Brought up the Indian way with religion very much a part of life, his mind recollects the "praarthana" time in school when he was made to recite not just Gurbani verses but the Gayatri Jap and much else.At the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) was an unusual film on "Vaikhari" produced by Lubdhak Chatterjee, sponsored by Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT).

The pattern of sound arrangements in rhythmic phrase and their utterance can suggest a "bindu", a "rekha" and an "akaar" (dot, line and shape) all attributes of form! In a scene showing Kalidasa’s Meghadootam, sounds like "Ghe ghe tita" suggest the dark clouds which the Yaksha separated from his beloved — and the messenger carrying his words of love to his beloved. The bols in a "bandish" can suggest chirping birds, rain of varying intensity (drizzling or pouring) and many other things. Then there is the blind Shabari, whose offering of fruit already tasted by her Rama gratefully accepts without reservations. Parwati mentions Nirgeet, a thousand year parampara, and following her Kathak references also gives examples from the other form she practices — viz Odissi and points to the Vadya Pallavi based on mardal mnemonics, on which she worked with the late Banamali Maharana. Also metaphorical is the segment of Muddunatesa Padam "Ososi" in Mukhari ragam, wherein the man fed up of the wiles of the woman, retires to Kashi donning ascetic robes. Through the utterance of certain sounds arranged to create a certain effect, in a purvaranga invocation, a canvas is created which the dancer later fills through her dance.

Are not these acts sacrilege — "jhoota"? What is right or achha? Who decides? The soliloquising puns on words and without a single offensive statement, the actor makes his own statement subtle but clear of inclusivity — of intent alone deciding the right and wrong of an act. The "doli" scene, when the bride takes leave departing to the groom’s house and other verses nostalgically recited, while evocative (the non-Punjabi, as I am, perhaps missing out on the vernacular details), spoke to the inside of the Punjabi in the audience with a special throb. Inanimate sound through its patterning and "chhand" becomes an abstract symbol suggesting form. Keeping so many strands together in a flow must have posed a challenge.Pondering on death, with the after-death tenets of different religions like Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism — all contrasting with his own conviction of death as a finality — a finish with nothing after, Bhagat Singh wonders on who prescribes the China Shower Curtain factory dos and don’ts of religion. From Bhagat Singh’s expert tying of the Sikh turban, to every little detail, the honesty and intensity, held the audience completely captive. This attitude results in anything beyond the framed category becoming non-dance as per the rigidly conformist viewer. Bhagat Singh senses a hidden melancholia beneath this joi de vivre, with a deep involvement in love stories ending in tragedy. Sound vocabulary in dance has been inspired not just by percussion mnemonics, but also by nature and its inhabitants. But modern dance goes far beyond mere movement and Navtej Singh Johar’s "Tanasha", a riveting amalgam of movement, of dialogue in a soliloquising form, of bits of music, and what you have is dance theatre, daring and provocative with a burning intensity. An engineering graduate, Lubdhak attempts looking at "parhant" or the articulation of mnemonics in dance through imagery visually caught on the camera, the film seeking to look at the nature of pure sound and how it connects with form in dance, art and in life. The spacing of the "bols", the silences, can all convey phrases of movement. Built round the imagined last hours of Bhagat Singh in his cell, facing the gallows with stoic resolution, Tanasha has its inspiration in Bhagat Singh’s jail diaries, particularly his essay "Why I am an atheist" — the hero’s clarity of mind and die-hard pragmatism, not a whit swayed by religious doctrines and idealistic philosophies.

Shot almost completely in the variety and beauty of the Mahagami dance institution premises, one sees director Parwati Dutta speaking to her students and directing them on sounds translating to movement, with references to texts. He ponders on the Punjabi identity with its zest for living life to the fullest — its throb best symbolised in Bulle Shah’s love poetry and Heer and Ranja. With sounds filling up space, filmed sculptural exuberance of temple architecture acquires a special vibrancy.As a people, we are so prone to categorising into neat profiles everything one experiences in life — with dance (particularly what is deemed in our reference as "classical") being no exception. Bhagat Singh’s beliefs mingle here with autobiographical details from Navtej’s own life as a Bharatanatyam and modern dance practitioner, in a constant north/south blend, with the Punjabi energy looked at against the deep green of the South with its sea-sides and temples and Bharatanatyam. In a brief guest appearance, Pandit Birju Maharaj explains how tonal inflections and every little turn and shift in the syllabic punctuation of a rhythmic composition suggests movement inflections. The musical verses from Andal’s dream sequence crooned in the soft voice of the unobtrusively seated Elangovan on the dark side of the stage, with the actor joining in, adds emotive throb. There is the story of Andal whose love for Krishna with total conviction of being his betrothed, made her take the garland meant for the Lord and drape it round her own neck

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