Desi Tamasha

I skipped the Day 2 and 3 updates. But here goes:

• On day 2, the Amdavadi Prashant Shah was quite cool, but not super-exciting. I recall watching this one guy perform really well at an inter-school cultural festival in Ahmedabad in 1989. Was that him? I should have asked him...


• Madhumita Roy, a Birju Maharaj disciple, was pretty sub par too (assuming par was set by the various Mishras on day 1)


• Birju Maharaj didn't do anything fantastic - just a few little pieces, that were quite cool, but very short.


• Day 3 started amazingly well. Rajendra Gangani was phenomenal and in a class of his own


• Saswati Sen was her usual self-confident self. She did a solo on this 9.5-beat taal (supposedly composed by Birju Maharaj). Dhin - na - Dhin - Dhin - na - Dhin dhin na Tun na kat ta Tirakita. I liked another piece that she did called "Bhor" (morning). I now remember that I'd played a very small role as the child Krishna in a play in Class 2, and it was to the same 'story' ("Jaag ne Jadhava, Krishna Govalia, Vado re Govaliyo kaun thashe..." - must have been written by Narsinh Mehta probably)


• Then came Chitresh Das with a solo and Jason Samuels Smith, the tap dancer. Jason was phenomenal. Having never seen tap live before, I was totally mesmerized and I still don't quite get how he made it all happen. Kathak is doing well, and I hope tap is too.

The winners of the show, imho, were the two Mishra brothers - Mata Prasad and Ravi Shankar, Rajendra Gangani, Krishna Mohan Mishra and Saswati Sen: all in the same league... the creme de la creme.