08th November, 2024
02nd November, 2023Indian music with its rich legacy of over three millennia, has always had a place of pride in the art world. The NCPA embraces all the major strands of Indian music and continues to feature a wide spectrum of artistes – from up-and-coming to top-ranking and living legends. The range of genres is equally diverse – from pure classical, and semi-classical to devotional, light, regional, folk and cross-over music.
The unique thematic element associated with each property makes it exclusive. Over the past decade, NCPA’s thematically curated Indian music festivals have been appreciated by artistes as well as audiences worldwide.
Upcoming Events in November 2023:
GODDESS: A Celebration of the Divine Feminine
An NCPA Presentation Conceived and curated by Arundhathi Subramaniam
Where: Godrej Dance Theatre and Experimental Theatre
When: Friday, 3 November – 4.00 pm, Saturday, 4th – 3.00 pm
About the show:
For the devotee, She is a mother and protector. For the spiritual seeker, She is the guide and key to inner transformation. For those seeking a more just, gender-balanced and ecologically sustainable world, She is an inspiration and emblem. She looms over all the cultures of the world. Over the centuries, She has taken on innumerable names and forms. She also speaks to multiple orientations—yogic, tantric, devotional, and in recent times, global New Age and feminist. A planet awakening to the urgency of ecological awareness seems to need her more than ever before. GODDESS is a unique and exuberant celebration of the Sacred Feminine. It weaves together a tapestry of Goddess poems from diverse lands and across the ages. It yokes together poetry translated from diverse languages. It celebrates multiple goddesses—from Shakti to Mei Hukum, Aphrodite to Astarte, Demeter to Diana, Abhirami to Ambika, Kali to Saraswati. It brings together an assortment of musical styles—from the rousing Karnataka tradition that celebrates Yellamma, the goddess of transgenders, to the joyous Gujarati garba sung by women to multiple goddesses. It brings together a diversity of tones—from adoration and ecstasy to complaint and rage. It brings together a variety of practitioners and perspectives—poets, translators, musicians, theatre actors, and scholars. In honouring the Goddess, this festival hopes to add its voice to the rising chorus across the world that seeks to reclaim a more balanced, less lopsided, inclusive legacy of culture and spirituality.
About the Curator Arundhathi Subramaniam:
Arundhathi Subramaniam is a leading Indian poet and spiritual traveller. She is the award-winning author of 13 books of poetry and prose, most recently, a volume on contemporary female sacred travellers, entitled Women Who Wear Only Themselves. Other works include the Penguin anthology of Bhakti poetry, Eating God, and the bestselling biography, Sadhguru: More Than a Life.
Welcome to GODDESS: an explosive, multidisciplinary celebration of the Divine Feminine, her many forms and faces.
3rd November
Where: Godrej Dance Theatre
Tickets: BookMyShow
Introduction: 4.00 pm to 4.05 pm
Session 01: 4.05 pm to 5.00 pm
Topic: Goddess: A Metaphor Called Woman
Conducted by Devdutt Pattanaik
About the session:
Distinguished mythologist, author, illustrator and columnist, Devdutt Pattanaik, will discuss how male and female forms, and their marriage, were used as tools to explain Vedic ideas—who we are and what we have. This was the fifth Veda, where non-gendered ideas were embodied with gender. The choices were not random, patriarchal or sexist. But our modern gaze certainly is.
Session 02: 5.00 pm to 5.20 pm
Where: Godrej Dance Theatre
Tickets: BookMyShow
Topic: “This World That Was Created by Opening Your Eyes”: Mani Rao on the ‘Saundarya Lahari’
Conducted by Mani Rao
About the session:
The ‘Saundarya Lahari' is a celebrated eighth-century Sanskrit poem of adoration dedicated to Shakti, the consort without whom Shiva is self-confessedly powerless. Who is Shakti? What makes her unique? Scholar, poet and translator of this iconic text, Mani Rao (author of Saundarya Lahari: Wave of Beauty, Harper Collins, 2022) will introduce audiences to its magic and its power.
Session 03: 5.20 pm to 6.10 pm
Where: Godrej Dance Theatre
Tickets: BookMyShow
Topic: “I’ll Rub Kali on My Face”: Translating the Goddess
Conducted by Sampurna Chattarji
About the session:
Three noted poet-translators will discuss the rewards and challenges of translating some acclaimed Goddess poems in recent times. This will be interspersed with readings of their translations. Sampurna Chattarji will discuss her translations of the 18th-century Bengali mystic poet, Ramprasad Sen. K Srilata will discuss her translations of the 20th-century Tamil poet, Subramania Bharati. Mani Rao will unpack the nuances of the 'Saundarya Lahari’, believed to have been authored by Adi Shankara.
Session 04: 6.30 pm to 6.45 pm
Where: Experimental Theatre
Tickets: BookMyShow
Topic: “GODDESS”
Performed by Aditi Bhagwat
About the performance:
Seasoned Kathak exponent and actor, Aditi Bhagwat, sets the stage with a powerful invocation, choreographed by acclaimed dancer, Sanjukta Wagh.
