the graceful tarana by Madhup and Sawani gradually reached a crescendo where music and dance became one, leaving the audience spellbound.

The Delhi-based author

writes on classical arts.