Recently I was invited to attend Krishna Katha by legendary dancer Dr. Sonal Mansingh at yoga ashram in green and very chilly Lonavala, a beautiful hill station near Mumbai.
The drive was longer than normal but the desire to see an artist like Sonal Mansingh perform live for me kept me awake in middle of the Mumbai traffic jams. When I reached the ashram I realised the fan following of the legend, the ashram was packed with people of all age group all waiting to see the dancing diva on stage. Guest like actors Tanuja, Arif Zakaria, Jesse Randhawa, Anahita Sheroff, political giants, corporate head honcho all were seated awaiting to be mesmerised.
The Yoga ashram was the ideal venue for the Krishna Katha, the beauty of the place and the charisma of Dr. Mansingh was perfect. The show began dot on time, sharp at 7pm something very rare to see in India as for dance shows are concern. Sonal ji in her trade mark bright sari, red Tilak and kohl filled eyes appeared in front of the eager audience. It looked as if Maa Yashoda walked up on stage in front of us to narrate the story of her beloved son Lord Krishna.
The sound of auspicious Shank announced the start of the journey. Sonal ji narrated incidences from the childhood days of Lord Krishna in a very unique manner, there was song, dramatic narration, live music to support the story line. Each chapter of the life of Lord was opened like a book with all explanations, small descriptions of the characters and the narration was so captivating that one could not stop signing along with her.
The best part came when in the middle of the Katha the diva got up and danced to a poem written by her on the description of Radha. It was as if Radha had descended right there on stage and taking about herself to each and everyone of us. The Katha had popular gujarati, hindi, sanskrit songs and shlokas, the energy of Dr. Masingh’s performance was so that the entire crowd seated there looked like as if they were in the temple praying to the Lord.
The show ended with Krishna Sudama tales and there were people in the audience including me who had tears in their eyes, such was the power of presentation of the Goddess of dance Sonal Mansingh.
Later after the show while I was dining with Sonal ji I mentioned to her, that it was not her on stage that we saw, she had transformed into a messenger of God who had descended on stage and was there telling the story to each one of us. She was humble at that time and said, it is all Gods Grace. This is one quality that we all dancer must imbibe in ourselves. In Sonal Mansingh’s word ‘Dance is the Gift that God has given to just a few selected people what is there to feel proud about a gift.’
Well the entire evening, spellbinding performance and the magical words were some memories that I took back with me not just for that day but for my entire lifetime. Artist like her are rare and are born once in thousand years. God bless her for making us see God through her words, Music, songs and dance.
Artscape By Sandip Soparrkar