Session 05: 6.45 pm to 8.00 pm
Where: Experimental Theatre
Tickets: BookMyShow
Topic: “Yellamma and Other Stories”: Wild Goddess of the Margins
Musical Storytelling with Shilpa Mudbi Kothakota & Adithya Kothakota (60 mins), followed by a discussion.
About the performance:
Yellamma is a compelling figure, capable of embracing every polarity—the high and the low, man and woman, and every shade in between. In a lively session, interspersed with rousing folk music, Shilpa Mudbi Kothakota (filmmaker, theatre practitioner and singer), along with Adithya Kothakota (co-founder of the Urban Folk Project), will explore the myth of this fiery goddess. The blazing narrative of Yellamma, the deity of the devadasis and the jogathis (transgender disciples), is kept alive through folk songs that are over 1,500 years old. In a riveting presentation, the artistes unleash a torrent of questions around patriarchy, purity and power.
4th November 2023
Session 01: 3.00 pm to 4.30 pm
Where: Godrej Dance Theatre
Tickets: BookMyShow
Topic: “Weaving and Being Woven”: An Embodied Exploration
A Workshop by Anitha Santhanam
About the workshop:
Goddess veneration is inextricably linked with the Indian wisdom of Tantra. The Tantric worldview sees all material reality as created and animated by Shakti. The Tantra Chronicles (2013), received and compiled by Ruth Frankenberg and Lata Mani, comprise a unique text of contemporary wisdom. These 43 original teachings remind us that the universe is alive, the embodiment is sacred and the senses are a form of knowledge. Inspired by this text, actor and dancer Anitha Santhanam will lead participants through a series of body-centred explorations, rooted in an understanding of the body as a site of living wisdom. Therapeutic, exploratory and revelatory, this is a unique workshop.
Session 02: 4.30 pm to 5.30 pm
Where: Godrej Dance Theatre
Tickets: BookMyShow
Topic: “Metre, Magic, Mother”: An Introduction to Goddess Poetry Around the World by Annie Finch
About the session:
Well-known American poet and performer Annie Finch is known for her poetry performances and understanding of poetic craft. Her work has appeared in several anthologies on poetics, feminism and witchcraft. In this exciting session, she will take audiences on a whirlwind tour of the goddess traditions of the planet, reminding them that Metre, Magic and Mother arise from the same source in more ways than one.
Session 03: 5.30 pm to 6.10 pm
Where: Godrej Dance Theatre
Tickets: BookMyShow
Topic: “The Kingdom of Kali is Within Us Deep”: The Goddess Unplugged by Arundhathi Subramaniam with Shernaz Patel and Anahita Uberoi
About the session:
Poet-curator Arundhathi Subramaniam introduces audiences to a vibrant mosaic of goddess poems in translation from diverse parts of the Indian subcontinent. These draw from her forthcoming anthology, Wild Women (Penguin India, 2024). Stalwart theatre actors Shernaz Patel and Anahita Uberoi join her in this invocation of the Goddess’ many names and moods.
Session 04: 6.30 pm to 7.25 pm
Where: Experimental Theatre
Tickets: BookMyShow
Topic: “My Mother Awaits Me in the Charnel Ground”
Shyama Sangeet and Nazrul Geeti by Anol Chatterjee About the performance: Noted Hindustani vocalist, Anol Chatterjee, shares his passion for the Kali poems of the great poets of Bengal—Ramprasad Sen, Kamalakanta Bhattacharya, Kazi Nazrul Islam, among others. These poems offer a dazzling weave of praise, longing, complaint and mystic paradox.
Session 05: 7.25 pm to 8.30 pm
Where: Experimental Theatre
Tickets: BookMyShow
Topic: “Garba: The Womb of the Goddess”
Performed by Manasi Parikh, Parthiv Gohil & Troupe
About the performance:
The festival reaches its climax with the garba of Gujarat. High-octane performers Manasi Parikh and Parthiv Gohil and their troupe take audiences on a rollercoaster ride through Goddess rhythms. The performance will be followed by a discussion with the musicians.
Nad Ninad: From Our Archives
In collaboration with Music Forum, Mumbai Listening Session on the Artistry of Kishan Maharaj Guided by Suresh Talwalkar with Arvind Kumar Azad & Pravin Uddhav Godrej Dance Academy Theatre
When: Friday, 24 November- 6.30 pm
Entry: On a first-come-first-served basis
About the session:
This session is presented to commemorate the birth centenary of the legendary tabla maestro, Kishan Maharaj (1923-2008) of the Benaras gharana. Born into a family of professional musicians from Benaras, Kishan Maharaj was trained in the art of tabla by his father, Hari Maharaj, and uncle, Kanthe Maharaj. Starting his performing career at the young age of 11, besides presenting brilliant solo performances, Kishan Maharaj went on to accompany some iconic vocalists, instrumentalists as well as dancers of his time. Besides his versatility, his extraordinary ability to play cross-rhythms and produce complex rhythmic motifs, particularly in tihai patterns, made him extremely popular with instrumentalists and dancers of diverse styles. This audio-visual session will be guided by tabla maestro Suresh Talwalkar along with Arvind Azad, a senior disciple of Kishan Maharaj and Prof Pravin Uddhav from Benaras Hindu University.
