Curtain Raiser Press Release
Morning Ragas by Prof. Suman Yadav
Mahabharta Performance by Anurupa Roy
Jaipur, 7 April: The Jaipur-based Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK) will be celebrating its Foundation Day tomorrow (Saturday). In the morning there will be Ragas by Prof. Suman Yadav at 7 am in JKK Gardens. She will be accompanied by Pt. Alok Bhaat (Harmonium) and Shri Mahendra Shankar Dangi (Tabla).
The Dean Faculty of Fine Arts, Professor in Music (Vocal) in University of Rajasthan, Prof. Suman Yadav has been trained under the Guru Shishya Parampara tradition with Dr. Leelawati Adsule. She is also an A-grade artiste of All India Radio and has performed in various concerts by Sangeet Natak Akademi, India Habitat Centre, Sangeet Sankalp, Jawahar Kala Kendra, among others. She has been actively contributing towards knowledge of music through original writings on contemporary issues in Music.
As a part of the evening programme, Mahabharat directed by Anurupa Roy will be staged at Rangayan at 7 pm. The play will be performed by Vivek Kumar, Mohammad Shameem, Anurupa Roy, Avinash Kumar and Gunduraju. The play seeks to answers various questions – If humans are basically peace loving, then why do wars take place? Does an individualistic sense of truth and justice lead to an apocalypse? Could the characters of the play have averted war or were they doomed for destruction?
Mahabharat reflects this eternal contradiction of our human existence. This performance will be carried out using various props like puppets, masks, shadow puppets and materials. The play looks at Mahabharat as a dynamic narrative which has evolved over a few thousand years through the sung verses of Togalu Gombeyatta’s Sillakeyata Mahabharat and remains relevant in the new search of contemporary puppeteers. The story itself is increasingly relevant in the polarized conflict ridden world of today.
The play uses the conscious narrative of 15 characters to explore the inner dilemma and the consequences of their individual choices throughout the play. The characters then become models for conflicts small and large whether in world politics or the family or community and the narrative is an overarching metaphor for many political, institutional, social situations in the world today.
